From the 7th to the 9th of August the university was one of the organizers of the the 10th National Cheese Fair and the 6th Sensorial Competition held in the Napoles Sport Center in Cayambe. The event was attended by people from all over the country.

There were more than 30 companies, micro-enterprises, local and national enterprises, a stand where UPS presented its programs, the language Institute and the laboratories. The events were aimed at supporting the cheese industry and production chain, as well as giving national products transparency and confidence.

Dr. Rocío Contero, UPS teacher and coordinator of the contest, spoke about the pandemic and how it has affected the economy of local and national companies, especially those of small and medium production. "Dairy industries require spaces where their products can be presented, where they can show quality and improve their production," she said.

The Milk Research Group (GILEC for its acronym in Spanish) at UPS was in charge of the organization and technical direction of the contest based on the categories: mozzarella, semi-hard with spices and semi-hard without species. In addition, this year the category of special chees was included as part of the innovation of the cheese industry.

Dr. Narciza Requelme, coordinator of GILEC, spoke about the importance of research and community engagement projects together with the Milk Quality Laboratory. In the country, the quality management process of this product involves training producers in good milking practices, improvement of the production phase, determination of quality payment parameters, and other aspects.
For the sensory analysis of cheese, there were 10 sensory judges made up of teachers, students, international experts and representatives of dairy industries who participated in the training processes that began in 2013 with the technical advice of the National Institute of Agricultural Technology. from Argentina. "We have positioned the importance of sensory analysis as an assessment of the quality of dairy products, we are one of the few universities that deals with this process," said Requelme.

Cristian Áreas, sensory judge and student of the Agriculture program, stated that "This contest helps local companies to know the state of their dairy products to improve them and have food in excellent condition and quality." The evaluation took into account the external appearance, the flavor, which includes the intensity of smell, aroma, taste, salty, acid, bitter, persistence and aftertaste; and texture involving elasticity, firmness, friability, adhesion, solubility, and moisture impression.

First place in each category went to "Milma" mozzarella cheese, "Mondel" semi-hard cheese without spices and "Yacubiana" in semi-hard cheese with spices. "We hope to continue working together, we have the Ayora Research Station, where we will establish the Dairy Derivatives Innovation Unit and the next opening of the Master's Degree in Milk Quality Management," said Contero.