| Faculty:
Susan Duncan, Dairy and Sensory
Evaluation
Expertise Areas: Dairy product processing and quality, sensory
evaluation
Phone: (540) 231-8675 Fax: (540) 231-9293
Email:duncans@vt.edu Bill Eigel, Food Biochemistry
Expertise Areas: Laboratory quality control, lab analytical
techniques (non-microbial)
Phone: (540) 231-6877 Fax: (540) 231-9293
Email: weigel@vt.edu Joe Marcy, Food Processing
Expertise Areas: Juice processing, packaging and aseptics
Phone: (540) 231-7850 Fax: (540) 231-9293
Email: jmarcy@vt.edu Sean
O’Keefe:
Food Chemistry
Expertise
Areas: Product
development
Phone: (540) 231-2075
Fax: (540) 231-9293
Email: okeefes@vt.edu
Susan Sumner: Food
Safety
Expertise Areas: Dairy microbiology, food safety, lactic acid
bacteria, shelf-life and HACCP
Phone: (540) 231-5280 Fax:
(540) 231-9293
Email: sumners@vt.edu
Dairy Staff:
Walter Hartman: Dairy
Plant Manager
Phone: (540) 231-3037
whartman@vt.edu Joell Eifert: Microbiology
Phone: (540) 231-8697
joeifert@vt.edu
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UPDATES AT VIRGINIA TECH
Tri-State Dairy Convention
The 15 th annual Tri-State Dairy Convention was held in Charleston , SC on February 28 th through March 2 nd , 2008. The keynote address was delivered by Ken Futch, author of the book, “Take Your Best Shot”, which is filled with stories about recognizing and achieving opportunities in life. Other dairy industry-related topics included Stainless Steels for the Dairy Industry, presented by Otto Drescher and Bud Ross from the Nickel Institute; Bioterrorism, presented by Ray McCoy of Dean Foods; and Blending, Mixing and Reconstitution Technology, presented by Pete Leitner from Admix, Inc.
The VA Tech research meeting was very productive this year. Virginia Dairies would like VA Tech to lead packaging programs, which would include such topics as packaging materials, closures, tamper evidence, and sustainability (where it starts, where it ends, “life costing”). There is also interest in having a program on water quality and sustainability, including topics of reverse osmosis applications for the waste water stream, recovery of water, and sewage treatment and costs.
Some dairies have teams that view products in the stores in order to evaluate where product loss occurs. In order to foster interaction, current Food Science and Technology students will be asked to serve on the teams. They will collect and summarize the information from various retail stores and present the data to the dairy processor. By participating on the teams, the students will become more familiar with the plant/process and will gain some experience to include on their resume.
Additionally, the dairies have found the training videos, filmed by the Dept. of Food Science at VA Tech, to be very helpful, and there are plans for continued filming of common dairy processing activities.
HOT TOPICS AND DAIRY ISSUES
Listeria Outbreak Closes Whittier Farms Dairy
Feb. 1, 2008 - Whittier Farms—the mom and pop dairy linked to listeriosis deaths that was forced to suspend bottling— will not reopen the dairy that made the listeria tainted milk. Although Whittier Farms is selling milk in its store on Douglas Road , the milk does not come from the dairy's farm. Previously, Whittier milk was sold under the names Whittier , Schultz, Balance Rock, Spring Brook, and Maple.
Listeriosis is a type of food poisoning dangerous to the elderly, pregnant women, newborns, and those with chronic medical conditions. Listeria lives in soil and water and can easily contaminate dairy and beef products; because listeria thrives in cold, milk is an ideal environment.
Wayne Whittier, one of the farm's owners, said the family made a difficult decision in deciding to keep the production plant and Shrewsbury store closed, saying: “The milk production and bottling plant, it won't be a place where Whittier Farms will operate again.” Whittier added that the family hasn't decided if it will resume production elsewhere, but stated recipes for Whittier specialties are being kept in a safe place. The Whittiers have about 330 cows, milking 130 cows daily and producing about 1,000 gallons of milk daily. Whittier said the raw milk is being sold to a different processor.
The state Department of Public Health said four people became ill from the disease; two of them died. One of the other victims, a woman in her 30s, miscarried. A third man died in January. Based on genetic testing, researchers discovered all the illnesses generated from bacteria identical to that found in a bottle of coffee-flavored milk produced at the Shrewsbury plant. After studying over 100 samples, state health inspectors said they were unable determine the precise contamination source. “The final results of the tests from the state—instead of narrowing it down—the area kept getting bigger. It made it extremely hard for us, because we still don't have answers,” Whittier said.
A dozen milk and four plant samples tested positive for varying strains of listeria, but do not pinpoint where contamination occurred, said state officials. It seems bacteria colonized in the plant, entering milk products following pasteurization and during production. State health officials recently gave the family a list of 15 items to accomplish at the plant before they could reopen, ranging from simple tasks to costly endeavors.
The dairy took twice as many samples as the state at its own cost, and it still doesn't have answers. Whittier said the family is working to pinpoint the contamination source and is pursuing several avenues, including hiring a specialist with sophisticated equipment that could to detect if there are hairline cracks in the tanks' equipment lines.
The farm store now sells Connecticut-based Mountain Dairy milk products from a family-owned dairy that also does not use artificial growth hormones.
Company Turns Used Yogurt Containers Into Planting Pots |
Windham Solid Waste Management District has been trying to decide what to do with used yogurt containers. Currently, it has to throw out any plastic No. 5 containers that make it into its facility on Old Ferry Road . A New Jersey company has now taken an innovative approach to solve the problem.
TerraCycle, in Trenton , takes old yogurt containers and sells them to major retailers around the country. Before it sells them to retailers, it hires inner-city artists to hand paint them. The retailers, such as Home Depot, Lowe's and Wal-Mart, will take the hand-painted containers and stuff them with potting soil and plants, selling them in their garden shops. The plant pots won't be in stores until spring 2009.
TerraCycle uses environmentally friendly paints to create "individual pieces of art," said Jennifer Wilkie, spokeswoman for TerraCycle. The planting pots are called "YoGro". Not only will TerraCycle take the containers off your hands, it will pay you for them -- 5 cents for big containers and 2 cents for the small ones. If you sign up at the company's website (www.terracycle.net) it will send you a postage-paid mailer to send the containers to its headquarters in Trenton.
TerraCycle also makes rain barrels and composters out of old wine barrels, tote bags and pencil cases out of drink pouches made by Capri Sun and Honest Tea and woven purses out of Cliff Bar wrappers. TerraCycle is also making plant pots out of compressed plastics from computers and cars, painted and sold at Home Depot, starting this spring.
Not having the containers in the waste stream would save the district time and money. An employee must pull garbage out of the recyclables sent to the plant on Old Ferry Road , and much of the time is spent pulling yogurt containers out and throwing them away.
TerraCycle has developed programs called "The Brigades," a chance for schools and other community groups to collect items that would usually be considered waste and raise money for the school or nonprofit location of their choice. |
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