Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

UPDATES AT VIRGINIA TECH

VA Tech Wins Danisco's Knowledge Award

Virginia Tech's Food Science product development team won second place in Danisco's 2006 Knowledge Award competition. The Recognition comes with a cash prize and a trip to the Prepared Foods New Product Conference in Florida this fall for the team leader and the faculty mentor. Mark Kline (FST Masters candidate and team leader) and twelve teammates produced Sweetza, a gourmet white chocolate and raspberry frozen dessert pizza. The product is formulated to contain around 200 calories, which is approximately half the amount of calories per serving compared to other supermarket frozen desserts. Sweetza requires less than 20 minutes to prepare – not much time to wait to enjoy a gourmet dessert.

Danisco USA sponsors this contest in order to offer college juniors, seniors and/or graduate students the opportunity to apply their skills and knowledge to a real-world situation. Their goal is to accommodate consumer demand for healthy, safe and tasty food by supporting innovation in academic institutions, developing stronger links between universities and Danisco, and by encouraging innovative approaches to food science challenges.

This year, D anisco received many intriguing and original new product entries from Universities across the nation. Product evaluations began in early May with preliminary judging by six Danisco food specialists. The top twelve finalists were selected and judged by six product development experts. Each judge studied written reports, evaluated the concepts based on taste and product criteria, and assessed the marketability and uniqueness of each of the products.

The team from Washington State University/University of Idaho School of Food Science & Technology received first place in the contest with SymBoba , a ready-to-drink probiotic bubble tea. The product contains tea, milk, Boba (balls) and fruit flavorings, probiotics and prebiotics to aid digestive health, as well as the natural antioxidant properties of green tea.

FFA Dairy Foods Career Development Event

Teams from five Virginia high schools participated in the 2006 Dairy Foods Career Development event. The contest was held at the Department of Food Science on June 19 th . To kick off the contest, a written test was given. Students then had to identify 10 milk off-flavors and 10 types of cheese. They also performed the California mastitis test, located defects in milking equipment and identified 10 products as real or artificial dairy samples.

This year, Sherando's team placed first with 283 points, Spotswood placed second with 337 points, and James Wood came in third with 350 points. The top individual was Daniel Beam from Spotswood. Congratulations to all participants!

HOT TOPICS AND DAIRY ISSUES

USDA Revises Definition of Fluid Milk Products

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has ruled that low-carbohydrate milk products should be classified for pricing purposes like conventional fluid milk beverages. This decision should prevent further farm revenue losses. At stake in the USDA decision is whether dairy beverages that largely resemble fluid milk – especially the reduced-carb milk drinks – should be priced as Class I milk products, or at the lower Class II milk price. The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) argued for the former, and asked the USDA to consider using a protein threshold to determine which class the beverages should fall.

The USDA's decided that any product at or above a 2.25% protein level (including low-carb milk drinks) will now be priced at the higher, Class I level.

“As technology and consumer preferences change, so must government regulations that balance the interests of farmers, processors and consumers,” said Jerry Kozak, President and CEO of NMPF. “We're very pleased USDA recognized that dairy farmers' income would be adversely affected if these low-carb products, designed to compete with and replace traditional Class I products like conventional fluid milk, were not reclassified from Class II to I.”
Under a protein standard where any product below 2.25% protein is considered Class II, low-carb products, because of their proportionally higher level of dairy proteins, will be returned to the Class I category – meaning that processors of such products are now obligated to pay producers the highest, Class I value for milk under the Federal Milk Marketing Order system.

Last year, a major manufacturer of low-carb dairy beverages successfully petitioned the USDA to reclassify its products from Class I to Class II, and in so doing, it was able to retroactively reclaim money paid to dairy farmers. This new USDA decision will again place these low-carbohydrate products in the Class I category for pricing purposes.

In addition to creating the protein threshold, the USDA still maintains a solids level of 6.5%, meaning that in order to be classified under Class I, milk beverages must have at least that level of nonfat solids in them. The USDA ruling also counts all dairy ingredients – including whey, milk protein concentrates (MPC's), and casein – toward both the solids and the proteins thresholds.

Despite some confusion last year in the industry about the stakes involved in this issue, NMPF recognized the ongoing threat to farmers' milk checks from Class II products that take market share away from Class I products.

“These new provisions will help maintain the integrity of the Federal Order's classified pricing system, by making sure that new milk-based products that compete with milk will be put into Class I. It levels the playing field for farmers and processors alike,” Kozak said.

Gene Sequence Mapped for Yogurt Bacteria

Scientists at France 's National Institute of Agronomic Research (INRA) have mapped the gene sequence for Lactobacillus bulgaricus, one of the bacterial strains present in yogurt. This is a major step in understanding the make-up of yogurt, thought to be more than 5,000 years old. Streptococcus thermophilus has also been recently mapped.

This should eventually eliminate some of the trial and error for dairy firms that want to create more added value and functional yogurt products. Yogurt drinks, probiotic ones in particular, have increasingly led dairy market growth in recent years due to consumer health trends.

When the INRA team began the research, only 30 genes were known in the bacteria. The complete genome sequence contains around 1,800 genes. Knowing the genetic sequence will enable researchers to understand more about which functions specific genes perform, and how the bacteria may evolve and change in yogurt. Researchers now plan to examine more closely how the two bacteria interact, particularly during the fermentation process.