What Is the Best Cheese in the World?

Every year, between November and January, two different rankings attempt to answer the same question—what is the best cheese in the world —and they almost never agree. At the 2025 World Cheese Awards in Bern, an 18-month-aged Swiss Gruyère took the top spot. For the TasteAtlas community, however, the 2026 podium is Greek-Italian, with Parmigiano Reggiano DOP firmly in second place overall out of more than 100 cheeses surveyed. There is therefore no single objective answer: it depends on who is judging, by what criteria, and at what time of year.

What the data does confirm unequivocally, however, is another record: Parmigiano Reggiano is the most decorated cheese in the history of the World Cheese Awards, with a total of 937 awards won by the Parmigiano Reggiano National Team from 2001 to the present, including 3 Super Gold awards won in the 2025 edition. No other cheese in the world can boast such a cumulative record over time.

In this article, we compare the most authoritative rankings —the World Cheese Awards, TasteAtlas, and the official data from the Protection Consortium—to truly understand what “the best” means when it comes to cheese, and why Parmigiano Reggiano DOP remains, regardless of the current podium, the global benchmark for those seeking quality, traceability, and Italian cheese-making tradition.

How is the world’s best cheese determined?

There is no single body that certifies “the best cheese in the world”: there are competitions and rankings with very different methodologies, which explains why the results vary from one source to another.

The World Cheese Awards, organized by the British Guild of Fine Food, are the world’s largest cheese competition by number of participants: in 2025, they evaluated 5,244 cheeses from 46 countries, judged blind by 265 international experts. Each cheese is evaluated on appearance, aroma, texture, flavor, and mouthfeel; the best receive a bronze, "Argento" medal, gold, or Super Gold medal, and from among the gold medalists, a Super Jury selects the 14 finalists from which the overall champion is chosen.

TasteAtlas follows a different approach: it is not a technical competition but a review platform, whose “Top 100 Cheeses in the World” ranking is based on the ratings of millions of users, enthusiasts, and travelers worldwide. It is therefore more akin to a measure of widespread popularity and consumer preference than to a professional sensory evaluation.

There is also a third criterion, less frequently discussed but equally important for consumers: consistency over time. A cheese may win a single award in a given year, but only a very small number of products consistently rank, year after year, among the world’s most awarded. This is where Parmigiano Reggiano DOP stands out.

World Cheese Awards 2025: The Official Verdict

The 37th edition of the World Cheese Awards 2025 took place in Bern, Switzerland, from November 13 to 15, 2025, with record participation: 5,244 cheeses from 46 countries, a 9.13% increase over the previous edition. The title of overall champion went to the Gruyère AOP “Vorderfultigen Spezial, ” aged for over 18 months and produced by the Bergkäserei Vorderfultigen mountain dairy, made with milk collected within a radius of just 1 km from the dairy.

On the Italian front, the results remain extraordinary: Italy finished the 2025 edition in third place among the nations with the most medals, with a total of 376 awards (behind Spain, with 600, and Switzerland, with 597), including 11 Super Gold medals. The Parmigiano Reggiano national team alone won 103 medals—3 Super Gold, 27 gold, 34 silver, and 40 bronze—an all-time record for a single cheese in this competition, bringing Parmigiano Reggiano’s all-time tally to 937 medals from 2001 to the present.

The dairies awarded Super Gold medals were from the provinces of Modena (Caseificio 4 Madonne dell’Emilia, aged 40 months), Reggio Emilia (Latteria Sociale San Bartolomeo, 30-39 months, and Latteria Sociale San Girolamo, 24-29 months)—confirming that the quality of Parmigiano Reggiano depends not only on the designation but also on the artisanal craftsmanship of every single dairy in the production area.

TasteAtlas: The Ranking Favored by Enthusiasts

While the World Cheese Awards represent the technical judgment of experts, TasteAtlas captures global popular taste. In the “Top 100 Cheeses in the World” list updated in January 2026, first place went to Graviera Naxou, a Greek hard cheese made from cow’s milk on the island of Naxos, which surpassed its long-standing competitors from France and Italy. Parmigiano Reggiano ranked second overall.

Here is the complete top 20 list of the world’s best cheeses according to TasteAtlas’s “Best Cheese Types in the World 2025” ranking, updated in January 2026:

Out of 20 spots, Italy has placed no fewer than 6 Italian cheeses (Parmigiano Reggiano, Mozzarella di Bufala Campana, Pecorino Sardo, Burrata, Pecorino Toscano, and Pecorino Siciliano), more than any other country alongside Greece, confirming the depth—not just the top-tier excellence—of the Italian cheese-making tradition.

It is worth noting that the top three often change from one year to the next: in the “100 Best Cheeses in the World 2023-2024” edition of the same platform, Parmigiano Reggiano held the top spot, ahead of Mozzarella di Bufala Campana and Stracchino di Crescenza, making for an all-Italian podium. This fluctuation demonstrates that “community-based” rankings reflect trends and waves of reviews rather than actual variations in product quality, which, in the case of Parmigiano Reggiano, is guaranteed by production regulations that have remained essentially unchanged for centuries.

Why Parmigiano Reggiano DOP Remains the Global Benchmark

Unlike many “one-time” winners of annual rankings, Parmigiano Reggiano DOP is the only cheese that consistently appears, year after year, in both technical competitions and popular preference rankings. The reasons can be traced to three objective factors, all governed by the Production Specifications filed with the Protection Consortium.

A Strict and Essentially Unchanged Production Specification

Parmigiano Reggiano DOP may be produced only in the provinces of Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Bologna (to the left of the Reno River), and Mantua (to the right of the Po River), exclusively from partially skimmed raw cow’s milk, salt, and rennet, without any additives or preservatives. The minimum aging period is 12 months, but it can continue for up to 24, 36, 48 months, and beyond, developing increasingly complex flavor profiles.

Full traceability, wheel by wheel

Each wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano is produced with a casein tag bearing a unique alphanumeric code, applied at the time of production. After the minimum 12 months, each individual wheel undergoes expert evaluation: the Consortium’s expert “tappers” “listen” to it by tapping it with a small hammer to detect any internal defects before applying the final branded mark. Only wheels that pass this inspection are entitled to bear the name Parmigiano Reggiano.

Naturally Lactose-Free

Within the first 48 hours of production, lactic acid bacteria completely convert the lactose in the milk into lactic acid: this is why Parmigiano Reggiano is naturally lactose-free, regardless of its aging period—a characteristic confirmed by the Ministry of Health (2016 authorization)—making it suitable even for those with lactose intolerance. A 50-gram serving also provides about 72% of the daily calcium requirement, thanks to a calcium-to-phosphorus ratio that is particularly conducive to absorption.

Parmigiano Reggiano vs. Gruyère vs. Comté: What Really Sets Them Apart

One of the most frequently asked questions from those comparing the great European hard cheeses is this: how do Parmigiano Reggiano, Swiss Gruyère, and French Comté—often mentioned together in international rankings—differ?

• Milk: Parmigiano Reggiano uses raw, partially skimmed cow’s milk through natural cream separation; Gruyère and Comté use whole cow’s milk, which is often heated.
• Minimum aging: 12 months for Parmigiano Reggiano, compared to 5 months for Gruyère AOP and 4 months for Comté AOP (although award-winning versions far exceed these minimums).
• Texture: Parmigiano Reggiano has a fine, crumbly texture due to its long aging and the formation of tyrosine crystals; Gruyère and Comté have a more elastic texture and visible holes.
• Flavor: Parmigiano Reggiano develops notes of umami, dried fruit, and meat broth as it ages; Gruyère tends toward sweeter, nutty, and slightly fruity notes; Comté varies greatly from season to season depending on the cows’ diet.

There is no absolute “best” among the three: the choice depends on the intended use (grating, serving, cooking) and the flavor profile you’re seeking. For those who prefer intensity, a grainy texture, and a direct connection to the Italian terroir, Parmigiano Reggiano DOP remains the benchmark.

What is the most award-winning Italian cheese in the world?

In addition to Parmigiano Reggiano, Italy also brings other outstanding cheeses to the international stage. At the 2024 World Cheese Awards, for example, the title of best Italian cheese in the world’s top ten went to Pecorino Bislacco al Rum e Tabacco by Fratelli Petrucci (tied for fourth place), followed by Blugins from Casearia Carpenedo (a gin-infused blue cheese) and Tatie from Latteria Moro. In the same edition, Asiago DOP also reaffirmed its status as an international star, winning seven medals, including three golds for the Stravecchio variety.

Among blue cheeses, it’s worth noting that Gorgonzola DOP regularly wins at international competitions thanks to a rare balance between the creaminess of the cheese and the intensity of its noble blue veins, achieved through controlled aging times and a rigorous Selection of wheels—characteristics that make it one of the most exported blue cheeses in the world.

What is the most expensive cheese in the world?

It is important to distinguish between “best” and “ most expensive”: they do not always coincide. Among the world’s most expensive cheeses are extremely rare varieties such as Serbian Pule (made from donkey’s milk and produced in very small quantities), alongside Parmigiano Reggiano aged for over 60-80 months, sold as collector’s items due to the aromatic complexity they achieve. In these cases, the price reflects scarcity and the length of the aging process rather than a higher quality rating compared to standard-aged varieties.

Quick Comparison: World Cheese Awards vs. TasteAtlas

Conclusion

Asking which is the best cheese in the world really means choosing which lens to use to judge it: the technical one of the World Cheese Awards, where a Swiss Gruyère triumphed in 2025, or the popular one of TasteAtlas, where Parmigiano Reggiano remains firmly on the podium. What no annual ranking can diminish is consistency: 937 medals over 24 years of participation in the World Cheese Awards make Parmigiano Reggiano DOP the most awarded cheese in history—an achievement that no single seasonal title can match.

If you’d like to bring this record-breaking cheese to your table, discover our Selection of Parmigiano Reggiano DOP, sourced directly from dairies in the Parma region.