Judy Bell, specialist Yorkshire Blue cheesemaker from Thirsk, is used to receiving awards for her tasty products, particularly her speciality blue cheeses made from milk of local cows, sheep and buffalo.

On Monday 24 February, Judy received a Smart award from the Government sponsored scheme run by the Small Business Service, which awards grants to innovative small companies for technical development projects. Shepherds Purse received Smart funding of up to ₤43,000 to develop an automatic cheese spiker.

The cheese spiker will help speed up the process by which cheese is aerated to encourage the blue mould to develop. Each type of cheese has to be spiked in a different way – done by hand as at present, only 200 cheeses a day can be processed. Growing demand for Shepherds Purse products means that production is being increased to over 1000 cheeses a day. 

Together with Scarborough firm Profile Engineering they have designed a machine which will do that and adapt itself to each type of cheese so that their unique tastes and textures are unchanged. 

'This was quite a challenge', says David Moran, managing director of Shepherds Purse 'With the news that we have received the Smart Award and grant, Profile Engineering can go ahead and develop the design, which should speed up production, cut costs, all without changing the essential nature of our cheese.'