Founded in 1958 by Swiss immigrant Hans Epprecht as a neighborhood cheese-delivery business, Great Lakes Cheese now manufactures and packages natural and processed cheese for customers across the country. The privately owned Epprecht Family company operates nine plants across six states, with more than 4,700 employee-owners participating in an Employee Stock Ownership Plan established in 1998. Its award-winning products and sizable national network reflect a business built around long-term family ownership and shared responsibility.
Safe Quality Food (SQF)
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Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)
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U.S. Dairy Stewardship Commitment
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Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP)
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Food Safety Plans
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Food Defense and Biosecurity Programs
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Guggisberg Cheese, IncFounded in Ohio’s Amish Country in 1950 by Swiss immigrant Alfred Guggisberg, Guggisberg Cheese makes Swiss cheese and is best known as the creator of Original Baby Swiss. Alfred developed the milder, creamier style after experimenting with local milk, and his son Richard now leads the company. The cheese maker has grown into one of the largest Swiss cheese manufacturers in the United States, with national and international recognition including U.S. Grand Champion honors in 2015 and 2019.MILLERSBURG, OH
Miceli Dairy Products CompanySince 1923, Miceli Dairy Products Company has made Italian cheeses in Cleveland, beginning with 15-year-old John Miceli selling ricotta and mozzarella from a Model-T pickup truck. Today the family-owned business remains guided by Miceli children and grandchildren, carrying generations-old recipes into a nationally recognized cheese company.CLEVELAND, OH
Royal A-wareFamily-run Royal A-ware makes cheese and other dairy foods, carrying more than 135 years of food experience from the Bouter family’s 1890 beginnings into a business with almost 5,000 colleagues. The company works across the dairy chain, from more than 1,700 own dairy farmers and over 3 billion litres of milk to customer-specific cheese and fresh dairy for markets in the Netherlands and around the world. Royal A-ware was formed in 2010 through the merger of Bouter Kaas and Anker Kaas and now operates 23 production locations, with cheese dairies in five countries.GARDEN CITY, NY
Golden Age CheeseGolden Age Cheese is a family-operated Woodhull, New York cheese manufacturer making natural cheeses by hand, from fresh mozzarella and curds to cheddars aged as long as 18 years. Founded by Lawrence and Angela Hickey in 1983, the second-generation Hickey family still uses the same techniques and recipes, with local rBST-free milk and vegetable or microbial rennet. What began at roughly 300 pounds a week has grown more than one hundredfold while retaining its small-town, hands-on roots.WOODHULL, NY