Where to buy cheese-making equipment in the UK

The rapid growth of farmhouse and small-scale artisan cheese-making in the UK has seen a matching growth of suppliers of cheese-making equipment, starter cultures, moulds and bacteria, keen to supply the UK market. Listed below are some of the best places to buy cheese-making equipment and cultures (in no particular order), either for home-scale size (listed first) or artisan/farmhouse size (listed later).

If you are a farmer and are thinking about diversifying into cheese-making, please do contact The Courtyard Dairy as early as possible – we’d love to offer our assistance. We are really keen to assist in helping new farmhouse cheese-makers set up and succeed in the challenging business of cheese-making.
Here are some examples of successful farms we’ve already helped: Hebden Goat, Whin Yeats, Stonebeck (Low Riggs).

Small-scale cheese-making equipment

• Moorlands Cheesemakers (cheesemaking.co.uk)
• The Cheese Making Shop (cheesemakingshop.co.uk)
• Goat Nutrition (gnltd.co.uk)
• Homestead Farm Supplies (homesteadfarmsupplies.co.uk)
• Cheese Yogurt Making (cheese-yogurt-making.com)

Larger (farm/artisan-scale) cheese equipment suppliers

• Orchard Valley Dairy Supplies (https://www.ovdairysupplies.co.uk/) – starter bacteria and cheese maturing cultures, e.g. brie/blue/washed rind/geotricium
• Barbers Farmhouse Cheesemakers (barbers.co.uk/pages/starter-culture) – starter bacteria (barbers.co.uk/pages/starter-culture)
• Westcombe Dairy (westcombedairy.com) – starter bacteria and cheese maturing cultures
• Jongia UK – (jongiauk.com) OR JKM Foods (jkm-foods.com) – moulds, presses, cheese-making vats, curd knives and starter bacteria
• Brytec (brytecltd.co.uk), Barvick Engineering (barvick.net), Thwaites (Penrith), Invicta (Pickering) OR MCE Engineering (mcelimited.co.uk), – cheese moulds, vats, curd knives, draining tables, etc. (stainless steel fabricators)
• Tanfield Engineering (https://www.tanfieldengineering.com) – cheese moulds, vats, curd knives, draining tables, etc. (stainless steel fabricators)
• Cremfields (cremfields.co.uk) – cheese moulds, vats, curd knives, draining tables, etc. (stainless steel fabricators)
• Bonningtons, Alpma GB (alpma.co.uk), Syspal (syspal.com) OR Plevnik (plevnik.si/en/) – cheese moulds and general equipment
• Colsan (colsan.com) – cheese moulds and general equipment
• Scientific and Chemical Supplies (scichem.com) OR ATP Instrumentation (atp-instrumentation.co.uk) – recording equipment, TA meters
• Read Desco (readdesco.com) – cheese moulds and general equipment
• Sanderson Consulting (IFT Cheesemaking Equipment) (sanderson-consulting.co.uk) – cheese moulds and general equipment
• GDTextile (gdtextile.co.uk), Precision Cut Textiles (precisioncut.org.uk) OR A & I Holmes & Co (aiholmes.co.uk) – cheese cloth
• A La Carte Packaging Solutions (alacartepackaging.com) – packaging solutions
• For refrigeration advice for larger projects, Alan Hayes at Capital Refrigeration Services (capitalref.com) is invaluable.

You can also buy great cheese-making equipment direct from abroad

• France: Coquard (coquard.fr/uk/index.htm), Elimeca (elimeca.fr), Avedemil (avedemil.com/), Standa (www.standa-fr.com/) OR Alliance Elevage (alliance-elevage-export.com/en/) – starter bacteria, cheese cultures and all equipment needs (moulds, vat, ladles, etc.),
• Switzerland: Bichsel (https://www.bichsel-ag.ch) starter bacteria, cheese cultures and all equipment needs (moulds, vat, ladles, etc.)
• Holland: ANTE BV (antebv.nl/en/), Gebr. Rademaker (no web page but send catalogue request to [email protected]) OR C. van’t Riet (dairy-equipment.com) – starter bacteria and all equipment needs – moulds, vats, etc.

Second hand equipment is sometimes advertised through The Specialist Cheese-makers Association (specialistcheesemakers.co.uk).

(NB If your company supplies products to the dairy industry and you are not mentioned above, please let us know.)