Responsibility for the Confraria de Queijo de São Jorge (C.Q.S.J.): The Confraria de Queijo de São Jorge is the entity responsible for evaluating the product "Queijo São Jorge" and its classification as a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO).
In the certification test, tasters evaluate: the shape, crust, paste, flavor/smell of the cheese, giving it a rating. Cheeses that do not achieve the necessary score to be considered PDO are sold under the name “Queijo Ilha” or with the brands of the respective factories.

The tasting begins only after the producers request a sensory test of the batches of cheese proposed for evaluation. To this end, a panel of five qualified tasters comes together: In the tasters' chamber, made up of individual booths, sample preparation is carried out with the tasters already present. 30 cheeses are evaluated and classified, with the tasting divided into three parts, with 15-minute intervals, in order to avoid saturation. The tasters use the apple and water between each sample to neutralize the oral cavity, thus minimizing possible influences on the evaluation between samples.