Scandal alarm – tons have been thrown

Norway had the honor of hosting this year’s World Cheese Championships.

But the competition ended badly.

Now several tons of the world’s best cheese have gone into the trash.

This year’s World Cheese Championship has started in Trondheim in Norway.

As many as 250 international judges have evaluated over 4,500 different cheeses in the culinary competition.

Those who love cheese might think it sounds like heaven – but the party came to a sad end.

Because when the competition was over, all the cheese was thrown in the garbage. Something that Dagbladet previously reported on.

“Very painful”

The cheese expert Pascale Baudonnel has drawn attention to it on Facebook. Now she directs harsh criticism at the competition’s organizers.

“The worst thing about the cheese WC is the food waste. I estimate that 6-8 tons of top quality cheese have gone to “energy production” after the cheese festival due to the Norwegian Food Agency’s rigid interpretation of the regulations. It is very painful,” she writes on Facebook.

She has been a judge in several previous world cheese championships. Already when the competition was held in Bergen in 2018, she raised the problem of food waste.

Something she repeated this year again – but without success.

– Now only one thing remains: To express frustration, she says The daily newspaper.

Feel like a whistleblower

She praises the organizers and the competition, but says she can no longer keep quiet about food waste. Now she feels like a whistleblower who sounds the alarm – while at the same time she is relieved that the problem is coming to light.

– But I had to take on that role, because it bothers me so much. I have been sleepless to find a solution, she says.

She also singles out Mattillsynen, the Norwegian equivalent of the Swedish Food Agency, as the culprit behind the thrown cheese. Among other things, she believes that Mattillsynen far too often applies too harsh laws.

– I am quite tired and exhausted. It is a heavy and powerful player that I believe has been given far too much power in society.

The Swedish farm won super gold

Among this year’s winners is the Swedish dairy Jan-Ols Geten Gårsmejeri. For the cheese Signhild, a cream cheese that lies in oil and fried kale, they won super gold. They won a bronze for their Glimra cheese.

– We got a full pot and it feels incredibly fun, of course, says winner Mikaela Janolsgården.

In the past, they have been candidates in the cheese championship. Even then they won the top prize.

– But this was the first time we participated in the WC, so it feels surreal and unexpected that it went so well! Many of the winning entries are usually hard cheeses or blue cheeses, so it feels good that we won with a cream cheese, she says.

However, she did not know that the thousands of contributions were thrown away after the competition. However, she says that several of the cheeses had been left out for a long time and had probably gone bad.

– I didn’t know that, it was boring. They were in front from Friday and then I heard that they were talking about who could be saved and who couldn’t. Some cheeses, such as soft cheeses, cannot be saved if they have been left out for a long time. However, some hard cheeses can handle it, she says.