Three salted butters took the top three places in Class 201 at the 2026 World Dairy Expo Championship Dairy Product Contest, and two of them are products many shoppers can buy at regular grocery stores. The official winners list confirms the ranking, while Food & Wine identified the retail products as Keller’s Creamery Salted Butter, Winn-Dixie’s Know & Love Salted Butter, and High Desert Milk Salted Sweet Cream Butter.
Which butters placed first, second, and third
The Wisconsin Dairy Products Association published the 2026 winners list for the World Dairy Expo Championship Dairy Product Contest on August 26, 2026. In Class 201, Salted Butter, first place went to Dairy Farmers of America in Winnsboro, Texas, second place went to The Winn-Dixie Company in Jacksonville, Florida, and third place went to High Desert Milk in Burley, Idaho.
The official class list names the entries as Salted 80% Butter from Dairy Farmers of America, Salted Butter from The Winn-Dixie Company, and Salted Sweet Cream Butter from High Desert Milk. Food & Wine matched those contest entries to the retail products shoppers are more likely to recognize on store shelves: Keller’s Creamery Salted Butter, Know & Love Salted Butter, and High Desert Milk Salted Sweet Cream Butter.
That retail naming matters because contest sheets often use product descriptions rather than package branding. For readers trying to spot the winners in a dairy case, the brand names are the useful part. In this case, the first place butter is tied to Keller’s Creamery, the second place butter to Winn-Dixie’s Know & Love label, and the third place butter to High Desert Milk’s own butter line.
What the contest is, and why these results stand out
The World Dairy Expo says the Championship Dairy Product Contest is sponsored by the Wisconsin Dairy Products Association and covers butter, cheese, yogurt, ice cream, fluid milk, whipping cream, sour cream, cottage cheese, whey, and other dairy categories. The organization says the contest gives processors a chance to showcase products in a national competition…