Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

UPDATES AT VIRGINIA TECH

FFA Career Development Event

The Department of Food Science and Technology hosted The FFA Food Science and Technology Career Development Event on October 4 th . Four-member teams from 3 Virginia high schools participated in Food Science learning activities related to the food industry.

Teams took an objective test designed to determine each member's understanding of the basic principles of food science. Questions addressed food safety and quality issues, sensory evaluation, nutritional analysis and equipment.

Teams then received a marketing scenario describing a need for a new or redesigned product. They developed a product formulation, package design, and nutrition label, identified equipment needed to formulate the product, and addressed potential quality control and assurance issues.

Students also participated in sensory testing, food safety/sanitation problem identification, and they had to handle a complaint letter from a food processing company by determining the source of the problem and a possible solution.

Augusta County 's Buffalo Gap High School won the competition and will go on to Louisville , KY to participate in the 78 th annual National FFA Convention on October 26 th through the 29 th . Congratulations Buffalo Gap!

HOT TOPICS AND DAIRY ISSUES

Katrina Causes Dairy Losses

Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) assessed Katrina-affected areas of Louisiana , Alabama and Mississippi and concluded that immediate dairy farm losses could exceed $40 million. Jim Hahn, head of the Southeast DFA division said that since cows continue to produce milk during disasters, costs related to lost milk production and cow health mount quickly. Production losses will likely continue for some time. Dairy producers discarded an estimated $3 million worth of milk due to lost electricity on farms and at processing plants. Dairy producers don't know when USDA emergency aid will come through. DFA said the agriculture department was still processing applications for its 2004 Dairy Disaster Payment Program until September 9 th, 2005. Damage caused by hurricane Rita is not yet known.

Altering Milk

Prepared Foods Newsletter 09/05 - Australian scientists have altered the makeup of milk with high-frequency sound waves in a breakthrough expected to slash manufacturing costs and create new products. The findings by a Melbourne-based team could deliver big savings for the industry and open new export markets.

Researchers have found that high-frequency sound waves can change the size and shape of molecules in milk and are investigating whether the technology can also change milk proteins.

"The technology can actually be used to improve processing efficiency, delivering cheaper, faster and safer dairy processing," Dairy Australia's Phillip Marzella said. "It could reduce costs 20% to 70%. Clearly, it would have large impacts on manufacturing operations."

Marzella said milk is filtered through a membrane during manufacture, and changing the structure of milk could substantially cut the amount of fouling in that membrane. The research is supported by Dairy Australia, the industry's research and development body, and dairy companies through the Dairy Ingredients Group of Australia . It is being conducted by Food Science Australia at Werribee, in Melbourne, and the University of Melbourne 's Particulate Fluids Processing Centre.

Research team leader Muthupandian Ashokkumar said passing ultrasound through a liquid generates chemical and physical interactions, beginning with micro-bubbles that swell, burst and leave localized areas of heat. Ultrasound also generates reactions between the liquid's atoms and molecules.

"The process has great potential for manipulating the structures of molecules and the chemical interactions that occur in liquids," Ashokkumar said. "By harnessing this technology to modulate the heat stability of dairy proteins, we hope to significantly reduce costs.

"The process could be used on a variety of liquids and also could be used in the medical and cosmetics industries."

Marzella said the technology opened up possibilities for developing new dairy products with health benefits.

"That could be applied to specialized children's diets, diets for the elderly, for people with illnesses such as diabetes and obesity, heart disease or cancer. The industry is already producing products -- such as lactofarin, which is a protein from milk -- which can boost your immune system. That's a product on the market, but (with the ultrasound technology) you could have a better form of lactofarin or a more specialized form of it. New products could be developed using the technology within two or three years.”

CLA-Containing Dairy Products and Cancer

Dairy Reporter, 10/05 – High intake of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a type of fat found naturally in cow's milk, has been linked with a significantly lower risk of bowel cancer. A team at Stockholm , Sweden 's Karolinska Institutet and the Central Hospital at Vasteras , found that middle-aged women who reported having the highest intake of the nutrient in the late 1980s were almost 30% less likely to have developed cancer when they were re-assessed about 15 years later. The research also established that consumption of at least 4 servings per day of high fat dairy foods, such as whole milk, cheese, cream, sour cream and butter, can lower the risk of bowel cancer by as much as 41%. This is compared to subjects who consumed less than 1 serving per day.

The researchers used 60,708 women aged 40-76 years old. Consumption of high-fat dairy foods was assessed at baseline and 14.8 years later. At this point, almost 800 women had developed bowel cancer. After adjusting for age and other potential confounders, researchers reported that “each increment of 2 servings of high-fat dairy foods per day corresponded to a 13% reduction in the risk of bowel cancer. Some studies on animals have shown CLA to be effective in fighting and preventing certain cancers, but so far there is little evidence in humans to support these findings. This study adds further fuel to the debate on the role of dairy products in cancer prevention. While milk-based products have been linked to increased risk of other cancers, such as breast and prostate, the consumption of milk and calcium has been previously associated with a lower risk of bowel cancer.