The Milk Producer - January 2012 - (Page 46)

THEBACKFORTY By Sharon Laidlaw Good for the body, literally A German fashion designer has created .a fabric made from milk protein. Not only can you drink milk, you can also wear it. Anke Domaske, a former microbiology student, is making headlines with her innovative product. The 28-year-old designer researched how milk protein or casein could be used to make an environmentallyfriendly textile that would also be soothing to people with skin allergies. The material is called Qmilch—a combination of the word quality and the German word for milk. It drapes and folds like silk, but can be washed and dried like cotton. After much trial and erA German fashion designer has developed an innovative fabric from milk that she uses to sew clothes came to Domaske after seeing her stepfather develop skin allergies during cancer treatment. She wanted to make a fabric that wouldn’t irritate his skin, or harm the environment. “It feels like silk and it doesn’t smell. You can wash it just like anything else,” Domaske said. So far, Domaske has used the fabric only to make dresses for her fashion line. Next year she plans to introduce her product to the mainstream market. Car companies have already contacted her ror, Domaske found a way to reduce milk to a protein powder, boil it and press it into strands that can be woven into a fab- 46 | January 2012 | MilkPRODUCER Anke Domaske’s environmentally-friendly fabric is called Qmilch—a combination of the word quality and the German word for milk. It drapes and folds like silk, but can be washed and dried like cotton. ric. The strands are then spun into threads. The idea to develop the material for poten- tial seat covers, and several medical institutions and hospitality companies have expressed interest in the hypoallergenic material for hospital and hotel beds. It brings a whole new meaning to the saying, ‘milk does the body good.’ With files from The Associated Press

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Milk Producer - January 2012

The Milk Producer - January 2012
Contents
Editor’s Notes
DFO Chair’s Message
Dairy Update
DFC Promotion
Farm Finance
Research
Applied Science
Ruminations
Rearing Replacements
Markets
New’N’Noted
Back Forty

The Milk Producer - January 2012