Product Development and Research Team Driving Sales and Trust

 

The dairy checkoff has various strategies designed to reach every corner of the industry to drive sales and build trust in dairy. I may be biased, but I truly believe the crown jewel of the checkoff is our Product Development and Research team.

Our team features credentialed scientists who use research-based solutions to continue moving the industry forward. I like to say, “We do not make products, but we help people that make the products.”

We work alongside renowned university researchers to gain insights into dairy and translate research that ultimately results in new products reaching the marketplace. Farmers are innovators, and our team is fueled by their innovation to drive the work that we do.

Our team frequently collaborates with the National Dairy Foods Research Center program that receives national and local checkoff support. Its six centers encompass the expertise and resources of more than 20 universities.

This robust network has its fingerprints on many of the dairy products you see on grocery store shelves and in restaurants. As consumer preferences change and trends shift within the industry, our team stays busy keeping up with the changing demand.

Here are two projects that our team is very proud of:

Taco Bell Shelf-Stable Dairy Creamer: We worked alongside Taco Bell to develop a real dairy shelf-stable creamer to be used in many beverages on the chain’s permanent and limited-time menu, such as its line of frozen drinks and coffee.

Shelf-stable dairy creamer offered an innovative solution to Taco Bell restaurants, which lack refrigeration capacity near its drink stations to store dairy products. Collaboration was key to the development of this product, as our team worked alongside the Midwest Dairy Center at the University of Minnesota to accomplish this success.

Dairy innovation has been a longtime focus since Dairy Management Inc. (DMI) began our Taco Bell partnership in 2012. Our onsite scientists at Taco Bell’s headquarters are constantly collaborating with the chain to find more innovative ways to bring solutions to the table and identify new opportunities for dairy.

Functional milk bioactive ingredients: Our research efforts on the bioactive components of milk in collaboration with the Northeast Dairy Foods Research Center at Cornell University, has resulted in the development of a functional bioactive ingredient ready to be commercialized.

In recent years, consumers have expressed interest in milk’s properties beyond its nutritional value written on the label, including attributes related to immunity and calming.

Bioactives naturally present in milk cannot withstand high temperatures and/or are accompanied by an unpleasant taste. However, our team’s efforts led to encapsulating the bioactives to protect them from extreme processing conditions, and in another instance helped improve sensorial properties of the ingredient.

The new technology has been patented by our team and the research center and we’re excited about the potential this holds for future product innovations.

Future endeavors

We continue to push the envelope for unlocking more benefits of dairy and the role it can play in consumers’ everyday life. One current example is researching precision fermentation to see what dairy products can be made from coproducts, such as permeate. Because permeate has traditionally been unused during processing, this research may lead to additional value to the marketplace.

Our team has long been a go-to resource for many dairy companies seeking information on research-based health and wellness benefits on dairy foods, troubleshooting support during manufacturing and various other needs. To continue supporting our valuable partnerships with the broader dairy industry, we have revamped our website to house all our tools and resources in one place. The industry-targeted website allows our team to continue helping the industry solve problems so they can produce new products.

While our Product Research and Development team may be small, our impact is large across the industry. Dairy companies of all sizes have us on speed dial and seek our expertise in supporting their innovation. Helping to increase dairy sales by harnessing innovative technologies and increasing consumer trust is how we are staying true to our checkoff mission.

And that is something to brag about.

To learn more about your national dairy checkoff, visit www.USDairy.com/forfarmers or to reach us directly, send an email to TalkToTheCheckoff@dairy.org.