The latest in dairy ingredient use trends, process technology, and the science of dairy ingredient functionality were addressed at the 5th Annual Cal Poly Concentrated and Dried Dairy Ingredients Symposium held recently in Shell Beach, Calif.

The symposium, which took place February 24-25 at The Cliffs beach resort, brought together nearly 100 academic and industry leaders to share information and technology. Speakers and attendees came from Denmark, China, Canada, France and the United States. Companies represented included General Mills-Yoplait, Leprino Foods, Westfarm Foods, Foss North America, California Dairies, Kraft Foods, Hilmar Cheese Company, The Minute Maid Company, and Proliant.

"The caliber of speakers and attendees represented at this year's program speaks volumes about the importance of dairy ingredients as a global business," said Dr. Phillip Tong, professor at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo and the program's organizer.

Symposium activities got underway Monday, February 24th with a morning of presentations by experts from such organizations as Advitech Solutions, 3A Consulting, and U.S. Dairy Export Council. Speakers covered a variety of topics from recent research on the health benefits of dairy peptides to the potential for marketing Permeate. The focus was on emerging opportunities, which included limited protein hydrolysis, permeate utilization and international developments.

Bill Ahlem, Chair of the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board, kicked off the program with welcoming remarks and spoke of the importance of innovation and application. This was followed by an overview of dry milk and whey products by Dr. Phillip Tong from the Dairy Products Technology Center at Cal Poly State University.

In the presentation, given by Veronique LaGrange, director of ingredients business development for the U.S. Dairy Export Council, she provided an assessment of the "International Market Development Activities, Needs and Opportunities." According to LaGrange, the key sectors are infant formula, dairy beverages, other beverages, and "functional" products. She highlighted infant formulas from Korea and Japan with hydrolyzed whey proteins for humanization, as well as Lactoferrin and Lactulose for intestinal health and increased immunity. She also showed a product labeled as nutrition liquid for toddlers and adults with bovine colostrum from China. In dairy beverages the trend is to combine milk with fruit juices or add milk minerals, whey proteins, or peptides. There is a wide range of these products available internationally including many milk and juice blends, milk powder with colosturm and milk calcium added, low calorie drinks with whey minerals, and even carbonated milk drinks.
As far as "functional" products, the trends are in longevity, wellness, performance, and therapeutic. These products include flavored milk with bioactive peptides to lower blood pressure, ice cocoa milk drink with polyphenols to reduce the risk of cancer, weight loss tablets with glycomacropeptides. Products aimed at improving bone and tooth health and those containing pre- and probiotics are also increasing on the market. Performance or sports products are available in a variety of forms from jelly drinks with whey protein to sport milk candy.
Lagrange sees opportunities in the market segments and rates of growth, and a need for research and nutrimarketing.

During a session on new and emerging opportunities, Dr. Eric Lamiot from Advitech Solutions in Quebec, Canada spoke on dairy peptide health ingredients. He explained how the proteins found in both milk and whey can be hydrolyzed to form peptides that can then be concentrated and purified. These purified peptides can then be used commercially as ingredients in products for various health benefits such as helping to decrease anxiety, lower blood pressure, aid in mineral adsorption, appetite regulation, and in liver detoxification. There are some drawbacks when using these peptides in the pharmaceutical market, such as the long time to market and high investments for pre-clinical studies. In functional foods, there is a large market with high possible volumes, but health claims are limited and the peptides can have a negative impact on taste. The nutraceutical market may be a good area for these ingredients due to short time to market and high interest from consumers for health supplements.

Tage Affertsholt of 3A Consulting in Denmark talked about the marketing opportunities for permeate. He reported that the United States is the largest whey producing country and that they produced 36,000 tons of whey in 2001. Of that whey, 80% was utilized as permeate (11,520 tons), whey powder (14,400 tons), or other (2,880 tons). The permeate produced has been used directly in beverages and animal feed, or processed for lactose production or conversion, and for bioconversion. Permeate powder and animal feed together with lactose represents the largest potential for processing large quantities of permeate. The application for beverage production also represents a large potential. Conversion of lactose in permeate to specialized sweeteners provides an opportunity to produce high added products, but only limited volumes of permeate can be utilized. He also concluded that Bioconversion products like alcohol and lactic acid for biodegradable packaging materials is a proven concept that holds potential for utilization of large permeate quantities. A limiting factor is competition from other low cost carbohydrates.

In the afternoon Dr. Richard Hartel from the University of Wisconsin-Madison discussed the phase transitions during drying of dairy ingredients. He stated that the physical state of dried foods was important to the flow characteristics, rehydration, encapsulation properties, and the stability to moisture sorption. He summarized that control of moisture during drying and storage with respect to the type of product is essential to controlling product characteristics. An understanding of the phase/state changes that occur in a food is important for controlling product quality.

The effects of heat on whey derived ingredients was covered by Dr. Jean Louis Maubois, director of the Institute and noted world expert on applications of membrane processing for dairy products. Dr. Maubois explained the two types of whey: classical cheese and casein and whey obtained from membrane filtered raw whole or skim milk. He talked about the isomerisation and Maillard reaction (non-enzymatic browning) related to lactose as well as the effects of heat on ß-lactoglobulin, a-lactoalbumin, some of the more minor proteins, and mineral salts. Technological history described before whey protein concentrate and whey protein isolate are submitted to: fat separation, pasteurization, ultrafiltration, and addition of citrate. Extended shelf processes are based on classical heat treatments will induce more or less denaturation according to the heating history and the whey protein content. These treatments are necessary for microbial destruction. Literature describes effects of heat on particular products. However, there is lack of information on methods that can describe the heating history of the product. Ideal whey and purification by UF in controlled conditions and equipment will be the ideal starting material for knowing accurately the effects of heat.

In the session on improving quality of dairy ingredients, Dr. Loren Ward, the manager of whey research for Glanbia Foods, talked about considerations for optimizing ingredient quality during whey processing. As you move from the functional to nutritional and nutraceutical uses of dairy ingredients the value for these ingredients increases. There is opportunity for many unique nutritional/nutraceutical dairy ingredients. The method of processing influences purity, degree of denaturation and final nutrition. There have been several success stories already in protein and mineral fractions of whey.

Dr. Munir Cheryan from the University of Illinois, continued the session with his talk on membrane selectivity and process efficiency in processing of dairy fluids. He covered the factors to consider when selecting a membrane process as well as an overview of the types of membrane separations.

The day ended with a talk given by Dr. Syed Rizvi from Cornell University who spoke on Microfiltration of Milk to Produce New Dairy Ingredients and Their Food Applications. From his research he reported that supercritical fluid extrusion could successfully produce expanded whey protein based snack chips with a novel composite structure. The process shows ability to produce products of variable appearance and textural characteristics and that crispier whey protein snack products with comparable breaking strength and higher elastic moduli are possible.

Day two began with a session on "Learning From Another Food Ingredient." Arun Kilara and Munir Cheryan both spoke on lessons from the soy industry. Some of the points made by Dr. Kilara were that the soy industry is consolidated with few key players. The economics are favorable (cost per pound of protein) compared with dairy protein. The soy industry has advertised a lot of health claims, which have helped the sales of soy protein products. Finally, that the compounded annual growth rate and profitability of soy foods are lucrative even though the overall markets are relatively small. Dr. Cheryan followed up by explaining the use of membrane technology in the production of value-added soy proteins.

Dr. MaryAnne Drake from North Carolina State University gave a talk on flavor and flavor stability of skim and whole milk powder. She talked about the importance of flavor and how it can impact customer preference. Sensory analysis is the ultimate measurement, but instrumental analysis is also important. In her research, she looked at both fresh and stored samples of skim and whole milk powders and how different heat treatments affected the sensory aspects. They developed a language that gave both qualitative and quantitative descriptions for the aroma-active compounds in the powders. Her results for the skim milk powder showed that heat generated compounds increased with intensities of heat treatments. Odor intensities of some compounds were higher in stored samples while other compounds decreased. Finally, that some new odorants contributed to stored SMP flavor. The results for the whole milk powder showed that fat generated compounds play an increased role in desirable and undesirable flavors. Odor intensities of some compounds were changed in stored (off-flavored) samples and that fat oxidation compounds are primary sources of off-flavors. She then concluded her talk with a look at some practical applications and implications including using sensory profiles to predict storage stability, sorting or directing products for particular end-product users and other applications.

The next talk given was by Dr. Marie Walsh from Utah State University. She spoke on the texturization of milk proteins and their applications. She gave some background information on the meat alternative and high protein snack markets as well as an overview on extrusion technology and a review of current research on whey extrusion. In her conclusion she stated that extrusion could be used to produce textured whey protein products. Extruder configurations can be altered to produce either a "puffed" or fibrous textured whey protein product and that applications of TWP include uses as a beef extender, meat analog and snack food.

The last speaker before lunch was Dr. Rafael Jimenez from the Dairy Products Technology Center at Cal Poly State University. He spoke on the high value fractions from buttermilk. His research focused on the milk fat globule membrane polar lipids, and how best to retain them. Buttermilk is a co-product of butter production and contains the milk fat globule membrane. Using a two-part process of microfiltration and supercritical fluid extraction, we can fractionate buttermilk and concentrate biological lipid messengers. These messengers have important applications in molecular research and potential dietary and health applications. He stated that reconstituted buttermilk contains polar MFGM lipids differently than fresh and that cold process retained MFGM polar lipids better than a high temperature process. He went on to show the point in diafiltration that showed the maximum concentration of lipids and proteins. In a second phase of the research from his group, he demonstrated the value of refining the products obtained from microfiltration of buttermilk with supercritical fluid extraction. Supercritical CO2 was very efficient in removing saturated lipids from the phospholipid-protein product retained by the microfiltration membrane. Combining these two processes demonstrate a great potential for developing novel products.

The final session of the symposium began with a talk by Scott Clement from Jenike & Johanson on dry solids handling, blending, and characterization. He began with a definition of bulk solids and then went on to explain the significance of flow on production costs, product quality, time-to-market, and worker safety. Scott explained some of the common flow problems and how to correct them. His key point was that "flowability" is a function of the material and the equipment. Poor flowing material can usually be handled easily in properly designed equipment and easy flowing material can present flow problems in poorly designed equipment.

Professor Isabelle Sodini from the Institut National Agronomique in Grignon-Paris followed with a talk on the utilization of whey protein concentrate in cultured dairy products. In her research she focused on the addition of four dairy ingredients and their effect on yogurt texture. She looked at the addition of buttermilk powder, milk retentate, caseinate, and whey protein concentrate. Dr. Sodini reported that buttermilk powder and milk retentate had the same ability to texturize yogurt as skim milk powder at a comparable level of protein. Caseinate had better viscosity and rougher gel by comparison, and a stronger, more open network due to the higher degree of casein micelle fusion (lower whey protein/casein ration). Whey protein concentrate had contradictory results showing a strong diversity of their texturing ability in a yogurt application. A blend of dairy powders showed a synergistic effect on the viscosity.

In a talk given by Michael Busch from Foss North America he explained in-line detection of moisture content during drying of dairy ingredients. He stated that lab analysis is important to maintain the instrumentation and the process. Introduction of in-line standardization must be approached slowly and with a good understanding of the technology. The primary method accuracy represents the number one reason for success or failure of a project. He ended by stating that a standardized raw material entering a process will make it easier to maintain a consistent end product.

The final presentation was given by Matt McKnight from the U.S. Dairy Export Council on the benefits of dairy ingredients in animal feeds. The animal feed market acts as a customer of last resort. They are more price sensitive, but have a greater flexibility in product formulation and their consumers "animals" don't complain. He discussed the markets in China, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam. He then went on to talk about the various segments of the market such as calf nutrition, swine, and poultry. He ended his talk with new potential for high-value products such as milk peptides vs. synthetic amino acids and Lactoferrin for calf milk replacers, shrimp feed, farm raised fish and baby pig diets.

More than 15 speaker presentations were made during the two-day event. Additional topics addressed included lactose processing, production of high milk protein products from ultrafiltered milk, and new developments in membrane processing. For information about presentations not listed here, contact Laurie Jacobson at (805) 756-6097.

The Cal Poly Concentrated and Dried Dairy Ingredients Symposium is an annual event sponsored by the California Dairy Research Foundation (CDRF), Dairy Management, Inc., and U.S. Dairy Export Council. For details of past and future programs, see www.calpoly.edu/~dptc.

The Dairy Products Technology Center (DPTC), established in 1986, is a program within the College of Agriculture at Cal Poly State University which conducts education, research, and outreach activities to provide solutions to help manage risk, facilitate innovation, and defend equity in the dairy foods industry and related business sectors. More information is available at www.calpoly.edu/~dptc .

The California Dairy Research Foundation is a non-profit corporation that manages the research investments of the California dairy industry in the areas of basic and applied dairy product research, nutrition, dairy herd health, and food safety, including the CDQA program. For more information about the CDRF and the dairy research it sponsors, visit www.cdrf.org.