Meat + Poultry - May 2004 - 57

MARKETING OPPORTUNITIES

Getting
fresh
with
markets
Extended shelf life
increases milk-marketing
opportunities.
Milk consumption is probably not the
first thing that comes to mind when
evaluating the economic power of a
foreign country. But the World Health
Organization uses milk consumption
as a key part of its evaluation to
determine a country's living standards.
That's because as countries increase their wealth and standards of
living, people also increase their consumption of dairy products - it's
happening from Central America
to Asia. This has created and will
continue to create new marketing opportunities for milk,
milk products and milkderived ingredients on a
global scale, says Dave
Barbano, food science professor at Cornell University.

Fresh is best
Japan, for example, presents several excellent
export opportunities for
the U.S. dairy industry. The
U.S. Dairy Export Council
reports that Japan's neutraceutical market - foods
aimed at reducing disease,
fatigue and increasing overall health - is expected to
grow 9 percent annually

through 2012 to more than $54 billion. And many of the products serving that market are dairy-derived: like
whey protein concentrate for use in
yogurt; lactoferin for infant formula
and yogurt; and peptides and hydrolyzed whey proteins for yogurt, beverages and a new range of energy bars.
Manufacturers of these products
have a choice of whether to use local
or imported milk and milk derivatives.
However, the further dairy products
and ingredients are moved and the
longer the storage time, the more important the quality of the original
milk becomes, notes Barbano. Taste
and functional characteristics become
an issue in stored products, which has
challenged international dairy marketers in their attempt to open doors.
That means freshness will become
even more important as the U.S. works
to expand its dairy export market.

Partnership is needed
We can accomplish our goals. But
doing so will require communication
and cooperation between all members of the dairy chain.
For producers, this adds an extra
incentive to
increase milk
quality. And it
puts an onus on
processors to
financially reward that improved quality.
For instance, researchers have
discovered that
off-flavors in
2 percent, 43°F
pasteurized
fluid milk can
be pushed back.
Experiments
have been able
to extend shelf
life from 18 to
56 days when
the somatic cell

count (SCC) of the raw milk was decreased from 1 million SCC to 25,000
SCC. And additional studies have extended that refrigerated shelf life for
fresh milk to 90 days and even longer.
However, low SCC is the key to
achieve these shelf-life gains, and segments of the food chain must partner
to accomplish these goals. "It definitely takes both parts - the milk
quality and the processing working
together," says Barbano. "This is why
a partnership between producers and
processors is so important."

Export expectations
These freshness improvements have
tremendous implications for the export market. An increasing segment
of the international market demands
"fresher tasting" dairy foods, particularly in the rapidly growing international foodservice segment, contends
Barbano.
"With respect to serving new
niche dairy-based beverage markets,
processors need to identify the market and the processing technology it
requires," he adds. "Then the processor needs to establish what milk quality is needed to produce the product.
The next step is to incorporate that
data and an estimated cost of that
required milk quality to develop a
business plan for long shelf life dairybased beverages and fluid milks."
New and evolving technologies
that build on these freshness gains offer additional marketing opportunities - by offering different dairy
products in more configurations for a
myriad of new uses - supported by
consumers hungry for the nutrition
and taste that dairy delivers.
And that's good news, as well as
a fresh perspective, for an industry
that's struggled with roller coaster
prices and challenging marketing
conditions.
By Shannon Linderoth
Dairy Herd Management magazine

MAY 2004

FOOD SYSTEMS

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Meat + Poultry - May 2004

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