Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Susan Duncan, Dairy and Sensory Evaluation

Bill Eigel,                Food Biochemistry

Joe Marcy:               Food Processing

Merle Pierson: Food Microbiology

 Sean O’Keefe: Food Chemistry

Susan Sumner:   Food Safety

Walter Hartman:    Dairy Plant Manager whartman@vt.edu

Kim Waterman:  Dairy Chemistry    Kwater@vt.edu

Brian Yaun: Microbiology byaun@vt.edu           Phone: (540) 231-8697

UpDATES AT Virginia TECH

2003 Graduates in Food Science and Technology

Students and Award Recipients 

    The Food Science Club and the Department of Food Science and Technology held its annual Spring Luncheon and Award Recognition Ceremony at The German Club on April 11^th.  Graduating FST undergraduate and graduate students were recognized, and awards and scholarships were presented to outstanding individuals.  Five students will graduate with M.S. degrees in Food Science this Spring:  Karol Gailunas, Valerie Gorsuch, John Koontz, Stephanie Penn, and Allison Roberts.  Eric Suloff will receive his Ph.D.   Jenny Norton, Megan Hereford, Angela Hartman and Emily Hodson will finish their Masters’ programs this summer.  Six undergraduate students will complete their B.S. degrees in May:  Stacey Dean, Sarah DiCarlo, Allison Henry, Tai Johnson, Jared Miller and Elizabeth Townsend.  April Sloan and Michael Stiltner will earn their undergraduate degrees this summer.

2003 Departmental Award Recipients:

Carolina-Virginia Dairy Products Assoc. Academic Achievement Award – Stacy Dean

W.F. Collins Scholarship – Lacey Milam

Paul Large – Most Improved Student Award – ‘Peggy’ Sheehan

Boyd – Arline Scholarship – Elizabeth Townsend

Virginia Meat Processors’ Award – Scott Daigle

Mid Atlantic Dairy Foods Boosters Award – Donna Greene

Faculty Award for Outstanding Graduate Student – Valerie Gorsuch and Angela Hartman

2003 State and College Award Recipients

Reese McCormick Scholarship – Elizabeth Townsend

W.R. Winslow Trust Scholarship – Stacy Dean

William Powers Sadler Scholarship – Katie Pribisko

Gamma Sigma Delta’s Graduate Dissertation Award of Merit – Wes Schilling

2003 National and Regional Award Recipients

Robert & Randolph Noell Scholarship – Vanessa Teter

Alpha Zeta Outstanding Senior for FST – Elizabeth Townsend

Marvin Poster Memorial Scholarship in Food Science – Valerie Gorsuch

Congratulations FST Graduates!!

HOT TOPICS AND DAIRY ISSUES

Global Dairy Research and Product Development

     Consumers around the world are finding that dairy components offer a range of benefits for maintaining health and wellness, and that they function to prevent chronic diseases and improve longevity.   In response to increased consumer interest, global dairy research is currently focusing on creating products and ingredients that target wellness, longevity, beauty, performance and therapeutic areas.  Dairy components play a role in all of these issues. 

Health benefits. Dairy products and ingredients are being developed to act on a range of health symptoms, including digestive conditions, pre-menstrual syndrome, arthritis and obesity. 

In Indonesia, Indomilk Bio Plus instant milk powder for infant formula is fortified with Omega-3 fatty acids (thought to improve brain function), oligofructose (a prebiotic) and milk calcium (for bone health).   In Korea, Haitai’s Nou Nou premium baby formula is fortified with DHA (an Omega-3 fatty acid), lactoferrin (to build the immune system), milk calcium, bifidus bacteria, and vitamins A, B₂, D₃ and E.  In Japan, older kids enjoy Wakado prawn-flavored snacks that contain 33 mg of added milk calcium per 20 gm bag. 

The global dairy market offers scores of yogurts and milks containing probiotic cultures to enhance digestion.  Farm Produce Marketing (Britain) uses the LifeTop straw in its organic yogurt beverages.  The telescoping straw contains an oil droplet of suspended L. reuteri (a probiotic culture) that functions to boost the immune system and improve gut health and nutrient absorption.  Each straw contains 99 million active cultures that maintain their viability because they’re packaged separately from the milk.  The German market developed Urkult Kombucha a mild yogurt drink from Nöm containing kombucha.  Kombucha is a biologically active culture produced from tea and is believed to have special healing properties.

A vast array of foods are fortified with calcium, but only milk calcium has the proper proportion of phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, sodium, iron and zinc to maximize absorption and bioavailability.   Research has shown that specific compounds in milk may help reduce hypertension, colon cancer, obesity and heart disease as well as the recognized attribute of building bone density.  France and Scandinavia introduced ProSatiétil and Easy Tab, respectively.  These products contain Glycomacropeptide (GMP), a whey component that strongly stimulates production of cholecystokinin (CCK), an appetite suppressing hormone.

Performance.  Whey protein is known to be a source of high quality protein that enhances performance by providing branched-chain amino acids that aid in muscle recovery.  Tropicana Slim (Indonesia) introduced L-Men, a low fat, high-protein milk designed to strengthen muscles and aid in growth, development and replacement of the body’s cells.  It also contains L-carnitene, an amino acid that increases stamina and endurance.  Last year, the Mexican government put out a call to its milk powder suppliers to provide a fortified product to fight the country’s malnutrition problem. The resulting fortified powder provides needy consumers with 20% of the recommended daily intake of protein, 80% of the iron, 60% of the calcium and 50% of the folic acid.  Drinkable sports gels (Japan), formulated with whey proteins, provide half the recommended daily intake of 10 vitamins and one-third of the calcium per squeeze pouch.

Performance includes mental performance as well, and products are being designed for mood and memory enhancement and stress reduction.  Prodiet F200 from Ingredia Dairy Ingredients (France) is a bioactive peptide that comes from milk – a casein hydrolysate – shown to reduce stress and promote sleep.  Slumber Bedtime Milk (Britain) targets women over 45, the group most likely to suffer from insomnia.  This product contains higher levels of melatonin (a sleep inducing hormone) because it comes from milk produced at night when cows’ melatonin levels are four times higher.