Jill Allen

Jill Allen, director of product excellence in research and development at Tillamook County Creamery Association (TCCA) joins us for episode 38 of the Let’s Talk Dairy podcast. She discusses dairy trends and predictions.

Allen has been evaluating dairy products for technical consistency, taste and quality for contests and consumers for 23-plus years for TCCA. She ensures all Tillamook products continue to represent its brand vision and maintain superiority with premium taste and ingredients. She is also responsible for the management of Tillamook’s R&D Sensory Sciences, Cheddar Cheese aging program, and Specialty Cheese creations. 

Allen is a native “Coastie” in Oregon with passions for foraging edible sea succulents, seaweed, hand harvesting Dungeness crab, mussels, clams, and making her own artisan sea salts from the Pacific Ocean. 

Allen has also participated as a judge in cheese and dairy competitions, including: 

  • International Cheese Awards, England 
  • United States Championship Cheese Contest; 
  • World Championship Cheese Contest, USA 
  • The World Cheese Awards: Italy 2019, Wales 2022 

Other credentials include: 

  • American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Professional 
  • The Oxford Companion to Cheese, Contributor

During this podcast, Allen discusses five trends TCCA states will be huge throughout the remainder of this year:

  1. The Cheddar Plunge
  2. Cheese, Spice, and Everything Nice
  3. Amaro, Amazing
  4. Burgers, Burgers and More Burgers
  5. Air Fryers Stay Hot

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