Cedar Valley wins awards for ‘near flawless’ cheese

Cedar Valley Cheese is the best at making shredded mozzarella, and it has the proof to back up that claim.

The Town of Fredonia firm’s cheese won the gold and silver medals in the low-moisture shredded mozzarella category at the World Championship Cheese Contest in Madison last month, cementing its place in the cheese world.

The shredded mozzarella made by the company’s second shift took the gold with a 99.78 score out of a possible 100 points, and the first shift’s mozzarella wasn’t far behind to capture the silver.

“It was near flawless,” Cedar Valley Chief Financial Officer Kevin Scheibel said. “They didn’t find much wrong with it.”

The medals were presented during an award banquet held last week in Milwaukee attended by a number of Cedar Valley representatives.

But while Scheibel and Cedar Valley owner and President Jeff Hiller attended the event, eight of the production workers and cheese makers accepted the medals.

“It’s very much a full company award,” Scheibel said.  “Everyone’s very proud of it.”

While the shredded low-moisture mozzarella took the medals, a number of other cheeses made by the firm also ranked in the top 15 in their categories.

That includes the aged provolone block cheese, which took sixth and eighth places, smoked provolone block cheese, which ranked 10th, and part-skim mozzarella block cheese, which took 11th.

This isn’t Cedar Valley’s first gold medal. Scheibel said in 2022 the company won a gold medal for its smoked provolone. It received bronze medals in 2024 and 2022 for its aged provolone and smoked provolone.

Cedar Valley submitted about 20 entries in this year’s contest, Scheibel said, including its part-skim and whole-milk mozzarellas and aged and smoked provolones.

The cheeses are judged on a number of factors, including flavor, body and texture, salt, color, finish and packaging.

What makes Cedar Valley’s cheese award winners? Scheibel said the answer is two-fold.

“First it’s the milk,” he said, noting Cedar Valley uses milk from almost 100 local dairy farmers. “We have the best milk in the world in Wisconsin.

“Our staff is the other big reason. We have about 10 licensed cheese makers. They and our owner Jeff Hiller — they know what they’re doing.”

Hiller is the third generation owner of Cedar Valley, which was started by his grandfather Ralph in 1947 in Belgium. It relocated to the current site at the intersection of Highway 57 and Jay Road in the Town of Fredonia to take advantage of the  highway access, and in 2006 the Cedar Valley Cheese Store opened.

After originally focusing on American cheeses, the company pivoted to Italian cheeses in partnership with Italian cheese maker Gino Boccotti.

Most of its cheeses were block cheeses, Scheibel said, but due to customer demand the company decided about 10 years ago to expand into the shredded cheese market.

Last year, Cedar Valley Cheese sold 55 million pounds of cheese, Scheibel said, about 75% of which was block cheese and 25% shredded cheese.

To make that cheese, Cedar Valley used about 440 million pounds of milk, he said, noting that while the amount varies, it typically takes about 10 pounds of milk to make one pound of cheese.

Most of Cedar Valley’s cheeses are sold to wholesale distributors who then sell it to restaurants, primarily fine dining restaurants, not to retail outlets, Scheibel said.

“Our cheese is a staple,” he said. “A lot of our cheeses get used in pizzas and fine Italian dishes.”

And even customers who buy Cedar Valley’s block cheeses typically shred it, he said.

Mozzarella is a large part of what Cedar Valley sells, he said.

Cedar Valley Cheese employs about 80 people and it runs two 10-hour shifts each day, with the remaining four hours spent cleaning and setting up between shifts, he said.

“It’s a pretty big operation,” he said.

And with two medals to celebrate, Scheibel said, the company now has the proof to back up its slogan.

“Our slogan is ‘Makers of fine Italian cheese.’ We often say we have the best Italian cheese in the world,” he said.

“Now we can say we have the award to prove it.”