The company employs 10 workers at its farm

Company founder Judy Bell, 50, based at Newsham, near Thirsk, said: "We have been holding off from making the cheese because we were afraid for the future of the buffalo.

"They were in the midst of an area with foot-and-mouth all around us, and there was a danger they might be killed as a preventative measure.

"We have made our first batches, and as far as we know we are the first company in the country to produce a blue cheese from buffalo milk."

Mrs Bell, who experiments with new developments and recipes in her farmhouse kitchen, said: "Buffalo milk is easy to work with and the end product is rich, creamy and moist."

The blue veins are created in the cheese by the introduction of penicillium roqueforti during the setting process.

Specialist producer

Shepherds Purse Cheeses was founded in 1989 and employs 10 people at Leachfield Grange farm.

It is the largest producer of sheep milk cheese in the country and the only blue cheese maker in Yorkshire, making Mrs Bell's Blue from ewes' milk and Yorkshire Blue from cows' milk.

The new cheese is being made in batches of 25, and will increase to 100 a week when orders to delicatessens and supermarkets are secured.

Buffalo Blue will officially be launched at the British Cheese Awards in Stow-on-the-Wolds in September.