NOVI —Michigan Milk Producers Association (MMPA) recently took home top honors from the World Dairy Expo Championship Dairy Product Contest, being named first and second in the unsalted butter category, first in the whipping cream and heavy whipping cream division and second in salted butter.

Just the third year MMPA has competed in the nationwide contest, the co-op’s success is a testament to its dairy farmer members’ high quality milk supply and plant employees’ commitment to product quality.

“It is a real honor to be recognized above entries submitted from across the country,” Clay Galarneau, MMPA general manager, says. “Our superior product starts at the farm level where our dedicated membership produces some of the highest quality milk in the country. Our experienced plant employees use that excellent fluid milk to produce an equally high quality, safe, delicious product for our customers.”

MMPA’s Constantine Plant produced the first and second place entries in this year’s unsalted butter competition as well as the second place entry in the salted butter category.

The Ovid Plant placed first in the whipping cream and heavy whipping cream division.

This is the third consecutive year the Constantine plant has topped the unsalted butter category.

It’s also the Ovid plant’s second year winning the whipping cream division.

“While you don’t see the MMPA label in the store, when you eat pudding, yogurt, cookies, ice cream and many other foods, chances are you are enjoying ingredients made at one of the MMPA manufacturing facilities,” Galarneau said.

“We’re proud to offer high-quality dairy ingredients to our customers and their consumers.”

In addition to butter and whipping cream, MMPA’s plants manufacture nonfat dry milk (NFDM), condensed skim milk, cream and whole milk powder.

This year’s contest received more than 800 entries in 78 product classes, including cheese, butter, fluid milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, ice cream, sour cream, sherbet, cultured milk, sour cream dips, whipping cream, dried whey and creative/innovative products from throughout the United States.

In its 11th year, the contest continues to grow.

On Oct. 1, the contest’s auction will take place at World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wis., at which time all category first place winners will be auctioned off.

A portion of the proceeds from the Oct. 1 contest auction will be used to fund the Dr. Robert Bradley Scholarship Fund.

This scholarship will be awarded annually to a deserving student pursuing a career in the dairy industry.

The MMPA Constantine and Ovid manufacturing plants are owned and operated by Michigan Milk Producers Association, a milk marketing cooperative serving approximately 2,000 dairy farmers throughout Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Headquartered in Novi, MMPA employs about 200 people.

In 2012, MMPA marketed more than 4.3 billion pounds of milk.