Dairy - Articles and news items

Tetra Pak CEO Dennis Jönsson sets out vision for dairy sustainability and global food security at World Dairy Summit

Industry news, News / 17 October 2011 / Tetra Pak

Speaking at the World Dairy Summit in Parma, Italy, Dennis Jönsson, President and CEO of Tetra Pak, yesterday outlined the company’s vision for a sustainable dairy industry that will help to ensure global food security.

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Emerging challenges and trends in UHT processing of milk and other dairy products

Issue 4 2011 / 6 September 2011 / Marina Witthuhn, Jörg Hinrichs and Zeynep Atamer, Universität Hohenheim, Institute of Food Science and Biotechnology, Department of Dairy Science and Technology

In order to obtain safe dairy products with a long shelf-life, heating processes have been designed to ensure the necessary inactivation of the indigenous microbial flora. One of the methods is the ultra-high temperature (UHT) processing of milk which has become widespread since the implementation of aseptic packaging processes1. Nowadays, this method is not only used for milk, but it is also applied to a whole range of dairy products with different microbial, physical and chemical properties. Therefore, new challenges for the manufacturers arise as these products require a different treatment to guarantee the safety and quality. UHT processing in general as well as emerging trends and challenges in processing of milk and milk products will be discussed in this article.

UHT processing of milk generally refers to processes that are conducted at 135 to 150°C for 10 to one seconds1,2. In production plants working with direct steam injection, even higher temperatures of 150 to 152°C are used for up to 13 seconds3. In contrast to this, sterilisation of milk is realised at temperatures varying from 109 to 120°C for 40 to 20 minutes2. These two processes are designed in such a way that the destruction of microorganisms of importance (bacterial spores) is the same in both cases as this is essential for the sterility of the final product. However, the effects on vitamins and other substances (e.g., lactose, amino acids) can differ greatly3. Nowadays, with the emerging application of UHT treatments to dairy products other than milk, such as products containing functional ingredients (e.g., infant food), new processing conditions have to be defined. (more…)

Fonterra and First Milk collaborate on whey protein joint venture

Industry news, News / 6 September 2011 / Fonterra

Fonterra and UK-based First Milk have announced a strategic joint venture to produce premium whey proteins for Fonterra’s growing food ingredients business in Europe. (more…)

World dairy leaders awarded

Industry news, News / 10 June 2011 / Zenith International Ltd

As part of the 5th Global Dairy Congress, the inaugural Zenith Dairy Awards were announced yesterday evening during a gala dinner at the Belosselsky-Belozersky Palace in St Petersburg. (more…)

Fonterra announces Victorian flood support package

Industry news, News / 25 January 2011 / Fonterra

Fonterra today announced details of a comprehensive support package to help flood-affected dairy farmers in northern Victoria, including a $50,000 donation to the Victorian Farmers Federation Disaster Relief Fund. (more…)

China steps up safety requirements for dairy firms

Industry news, News / 6 January 2011 / Associated Press

China’s domestic dairy companies must renew their production licenses this year or will be closed, the government said Thursday in the latest safety measure after melamine-tainted milk products killed six children.

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How to determine the spray drying parameters of dairy and food concentrates?

Issue 4 2009 / 12 December 2009 / Pierre Schuck & Romain Jeantet, INRA and Agrocampus Ouest and Eric Blanchard, Laiterie de Montaigu

The second and concluding instalment of Pierre Schuck and associates’ article on spray drying parameters of dairy products discusses the results and conclusions of their research. The most frequently used technique for dehydration of dairy and food products is spray drying. This is an effective method for preserving biological products as it does not involve severe heat treatment and it allows storage of powders at an ambient temperature.

Due to the variety and complexity of the concentrates to be dried, a more rigorous understanding of spray-drying based on physico-chemical and thermodynamic properties has now become necessary. However, the current knowledge does not allow determination of the parameters of spray-drying of dairy products. The only way to determine these parameters is to perform several complex and expensive experiments with spray-dryer pilots. (more…)

How to determine the spray drying parameters of dairy and food concentrates?

Issue 3 2009 / 10 September 2009 / Pierre Schuck & Romain Jeantet, INRA and Agrocampus Ouest and Eric Blanchard, Laiterie de Montaigu

Pierre Shuck and associates discuss spray drying parameters of dairy products. In part one, featured in this issue of New Food, the authors discuss the rationale behind their studies and introduce a new method of spray drying. Part two will feature in our next issue of New Food and reveal the results and conclusions drawn by the authors.

In this study, a new method was developed to evaluate the ratio of bound to unbound water by using drying by desorption. The results, combined with thermodynamic and physico-chemical parameters (such as absolute and relative humidity of air, total solids and temperature of concentrate, air flow rate, etc.), provide more precise determination of certain spray-drying parameters such as inlet air temperature and mass flow rate. More than 50 experiments were performed to correlate calculated and measured parameters in a pilot plant (Bionov) using water, skimmed milk, infant formula milk, caseinate maltodextrin and other food concentrates. The results showed that the difference between the calculated and measured inlet air temperature was less than five per cent, the determination coefficient being close to 0.96.

The economic value of this system is obvious, because it is easy to anticipate the spray-drying parameters by using a controller integrating the water availability of the concentrate and certain thermodynamic parameters. Software based on this step was developed (SD2P®, Spray Drying Parameter Simulation and Determination) and registered at the APP (Association pour la Protection des Programmes). (more…)

Hyperspectral chemical imaging maps food composition in laboratory and on-line

Issue 3 2009 / 10 September 2009 / T. Hyvärinen & H. Karjalainen, SPECIM, Spectral Iimaging Ltd; D. Nilsson, Umbio AB and K. Lynch, Gilden Photonics

Hyperspectral imaging combines digital imaging with precise spectral information in each image pixel. It enables composition mapping in food and agricultural raw materials and products based on differences in the spectral signatures of the various chemical ingredients. Advances in hyperspectral cameras and image processing solutions are now making hyperspectral imaging an efficient tool for high throughput laboratory analyses, and even making it possible to apply it on-line in quality assurance and process control applications.

Near infrared (NIR, 700-2500 nanometres) spectral analysis is widely used in the agriculture and food industry, as well as in many other industries. Traditional NIR analysers measure bulk properties of samples taken for analysis, and raw materials and finished products moving on a conveyer belt. In several materials and products, their quality and functionality depend on either uniformity or certain specific heterogeneity (structure) in the composition. Thus, being able to assess the spatial distribution of the composition will provide very valuable additional information. NIR hyperspectral imaging makes it possible, both as a research tool during the development process of new products and as a quality assurance and process control tool in the manufacturing process. This article serves as an overview of how this new technology can efficiently solve chemical mapping problems both in the laboratory and on-line. (more…)

High-pressure – meat processing and milk gels

Issue 1 2009 / 20 February 2009 / Professor Vibeke Orlien, Associate Professor Food Chemistry, University of Copenhagen

Consumers prefer food products, convenience products and ready-to-eat meals to have the taste of being freshly made. Moreover, it must be nutritious, safe, of high quality and originate from sustainable production. High-pressure (HP) technology can be utilised to its full potential as a minimal processing method to address consumers preferences and reflect the human ethics of natural, tasty, clean-label and eco-friendly products. For example, it is possible to produce chicken meat with improved oxidative stability and high water holding capacity and neutral milk gels with less sugar. The future new type of HP-food products may be just around the corner.

The perspective of producing high quality foods with an extended shelf-life by use of HP technology is based on the ability to inactivate bacteria and enzymes concomitantly with a minimum loss of nutritional and sensory quality. Investigations on the effects of pressure on microbial inactivation are reported in literature and HP-treatment is being used worldwide in the food industry as a preservation step in the production of cured meat products and fresh juices and other fruit-based products without destroying flavour and vitamins. The prospective of new types of food products by use of HP is due to the specific actions of pressure on food constituents. As a minimal process technology, HP does not break covalent bonds and thereby protects the small chemical constituents like flavour compounds and vitamins. Hence, HP affects only non-covalent bonds and can be used to modify macromolecules, like proteins, and thereby to change the functionality of food proteins. (more…)

Biocentrum at the Technical University of Denmark

Issue 4 2007 / 16 November 2007 / Thomas Ostenfeld Larsen, Lars I. Hellgren and Peter Ruhdal Jensen, BioCentrum DTU

BioCentrum (BiC) is an Institute at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and represents the largest concentration of biotechnological research at university level in Denmark. BiC has a long tradition of food research and teaching and has for many years been involved in different MSc programmes in Food Science and Technology. It is involved with food graduate schools in partnership with the Faculty of Life Sciences at University of Copenhagen (LIFE KU) under the name the Centre for Advanced Food Studies (LMC).

LMC coordinates the scientific activities and higher education within the food area and serves as a unique partner for the private and public food sector in Denmark. This year BiC DTU became part of a much larger organisation within the food science area, since DTU has fused with, among others, The National Food Institute and the National Veterinary Institute. A natural consequence of this has been to coordinate all old and new DTU food activities under the name FoodDTU. We anticipate that BiC DTU will continue to play a major role in some focused food research areas in the years to come. (more…)