50 YEARS AGO

March 12, 1971: Washington—The food industry is being urged to use product labels as a way for consumers to write to companies for full information on the nutritional composition of foods, the Grocery Manufacturers of America reported. In the absence of protocol for voluntary labeling, widespread use without uniformity could jeopardize food labels’ usefulness to consumers.

Belfast, Northern Ireland— Europe’s most modern cheese plant will kick off production here early next year. The plant, a subsidiary of Unigate in the UK, will produce four million pounds of cheese annually.

25 YEARS AGO

March 8, 1996: Green Bay, WI—H. Dekkers of Coberco Kaas Wierden, Wierden, the Netherlands, is this year’s winner of the World Championship Cheese Contest. Dekkers’ Gouda received a final round score of 99.10. First runner-up is Gilles Vallee of Agropur Notre-Damedu-Bon, Quebec, Canada, with a Cheddar entry scoring 98.94.

Brussels, Belgium—Feta cheese from Denmark? Gorgonzola from France? Not if the EU gets its way. It has proposed measures to protect producers of 318 cheeses and other foods traditionally identified with a particular region of the 15-nation EU.

10 YEARS AGO

March 11, 2011: Green Bay, WI—Katie Hedrich, cheese maker with LaClare Farms Specialties, Chilton, WI, was named US Champion Cheese Maker here for her Evalon entry that scored 99.0695 in the final round of judging. John Griffiths of Sartori Foods, Plymouth, WI, was first runner-up with his SarVecchio Parmesan entry, and Holland’s Family Cheese, Thorp, WI, took second runner-up honors with its Aged Gouda.

Madison—John Lucey, professor of food science at the UW-Madison, has been named director of the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research here. Lucey succeeds Rusty Bishop, who retired as CDR director in 2010 after 17 years of service. Bishop then went on to serve as director of research and development at Schreiber Foods.