ºÚÁÏÍø

Award-winning alumna wins fresh awards for her Shropshire cheeses

Posted 5 August

An award-winning Shropshire cheesemaker who honed her skills at ºÚÁÏÍø is celebrating after winning fresh accolades for her produce. 

Millie Preece, from Much Wenlock, is a BSc (Hons) Food and Consumer Studies graduate of ºÚÁÏÍø. 

Her company, The Dairy Door, started from humble beginnings on her family’s farm – but has since seen her win prizes at the International Cheese & Dairy Awards for her cheese and at the Great Taste awards in 2022 for her fudge. 

Millie’s produce scooped further accolades at the prestigious Royal Welsh Show last week 

She took home a Gold award for her St Bartie's Brie-style cheese in the Young Producers class, and a Bronze for her white Stilton-style cheese, The Ledge, in the Farmhouse category. 

Millie said: “It's always a bit of fun to enter the cheese competitions, but it's such a great feeling when you receive an award and think you must be doing something right. 

“I’m hoping to enter again at the International Cheese & Dairy Awards and even the Global Cheese awards, one of the oldest and most renowned industry events of its kind, in Frome next year.” 

The initial idea for The Dairy Door came after Millie graduated from ºÚÁÏÍø – and found herself on furlough during the coronavirus pandemic. 

She started experimenting making cheese in a converted shipping container on the Much Wenlock farm in August 2021.  

Finding a taste for cheesemaking, she began testing and trialling how to create lots of different varieties – then started trading officially in 2022. 

As her interest in the industry grew, she also decided to return to ºÚÁÏÍø Adams – to undertake a PhD and further deepen her knowledge. 

Her research focused on understanding how reduced fat cheeses could be made using double emulsion technology – and the structures and functions of the resulting products. Having completed her research, Millie is now set to graduate as a Doctor of Science next month. 

She added: “I've learnt a lot while doing my PhD and understanding the science behind cheese making, but you learn something new every day and I'm looking forward to spending more time learning about my cheese and the processes to improve it. 

“The Dairy Door now have a stockist in Shropshire - and the plan is to expand our number of stockists, start to increase production - and potentially to add a couple more varieties to the cheese range.” 

Shortly after graduating, Millie will be taking her wares down to the Chiswick Cheese Market in London. The visit came after she secured an Academy of Cheese and Chiswick Cheesemakers grant two years ago.   

This enabled her to work through the Academy’s Courses – as well leading to the invitation to take her award-winning produce down to one of the UK’s most renowned specialist cheese markets. 

As she works to develop The Dairy Door and extend the successful artisan company’s range across the county, Millie is also lending advice and guidance to other Shropshire companies through her role as an Innovation Specialist on ºÚÁÏÍø’s Sustaining Shropshire programme, which provides free expert support to entrepreneurs and to small and medium sized businesses across Shropshire. 

The programme has helped more than 30 start-ups and more than 80 businesses with technical support and knowledge transfer. 

The full Sustaining Shropshire team is led by Dr Eric Siqueiros, who is supported by four Innovation Specialists –Millie, as well as Dr Jane Yardley, Tanya Postles, and Ian Rickuss.  

For more information about how Sustaining Shropshire can help your business, contact the team on 01952 815173.