Editorial Standards

The Dairy Mail is the news and analysis publication of Dairy Connect. It covers the cheese and dairy industry in the UK, Ireland and beyond: markets, processing, retail and foodservice, policy, people and the companies that make the sector work. These standards apply to everything published under The Dairy Mail name, on this website and by email.

1. Who writes The Dairy Mail

Every piece is published under The Dairy Mail editorial team byline. The editor named below is accountable for everything we publish.

Contributed pieces, such as comment from people working in the industry, carry the contributor’s name and role. The editor decides what is published.

2. Sources and fact-checking

• We report from primary sources wherever we can: company announcements and accounts, official statistics, regulatory and government publications, market data, and people we have spoken to.
• Figures are checked against their original source before publication. Where a piece draws on published data, its main sources are listed at the foot of the article.
• We say when something is our interpretation, an estimate or a forecast, and we separate it from reported fact.
• Quotations are attributed to a named person and organisation. We do not invent or composite quotes.
• We use software tools, including AI, to help with research, data analysis and drafting. A named person checks every piece and is accountable for what it says.

3. Independence

Our editorial judgement is our own. Partners, sponsors, advertisers, members and event exhibitors do not review or approve our independent reporting or analysis before publication, and they cannot buy coverage in it.

Dairy Connect also runs industry events, a directory and commercial partnerships. Where a piece concerns a company we work with commercially, we say so in the piece.

Five commitments we hold ourselves to:

• Our editorial is awards-agnostic. We report every awards scheme on the same terms, including the ICDA Awards, which Dairy Connect supports but does not own or run.
• Attendance at our forums is never paywalled.
• Editorial access can be sold; coverage never is. Partners can buy clearly labelled formats. They cannot buy what our independent reporting and analysis say.
• Delegate lists are never shared.
• Our list is never sold.

4. Sponsored and partner content

Content produced with or paid for by a commercial partner is labelled Sponsored at the top of the page, and carries a note saying it was produced with a commercial partner. It is kept separate from our independent editorial. Pieces promoting the ICDA Awards and EXPO, which are run independently by ICDA Awards Ltd, are labelled ICDA promotion and say so. Everything else carries a note saying it is independent reporting or analysis and not sponsored.

5. Corrections

We aim to be accurate, and when we get something wrong we correct it promptly and openly.

• To report an error, contact us with the page address and what you believe is wrong. We aim to respond within two working days.
• When a correction changes the meaning of a piece, we amend the article and add a dated note saying what was changed and why.
• Minor fixes that do not change the meaning, such as spelling or formatting, are made without a note.
• Articles show the date they were first published and, where substantively revised, the date they were updated.
• We do not remove published articles except for legal reasons or where keeping them would cause serious harm. Where we do, we say so.

6. Free and members’ content

News, briefs and interviews are free to read. Our analysis and reports are members’ content: free members can read a set number each month, and paid members read without limit. The editorial standards are the same for both.

7. Ownership and funding

The Dairy Mail is funded by Dairy Connect’s membership subscriptions, events and commercial partnerships. Read more about Dairy Connect.

8. Complaints

If you have a concern about something we have published that is not a factual correction, contact the editor. We will look into it and reply.