Industry News & Events from HART
Modernize Dairy Distribution
Automation offers a modern solution to optimize operations, maximize food freshness. Whether handling fresh milk or cheese, dairy distribution centers need to move products from receiving to dispatch with high speed and precision. These facilities require efficient, accurate order fulfillment to meet strict sell-by dates and to maximize the shelf life of goods for consumers. But for the many that rely on order pickers to manually fulfill orders, material flow often leaves much to be desired. With manual distribution, staff have to pull products for orders, palletize, load and unload products and/or cases — for hours in cold environments. Fulfillment becomes dependent on the physical endurance of employees and is altogether too slow to meet the high demands of the food supply chain. Today, automation offers a more modern solution. Equipped with the latest robotics and software, dairy distribution centers can optimize operations to address important aspects of the food business, including maximizing food freshness, improving the quality of work for employees and ensuring the safety of goods on the market. Maximize product shelf life […]
Dairy Faces Recovery, Not Extinction
When the New York Times says your industry faces extinction, it’s time to pump the brakes on the hyperbole and assess the situation. On April 26, the Times offered a long-form piece titled “Stung by Trump’s Trade Wars, Wisconsin’s Milk Farmers Face Extinction.” That same day, block cheddar sold for $1.6850 at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange — higher than the average monthly block price in the past 20 months — and barrel cheddar climbed to $1.63, higher than every monthly average price in the last 17 months. Rather than extinction, dairy farmers have faced a prolonged milk price recession that has stressed families and finances and forced many to make the painful decision to sell their cows. This means dairy faces recovery in the coming months and years. Wisconsin began 2018 with 8,801 dairy farms and saw 691 cease milking cows by year’s end. Since January 2015, nearly 2,000 farms have stopped milking in the state — about 20% of the dairy farming community. But slowly firming cheese prices —a key piece of the milk […]
Blue Cheeses Offer Nutritional and Therapeutic Benefits
Collectively, blue-veined cheeses are made using lactic acid-producing primary starter cultures (belonging to genera Lactococcus and strains of leuconostoc) and the secondary Penicillium roqueforti mold starter (predominantly mold spores). They include Roquefort (France), Danish Blue or Danablu (Denmark), Gorgonzola (Italy), Stilton (Britain), and the U.S. standard identity for “blue cheese.” According to the U.S. standard of identity, blue cheese has a minimum milkfat content of 50% by weight of the solids and a maximum moisture content of 46% by weight. Nutritional facts of 1 ounce of blue cheese include total fat of 8.1 grams (which includes 5.3g of saturated fat) and 6.1 grams of protein. On the basis of percentage daily values, an ounce of blue cheese will contribute 12% of the daily value of total fat and 27% of the daily value of the saturated fat. Cholesterol amounts to 7% of the Recommended DietaryAllowance (RDA) and sodium is 14% of the RDA. People tend to love or hate blue-veined cheeses. Among those who don’t like them, some say the flavor is too strong. For […]
High-Pressure Processing Could Benefit Cheese
Initial research shows the technology can improve shelf life in certain cheeses For about the past 20 years, the food and beverage industry has used high-pressure processing (HPP) to improve the safety of products. Foods such as sliced meats, avocado dips, and certain beverages have especially benefited from this technology. Could the dairy industry also profit? For the most part, the dairy industry is in the early stages of experimenting with high-pressure technology such as HPP. Preliminary results indicate that HPP could provide benefits that include extending the shelf life of dairy products, using fewer preservatives or antimicrobial agents (clean label), and accelerating cheese ripening. As the name implies, HPP systems apply and then release high amounts of hydrostatic pressure by the compression of a fluid medium, typically water. HPP systems generally utilize a conveyor belt that automatically feeds packaged products into a vessel where pressure is applied anywhere from 300-600 megapascal for three minutes (but up to 20 minutes) in a continuous or pulsed stage. Since the risk of contamination typically occurs due to […]
Natural Cheese Retail Sales Stay Put
Processed cheese sales have been declining at retail for years as health-conscious grocery shoppers perceive that “processed” means unnatural and thus unhealthy. The category shrank 3.7% in dollar sales to $2.8 billion and 4.1% in unit sales to 737.8 million, according to according to data from Chicago-based market research firm IRI for the 52 weeks ending Jan. 27, 2019. But it isn’t all good news for natural cheese, either. The category grew only 1.1% in dollar sales (to $13.0 billion) and 2.5% in unit sales (to 3.9 billion). According to “Cheese US, September 2018,” a report from global market research firm Mintel, sales in the cheese category have barely grown since 2015, “demonstrating a large but relatively stagnant category in need of expanding its usage.” Slight growth in slices, shreds The natural cheese slices category experienced decent growth: 3.0% in dollar sales to $2.3 billion and 4.1% in unit sales to 724.7 million. Leading the pack in growth among the top 10 brands was Cabot (Cabot Creamery), which grew 57.3% in dollar sales and 69.7% […]
Marketing a New World of Dairy
It is an interesting and challenging time for the dairy industry. While we are seeing an increase in the consumption of products like specialty cheese, we are also seeing a decrease in fluid milk consumption. Consumers’ tastes and expectations are changing. New plant-based formulated food products are coming on the market, many of which are marketed as alternatives to dairy products. The move toward plant-based products is being partly driven by guidance from some groups/organizations that appear to be against the consumption of animal products. Unfortunately, these recommendations are based on biases rather than solid nutritional science. To further complicate matters, many of the organizations touting plant-based food products are making inaccurate claims that their products are more sustainable or environmentally friendly. The reality is that compared to the 1940’s, the modern U.S. dairy farmer uses only about 20% of the animals, 35% of the water, and only 10% of the land in order to produce a similar amount of milk. The dairy industry is becoming more efficient each year as farmers need fewer cows […]
Health Benefits of Whole & Reduced-Fat Dairy Foods
The dairy community is very proud of the important nutrients like protein, calcium, and vitamins that are delivered in cheese, milk, and yogurt. These nutrients positively impact health but a growing body of scientific evidence shows the combination of nutrients and components in foods as a whole may have a more compelling impact on health than the individual parts, which poses an opportunity for the cheese industry. For decades, dietary recommendations have focused on limiting high-fat intake because it leads to obesity, heart disease, diabetes and various other chronic diseases. As a result, many Americans adopted low-fat dietary patterns, but chronic disease rates are still high. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that six in 10 adults have at least one chronic disease, and many chronic diseases can be caused by poor nutrition. Dairy foods positively impact health It’s no secret that dairy foods, such as cheese, contain saturated fat, but the tides are turning on how fat, and specifically dairy fat, is viewed. Medical and nutrition experts are beginning to understand that […]
Emphasizing the Unique Benefits of Dairy Proteins
As consumers around the world look for ways to increase their protein intake throughout the day, multinational food and beverage companies are looking to diversify sourcing. Selecting a single protein source has its advantages. Many types of meat, dairy, egg, plant, and single-cell proteins are marketed for use, and with so many choices, food formulators need to be well informed to deliver what consumers want. U.S. dairy proteins uniquely address formulator needs to meet consumer demands for sustainably produced, nutritious, functional, versatile, and securely sourced ingredients. They also work well with vegetarian and flexitarian food preferences. Simple formula While all animal-based and most plant-based foods contain some amount of protein, not all proteins are created equal. Proteins differ in their quality based on amino acid content, digestibility, and bioavailability. Dairy proteins are considered high-quality complete proteins since they contain nutritionally significant quantities of all the essential amino acids (EAAs). Except for soy protein, plant proteins are typically considered lower quality and incomplete due to deficiencies in EAA quantities that are required by the body. While […]
Boost Dairy Product Appeal By Using Botanicals
Dairy processors may look to botanicals to meet consumer demand for cleaner labels, added functionality, and health benefits. Consumers continue to demand more clean-label options when they shop. Since dairy has many options, it provides a great opportunity for brands and manufacturers to address these desires. Botanical ingredients offer numerous opportunities for formulators looking to add excitement to dairy-based products while keeping a clean label. With growth in non-dairy options such as cheese and yogurt alternatives, plant-based ingredients also offer function, nutrition, and consumer appeal. When looking at a trend such as clean label, the dairy industry might seem like a disadvantage at first glance. Dairy products actually offer a great platform since they are viewed by consumers as inherently natural. Can Also Add Marketing Appeal Adding unique plant-based ingredients to dairy products can help vault new product launches to the front of consumers’ minds the next time they are shopping. Botanicals can also add marketing appeal by capitalizing on the so-called “healthy halo” effect where added ingredients, such as green tea, can help sway […]
Study: Dairy Imitators Confuse Consumers
Potato starch, coconut oil, and water pushed into a white block isn’t mozzarella cheese, which is why Follow Your Heart Mozzarella Style Slices and other non-dairy “cheeses” are finally under scrutiny. FDA calls this food category “plant-based products manufactured to resemble dairy foods,” and the agency asked for public comments on these imitators last fall (2018). The FDA posed dozens of questions with the following goal: “We are interested in learning whether consumers are aware of and understand the basic nature, essential characteristics, characterizing ingredients, and nutritional differences between plant-based products and dairy foods.” Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association, Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative, and Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin partnered on a consumer research study this winter to discover the objective consumer data that the FDA is seeking. National consumer research experts at Ravel surveyed 450 consumers identified as purchasers of dairy products, purchasers of plant-based foods that mimic dairy, or buyers of both. They asked these consumers about ingredients in real cheese vs. these plant-based products and about nutrients, protein content, overall nutrition, naturalness, and buying […]