Changing consumer trends have fueled the increasing interest of dairy product manufacturers in developing “non-thermal” dairy processing technologies. Specifically, customers want products that are safe, minimally processed, fresh-like, nutritious, and devoid of synthetic food additives, says Aubrey Mendonça, PhD, an associate professor in the department of food science and human nutrition at Iowa State University in Ames.

“Demand increased since the COVID-19 pandemic began, as consumers moved toward foods and beverages that help to strengthen immunity and improve overall health,” says Errol V. Raghubeer, PhD, senior vice president of microbiology and food technology at JBT Corporation’s Avure Technologies, which manufactures high pressure food processing equipment in Middletown, Ohio.

Although traditional “thermal” milk processing technologies such as heat pasteurization, ultra-high temperature (UHT) treatment, canning, and dehydration have been used for several decades to ensure microbial safety and extend dairy products’ shelf life, these processes can cause degradation of heat sensitive bioactive and nutritional components, and undesirable changes in the properties of treated dairy products that detract from “fresh-like” characteristics. “More health-conscious consumers prefer to consume dairy products made from raw milk,” Dr. Mendonça says.

Thermal technologies use heat treatments to achieve fluid milk safety by killing any microbial contaminants present; however, the temperatures used can also cause changes in protein structure and functionality as well as the activity of bioactive compounds, including vitamins and minerals in dairy products, says Maneesha S. Mohan, PhD, associate professor and endowed chair in dairy manufacturing in the dairy and food science department at South Dakota State University in Brookings. For example, whey proteins in milk start to denature above 150ºF and form covalent bonds with sugars and other proteins, which affects the flavor, color, bioactivity, and functionality, causing changes such as gelling, enzyme coagulation, and sedimentation of individual components and the overall product.

Some non-thermal technologies for dairy processing ­include high-pressure processing (HPP), pulsed electric fields (PEF), and ultraviolet (UV) light processing. “These technologies do not rely on high temperatures (i.e., temperatures greater than 50oC) to achieve the ultimate goal in food processing—which is to maintain food safety and quality during shelf life,” says Federico Harte, PhD, a professor of food science at Pennsylvania State University in University Park.

Many of the non-thermal technologies have either been commercialized in the past decade or are in the research phase prior to commercialization, Dr. Mohan says. Many are effective in inactivating microorganisms and pathogens in dairy and other food products.

Here’s a look at some of the newer, non-thermal technologies, how they work, and their advantages and disadvantages.

High-Pressure Processing

HPP involves placing packaged foods in a pressure vessel and filling it with water as the pressurizing fluid. High pressure, typically 600 MPa, is generated by a pair of intensifiers by pumping more water into the closed pressure vessel. Foods are held at the targeted pressure for a specified time before releasing pressure, says Alvin Lee, PhD, associate professor in the department of food science and nutrition at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and director of the Center for Processing Innovation at the Institute for Food Safety and Health in Bedford Park.

During compression, physiological and biochemical processes within microorganisms are affected, resulting in their inactivation, Dr. Raghubeer says. However, product nutrients and bioavailable compounds are largely unaffected because covalent bonds aren’t affected at these pressures. This results in fresh-tasting, nutrient-rich products.

Zifan Wan, PhD, an assistant professor in the School of Agriculture at the University of Wisconsin in Platteville, concurs, and adds that HPP treatment leads to enhanced quality because the process doesn’t affect heat-sensitive compounds (e.g., vitamins, simple sugars, and volatile flavor compounds). Therefore, it doesn’t result in non-enzymatic browning and loss of flavor and nutrients.

Other Benefits of HPP

When using HPP, foods with different-sized packages can be pro­cessed in the same batch, says Yiming Feng, PhD, assistant professor of food science and nutrition at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. Because foods are processed in packages, they don’t directly contact processing devices, which prevents secondary contamination and reduces sanitation costs. By having processes performed at room temperature, HPP reduces the energy consumption associated with heating and subsequent cooling.

The quality of dairy products made from HPP-treated milk can actually improve, Dr. Wan says. For example, one study published in 2007 in the International Dairy Journal showed that yogurt made from HPP-treated milk had a firmer gel structure and greater resistance to syneresis (doi: 10.1016/j.idairyj.2006.10.001). In addition, HPP-treated milk leads to enhanced lipolysis in cheese during ripening compared to cheese made from heat-pasteurized milk, in which lipase is mostly inactivated during heat treatment.

With enhanced lipolysis, a higher score of overall aroma for cheese made from HPP-treated milk was observed compared to cheese made from thermal pasteurized milk, because the breakdown of lipids into free fatty acids by lipase contributes to cheese’s unique flavor and smell, Dr. Wan says, citing an article published in 2001 in the International Dairy Journal (doi: 10.1016/S0958-6946(01)00044-9). HPP is not ideal for fluid milk production due to the insufficient inactivation of lipase, however, as lipolysis of milk fat contributes to rancid off-flavors.

Although the initial capital investment for HPP treatment is high, the technology has gained widespread acceptance commercially in the manufacturing of different thermally sensitive food products such as guacamole, sauces, jams, and jellies, Dr. Mohan says. The dairy industry has commercialized high pressure-treated fluid milk, colostrum, cheeses, and yogurt fruit smoothies.

Some Downsides of HPP

Some disadvantages and challenges in applying HPP to dairy products exist, Dr. Mendonça says. For example, bacterial endospores are extremely resistant to inactivation by high pressure. In fact, the highest-pressure levels typically used in commercial pressure treatment won’t completely destroy bacterial endospores unless repeated cycles of HPP are applied. In this scenario, HPP is time consuming and increases energy usage, making it economically unfeasible. Figure 1 shows the components of a typical HPP system.

Figure 1. Schematic showing components of a high-pressure processing system. Courtesy of Aubrey Trevor Mendonça.

Another downside is that appropriate packaging is required. As a batch product, there are limitations regarding how much product can be processed at a time. HPP is also not a one-size-fits-all “safe harbor” process. “This technology is young enough that each situation needs to be evaluated to ensure it’s effective against the potential hazards for that product,” says Tim Stubbs, senior VP of the Product Research and Food Safety Innovation Center for US Dairy in Rosemont, Ill. “It can be misapplied.

Pulsed Electric Fields

In PEF processing, high-voltage electrical pulses are applied to food products to destroy microorganisms. The treatment of food products occurs between two high electric field electrodes in a treatment chamber. The electrodes are connected by a non-conductive material, which prevents electrical current flow among electrodes, Dr. Mendonça explains. For effective microbial inactivation, the PEF process involves applying about 10 to 80 kilovolts for a very short time, usually microseconds to milliseconds. The components of a PEF processing system are shown in Figure 2.

The electrical pulses are transferred to food products and disrupt microbial cell membranes, destroying microorganisms. Various temperatures in sub-ambient, ambient, or higher than ambient ranges are used during PEF processing, Dr. Mendonça says. Treated food products are aseptically packaged and refrigerated during storage and distribution.

Figure 2. Schematic showing components of a PEF generating system. Courtesy of Aubrey Trevor Mendonça.

Advantages of PEF

Both PEF and conventional thermal treatments can enhance the microbial safety and shelf life of raw milk and other dairy products. Compared to thermal treatments, however, PEF can preserve heat-sensitive bioactive and nutritional components while reducing undesirable sensory changes in those products. “This aspect of PEF processing is important considering the rapidly growing interest in the health properties of bioactive functional food ingredients derived from dairy products,” Dr. Mendonça says.

The major advantage of using PEF to treat raw milk and dairy products is the potential for providing safe, high-quality finished products for consumers. “PEF processing is superior to conventional heat processing technologies because it reduces degradative changes in food quality and nutritional components and maintains sensory properties of foods while ensuring microbial safety,” Dr. Mendonça says. PEF processing improves energy usage efficiently and economically, resulting in greater cost savings compared to applying thermal treatments such as pasteurization and UHT.

Moreover, applying PEF in addition to mild heating can reduce microbial populations of dairy products at levels comparable to heat pasteurization but without significant changes in sensory and nutritional quality, Dr. Mendonça says. Therefore, PEF technology has the potential to replace conventional thermal processing of raw milk and other dairy products.

PEF has been proposed as an alternative to the non-thermal pasteurization of milk used in cheese making. “It can be used when aiming to keep enzymes active while removing native microbial populations,” Dr. Harte says. “However, for cheeses that rely on milk’s native microorganisms for appropriate flavor and texture profiles, PEF may be as detrimental as traditional thermal processing.”

Disadvantages of PEF

PEF is still in its early developmental stages. Currently, PEF processing costs more per unit volume/weight compared with other techniques (e.g., membrane filtration, UV radiation, and conventional heat processing). “More work is needed in order for PEF to lower its energy demand and scale up to the industrial level,” Dr. Feng says.

Another disadvantage of PEF processing, like HPP, is that it’s ineffective in destroying bacterial endospores, which are extremely resistant to many physical and chemical antimicrobial processes. “However, most of PEF’s limitations are technical and associated with occurrences of electrochemical reactions,” Dr. Mendonça says. These reactions can cause corrosion and fouling of electrodes, migration of electrode material into treated food products, electrolysis of water, and chemical changes in foods.

Ultraviolet Light Processing Techniques

UV light processing involves exposing food products to artificially produced UV radiation for set exposure times. Solid foods on a conveyor belt are exposed while passing under a UV light source, whereas liquid foods are passed through a UV reactor Dr. Mendonça says (see Figure 3).

Figure 3. Schematic showing components of a UV treatment system for liquid foods. Courtesy of Aubrey Trevor Mendonça.

Sources of UV radiation include mercury vapor lamps, black light, fluorescent and incandescent light, and certain types of lasers. UV radiation can be categorized, depending on its wavelength, as UV-A (320–400 nm), UV-B (280–320 nm), and UV-C (200–280 nm).

The UV-C with shorter wavelengths is more energetic and can kill microorganisms. The genetic material of foodborne microorganisms is damaged when it absorbs short wavelengths, causing microorganisms to be unable to multiply due to irreparable damage, Dr. Mendonça says.

Pros and Cons

Food processing via UV radiation is a promising technology mainly because of its good commercialization potential, Dr. Mendonça says. Moreover, of the food products treated by innovative food processing ­t­echnologies, those treated by UV were described as high quality (94%), safe (92%), and having improved shelf life (91%), according to a 2015 study published in Innovative Food Science & Emerging Technologies (doi: 10.1016/j.ifset.2015.06.007).

From an economics perspective, applying this technology involves relatively low installation, maintenance, and operational costs. Additionally, it’s environmentally friendly because it requires relatively low energy usage for operation and no waste is generated, Dr. Mendonça says. Like other non-thermal processing technologies, UV radiation treatment can provide consumers with microbiologically safe, minimally processed food products with fresh-like characteristics.

Other benefits include retaining food texture and nutritional aspects without undesirable sensory and nutritional changes, no detrimental effects on the environment (no chemical residue or toxins), and no heat generation, Dr. Feng says.

Despite the attractiveness of UV light as a food processing technology, it has a few limitations. For one, it has intrinsically low penetration power. This reduces its antimicrobial effectiveness in foods with high concentrations of suspended solids and in opaque liquids such as milk, Dr. Mendonça says. Therefore, UV light application is restricted to treating clear liquids, surfaces of foods, and food packaging films such those used to wrap cheese. Workers should use caution by wearing personal protective equipment such as eye goggles, shields, and gloves, because prolonged exposure to UV light can damage their eyes and skin.

Adds Dr. Mohan, “While the microbial inactivation of UV light is encouraging, it has been associated with flavor changes in some cheeses and milks over their shelf life.” UV light processing also has lower efficiency in foods with suspended solids and opaque or cloudy liquids such as milk.

Other Novel Non-Thermal Technologies

More non-thermal technologies are in the pipeline. Non-thermal (cold) plasma, an ionized gas and the fourth state of matter, has been proven to eliminate pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms with minimal changes in nutritional, functional, and sensory quality of food products, Dr. Wan says. The antimicrobial capability of cold plasma mainly results from three major components: reactive gas molecules, charged particles, and UV radiation. Advantages include being economical, adaptable, and environmentally friendly.

Filtration is another newer technology used commonly in dairy processing, says James Gratzek, PhD, director of the Food Product Innovation and Commercialization Center at the University of Georgia in Griffin. Filters eliminate bacteria by size exclusion. For example, filtration makes it possible to exclude bacterial spores but not certain smaller vegetative types. In this scenario, filtration can be used in combination with gentle pasteurization to deliver extremely high-quality, long-life skim milk. Filtration can be used for a variety of dairy food types, including higher protein milks and Greek yogurt.

Another method, nanobubble technology, can improve the functionality of different products, including protein concentrates and other high-viscosity products, Dr. Mohan says. These invisible nano-sized bubbles can consist of different gases such as nitrogen, carbon dioxide, oxygen, or air.

Due to their tiny size and charge, nanobubbles are stable in liquid systems up to a few days. In addition to possibly using the technology in different dairy processes for product manufacture, the technology may potentially be applied in effluent treatment plants in the dairy industry to reduce the suspended solids and organic matter load in the effluents discharged into water bodies, Dr. Mohan says.

There is a huge potential for using nanobubble technology in the dairy industry to improve the functionality of high protein products and sustainability of dairy processing by reducing effluent discharge loads, Dr. Mohan adds.

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FDA, along with CDC and state and local partners, is investigating a multistate outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes infections linked to Brie and Camembert soft cheese products, including all baked Brie cheeses, manufactured by Old Europe Cheese, Inc. of Benton Harbor, Mich., and sold at various retailers under multiple labels and brands.

The outbreak has resulted in six illnesses and five hospitalizations, with cases in six states.

On September 30, 2022, Old Europe Cheese, Inc. voluntarily recalled multiple brands of Brie and Camembert cheeses produced at their Michigan facility and, on October 5, expanded their recall to include multiple brands of baked Brie products. The firm has also halted production and distribution of their Brie and Camembert products from this facility and is working with FDA on corrective actions. The recall impacts product distribution nationwide.

Consumers, restaurants, and retailers should not eat, sell, or serve recalled products and should throw them away; this includes “best by” dates ranging from September 28, 2022 to December 14, 2022, and all flavors and quantities.

An expanded list of recalled products and stores that potentially sold these products is available on FDA’s website. Swiss American has also issued a voluntary recall of their St. Louis Brie products sourced from Old Europe Cheese Inc.’s Michigan facility. A full list of their products can also be found on FDA’s site.

FDA’s investigation is ongoing to determine if additional products are potentially contaminated. Updates to this advisory will be provided as they become available.

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While dairy has maintained a strong presence throughout the history of human diets, its nearly universal appeal in the modern world was not inevitable. Milk—and dairy products in general—have only maintained their consumer appeal through a constant cycle of innovation in line with market demands.

Even today, we are discussing a radically different dairy landscape than the one that existed 30 years ago. Dairy, a product that was once predominantly centered around Europe and North America, has seen massive growth in production and consumption across the world, especially in Latin America and Asia. It has also seen a transformation in how it is perceived, reinventing itself as a health food to target contemporary consumer concerns and evolving to encompass plant-based milk products that extend the market “beyond the cow.”

This traditionally dynamic marketplace has only been made livelier by the COVID-19 pandemic, accelerating trends that were already underway and introducing new challenges to processors.

All of these changes and the “new normal” of the last two years during the pandemic have highlighted the need for novel and advanced testing and analysis technologies. Equipped with these, processors can adapt and seize new opportunities presented by this ever-evolving marketplace.

In this article, we will break down five key trends currently affecting the dairy industry and explore how, backed by robust testing technologies, dairy processors can best capitalize on these trends.

1. Plant-Based Products

A growing number of people, predominantly in Europe and North America, are identifying as vegan or attempting to reduce animal product consumption. This intensifying demand, paired with the novel formulation technologies that allow processors to better simulate the taste and feel of dairy products, has led to plant-based milk products commanding a growing market share.

As with any novel product, safety and quality assurance should be at the top of the agenda for any processor. While ensuring safety in all milk products is critical, it introduces some distinct challenges for plant-based offerings.

For example, plant-based milk products tend to hold more suspended particles than their animal counterparts, which can lead to processing difficulties in instrumentation originally designed for animal-based products. Plant qualities such as stickiness can lead to processing disruption and an increased need for maintenance. The suspended solids also cause issues in characterizing these products when using certain analytical techniques. The nature of these formulations means that the density of the products is not always clear, making it difficult to judge which products are fit to be used in specific instrumentation.

When analyzing a plant-based sample, we can apply what we know in traditional dairy products, where formulations higher than 30% solids require near-infrared instrumentation. Therefore, in solid-rich plant-based milk products, near-infrared is usually best suited. Alternatively, in those lower than 15% total solids, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) liquid analyzers can test samples in less than 30 seconds and with lower than 1% coefficient of variation (CV). Furthermore, diode array-based instrumentation, which can fit directly across a belt or pipeline, can provide rapid spectra of a product sample within six seconds. And for high-detail analysis, Fourier transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) can separate wavelengths in the near-infrared range within 30 seconds.

This is an area that is rapidly growing in response to market demands, with many instrument manufacturers beginning to roll out calibrations specific to plant-based milk products.

2. Dairy Industry Testing Is Traveling Upstream

Across the broader dairy industry, testing technologies are being applied further upstream in the supply chain by processors. With more stringent global food regulations, a growing clean-label product demand, and rising competition between brands, processors are requiring or intensifying early stage and raw ingredient testing in order to have more control of product quality.

The change to upstream testing can be most clearly seen in antibiotic residue testing. Veterinary drugs, such as antibiotics, are used on farms to prevent infections and promote health in cows. To prevent antibiotic residues from accumulating upstream and seeping into dairy supplies, processors rigorously test samples to ensure compliance.

Lateral flow strip tests, for example, can be used to test throughout the dairy creation process: from field and farm to contract and in-house processing labs. This easy-to-use, accurate technology can detect a broad range of antibiotics found in cow’s milk both at or below European Union and Codex Maximum Residue Limits. Better yet, they often require almost no sample preparation and produce results within minutes.

FTIR is also being applied more widely at milk collection points. Using solutions that ensure easy installation and minimal moving parts for easy transportation, these instruments can test for both composition and untargeted adulterants.

By routinely applying these technologies, processors can more easily adhere to regulations and continue to provide consumers with safe products. They can also more confidently assure safety in their products, as well as prevent the large-scale losses incurred when contaminated ingredients are mingled with healthy supplies. As testing continues to move upstream, easy-to-use and transportable technologies such as these will be important. 

3. Intuitive Instrumentation

The food processing industry generally sees high staff turnover. With broader labor shortages across several industries, dairy processors are also seeing more intense staff shortages. The specific and lengthy training requirements within the dairy processing industry in particular means that these shortages are leading to workflow breakdowns and reduced productivity. To keep profit margins stable, processors need to embrace technologies that can help remedy these issues.

Intuitive instruments and software that delivers real-time learning can reduce training times and keep workflows optimized, even as staffs change. Through clever design, manufacturers can integrate useful features like touch screens, one-button operation, and automation to lower barriers to use for operators and scientists alike. They can also ensure that maintenance on the equipment is simple to perform, thereby minimizing downtime. These collective modifications can add up to big benefits in workflow efficiency.

4. Responding to Regulation in the Dairy Industry

A hallmark of the modern food industry is tightening regulation. Across the world, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is driving higher standards. This, combined with greater customer expectations of ingredient transparency, means that dairy farmers, collectors, and processors need to understand their product compositions and safety profiles better than ever before. To do this, the dairy industry needs robust instrumentation that can help provide proper antibiotic, mycotoxin, and pathogen detection across a wide range of products.

By leveraging FTIR and FT-NIR systems, for example, processors can perform adulterant pass/fail screening in one minute or less; using liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS), processors can thoroughly test for antibiotics and veterinary drug residues in milk; and with inline NIR systems, they can understand their dairy powder compositions in less than 10 seconds with no sample prep.

For efficient mycotoxin testing in complex dairy matrices, processors can also use DON ELISA kits, in which the workflow is designed for users to “set it and forget it,” minimizing manual intervention and manual error. Solutions like these are also highly efficient, helping lab teams process up to 192 samples in fewer than 90 minutes.

Equipped with the latest instrumentation and assay kits, manufacturers can best inform customers as to what’s inside their products, as well as help keep them safe from any possible adulterants.

5. Data in Dairy

While testing data solutions are currently being rolled out across almost every industry, they remain generally underused in the dairy industry, offering processors an opportune chance to get ahead.

One way data solutions can help processors is through synchronization of their workflows to achieve improved efficiency. Some solutions can give access to visualizations and predictive analytics, helping to provide a more complete overview of workflows, ingredient quality, and product performance. Modern software tools can also pull out areas where workflows can be made more efficient, with the overall goal of leveraging data to help managers make more informed and faster decisions that can reduce time, cost, and waste demands while increasing product quality.

Data solutions in dairy are undoubtedly going to scale up in the future. As sensors become more sophisticated, two areas within data solutions in particular will see advancement. First, more user-specific visualizations and information will be available for processors, and second, tailored automation when leveraging data will become widespread.

Looking to the Future

As with many industries, the dairy industry is currently undergoing a period of change. Adapting to this is fundamental if the industry wants to maintain dairy’s near-global appeal as a popular, reliable, nutritional, and tasty product. From plant-based milk products to tightening regulations, there are no signs that the dynamic dairy industry is slowing down. Further, with milk becoming ever more global and differences in product demands continuing to diverge, it’s highly possible we will see an even more varied and distinct marketplace in the future.

Smart, robust testing and analysis technologies are key when trying to stay on top in the quickly changing landscape of dairy. With innovative testing and analysis solutions and best practices, processors can add new firepower to their value and quality and continue to create competitively exciting and customer-driven products to the global marketplace.

Beukema is senior manager of R&D for PerkinElmer, Inc., Food Segment. Reach him at wopke.beukema@perkinelmer.com.

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(Editor’s Note: This is an online-only article attributed to the December/January 2018 issue.)

Food safety has taken a front seat, and conscientious consumers are more dedicated to the cause than ever. This increased awareness has inspired industry leaders to make a concerted effort to revamp their food safety efforts in the name of transparency.

Today, however, the impetus for conversations surrounding food safety is no longer directly spurred by unsavory events within the food industry. As a true topic of interest to consumers, many have expressed their concern, imploring companies to be proactive, rather than reactive. In this way, Graeter’s Ice Cream has continued to build a high level of trust among its consumers over the course of its 145 years history; in turn, becoming an ambassador for food safety industry-wide. This is accomplished, in large part, by a dedicated team of highly skilled food safety specialists.

The Weight of Food Safety Within Today’s Culture

Within the past couple years, a growing awareness of particularly stubborn pathogens, such as Listeria, have become a distinct focus of the ice cream category. Several distinguished brands have made a public commitment to proactivity in the food safety realm, and fellow companies can strive for similar excellence by learning from and incorporating the industry-best practices these brands utilize.

For instance, dedicating the same time, attention to detail, and heart to food safety that it puts into each handcrafted French Pot batch of ice cream, Graeter’s has achieved a SQF Level 3 Certification. With that attained, the company’s best practices have become even more fine-tuned to ensure it continues to serve consumers with utter confidence in its product.

Achieving SQF Level 3 Certification

Members of the Graeter’s Ice Cream team might admit that achieving the SQF Level 3 Certification was, in fact, a challenging experience. However, the benefits are worth the effort. Consumers who purchase a pint at their local grocery store or walk into a scoop shop for a hand-dipped cone can instill their trust in Graeter’s Ice Cream—as well as the brand’s commitment to food safety.

While working towards its SQF Level 3 Certification, Graeter’s first made adjustments to fit the requirements as a result of its unique way of making and packing ice cream. While the SQF Level 2 Certification specifies food safety, Level 3 specifies food quality.

This posed challenges for Graeter’s, as it is a company that holds the quality of each small batch to only the highest standards. From texture and creaminess to the size of its signature chocolate chips, Graeter’s relies on its skilled technicians to create these parameters. As a result, an adapted process for achieving SQF Level 3 was applied. The brand implemented four critical elements into its strict food safety regimen. Companies interested in garnering the same trust Graeter’s has can focus their efforts on these tips for food safety success.

Be adaptive. Most are already familiar with the unique French Pot Process Graeter’s uses to handcraft its ice cream. It is this same precision that ensures the brand consistently produces a safe product. The industry’s most dedicated companies are following suit, calling upon food safety teams to create environments and protocols that do the same.

However, Graeter’s knew that whichever food safety certification it pursued would have to be from both a reputable and respected institution, while also allowing Graeter’s the freedom to maintain its specialty process for producing ice cream. The Safe Quality Food institute proved to be what the brand needed. SQF requires a rigorous, credible food safety management system, and simultaneously, is the only scheme to integrate a quality component.

Look at the entire process. It can be tempting to create a food safety and quality plan from a desk where you can accomplish the end result very easily and efficiently. However, it is important to create your company’s plan with each department and process in mind. If a change is made in distribution, it can negatively impact inventory control or production, among others. Consequently, all departments within a company must work together in order for the entire system to function properly.

It is also important to incorporate team members in the development of the system. If given the opportunity to assist in the creation of processes and procedures, each team member will have a sense of ownership in the system as a whole. This aids significantly in the cultural change that is required when building, implementing, and maintaining a food safety and quality system.

Integrate your food safety team. Walk through a plant that enlists such quality standards as Graeter’s, and one thing should be apparent—an intricate attention to safety protocols is given by each part of the team. By walking the floor yourself, you can better learn about even the finest details of each job, while establishing a stronger sense of team. Ask for your employees’ input to let them know you value their work and expertise.

In building a stronger food safety team, consider your vehicle for feedback. In regards to a topic as critical as this, the care you show for your team should not dwindle. Take an interest in your fellow food safety specialists and show them that you’re approachable—not many quality and food safety managers make that a priority, which ultimately distances them from the core of their work.

Open a dialogue with others in your industry. Use the resources at your disposal. Learning from fellow category leaders, as well as companies that reach beyond your own category, is a fantastic way to broaden your thinking. Whether your goal is to achieve a certification, or simply tighten up your current food safety practices, opening up a dialogue with other professionals is a key way to adapt to your present challenges.

Food safety is much more than a science—it is a passion. Brands like Graeter’s Ice Cream understand that keen listening ears and watchful eyes are needed to ensure its own program remains unparalleled in quality. It requires just as much heart as handcrafting the product itself. It entails constant forward thinking while not trampling on the tradition Graeter’s has established for four generations.

At a time when consumer awareness has piqued, the food industry must redefine the role and definition of food safety. The cost of doing business today is a food safety system that ultimately rises above industry standards. With this in mind, the frozen food category as a whole can once again regain the trust of its consumers and tactfully avoid crisis.

Kehres is a quality assurance manager, SQF practitioner, and PCQI for Graeter’s Ice Cream. Reach her at Amanda.Kehres@Graeters.com.

The post Ice Cream Company Helps Set the Mold for Frozen Food Safety appeared first on Food Quality & Safety.

The safety of dairy products relies on good farming, processing, transport, and storage practices, along with accurate screening for pathogens and drug residues. Continued advancements in dairy safety are now focused on novel techniques that use gene sequencing, metagenomics, and even image analysis and artificial intelligence (AI) to provide early warning signals of potential problems in an industry that produces one of the safest products in the country.

In 1938, milk-borne outbreaks were responsible for 25 percent of all disease outbreaks attributed to infected foods and contaminated water. By 2015, milk and fluid milk products were associated with less than 1 percent of reported outbreaks, according to the U.S. Public Health Service and FDA Grade “A” Pasteurized Milk Ordinance [PMO] 2015 Revision.

Reducing Residues

Drug residues in milk have been a concern, and sensitive and accurate analytical methods have been developed to detect and measure the presence of antibiotic residues in dairy products. Under the National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments (NCIMS) Grade “A” program, state regulatory agencies report milk testing activities to the National Milk Drug Residue Database. In 2012, more than 3.7 million tests were reported to the database, and any milk containing illegal drug residues were not allowed to enter the human food supply.

PMO requires that a milk sample be tested from every bulk tank of raw milk collected at each farm, as well as a sample from every truckload of raw milk arriving at a dairy plant. Samples from every arriving truckload of raw milk are tested for the presence of at least four of six specific beta-lactam drugs: penicillin, ampicillin, amoxicillin, cloxacillin, cephapirin, and ceftiofur. If any test positive, raw milk samples from each farm that supplied the sample for that truckload must be tested.

In addition, the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine conducted a Milk Drug Residue Sampling Survey, published in 2015, which analyzed raw milk samples from individual dairy farms that had been previously identified as having a drug residue violation in tissues from culled dairy cows at slaughter. These samples were compared to a control group of samples from farms that had not been identified with a previous residue violation. The milk samples were analyzed for antibiotics, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and an antihistamine, a total of 31 different drug residues. A positive residue was defined as being at or about 50 percent of the established safe level/tolerance.

Out of the 1,912 total samples, there were 11 confirmed positive milk samples out of 953 (1.15 percent) targeted milk samples, representing 12 confirmed drug residues in the targeted sample group. One sample contained two confirmed drug residues. Among the 959 non-targeted samples, or the control group, there were four confirmed drug residues (0.42 percent). According to the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine report about this sampling and testing, “the small number of positives in both the targeted and non-targeted groups is encouraging and the FDA continues to be confident in the safety of the U.S. milk supply.”

Additionally, the FDA report called for strengthening the NCIMS drug residue testing program to educate dairy producers on best practices to avoid these residues in both tissue and milk; to utilize the data to, if necessary, include testing for more diverse drug classes in milk; and to consult with state milk regulatory agencies to consider (on a case-by-case basis) collecting milk samples in conjunction with investigating illegal drug residues in tissue involving cull dairy cattle.

Analyzing the Microbiome

Investigators at the University of California, Davis, are taking dairy safety another step forward by identifying the raw-milk microbes, or the level of bacterial diversity that is found in shipments of raw milk that arrive at participating processing facilities in California. The researchers sampled and analyzed milk from 899 tanker trucks on arrival and then shortly after storage at two dairy processors in California’s San Joaquin Valley during the spring, summer, and fall.

Gene sequencing was used to analyze the samples, the same method already being used to study the gut microbiome and soil, according to researcher Maria L. Marco, PhD, an associate professor in the department of food science and technology at UC Davis. “The method has been revolutionary in medicine, agriculture, and many other fields where microbes can be either beneficial or detrimental,” she says.

Using DNA sequencing, Dr. Marco and her team found that the communities of milk microbiomes are highly diverse, with a core microbiota showing distinct seasonal trends. Milk collected in the spring had the most diverse bacterial communities, with the highest total cell numbers and highest proportions of Actinobacteria. A core community of microbes was found in all the raw milk samples, with 29 different bacterial groups and high proportions of Streptococcus and Staphylococcus, as well as Costridiales. The bacterial composition of milk stored in some silos at processing plants was distinct from that in the tanker trucks.

According to Dr. Marco, the research, which was published in a 2016 issue of American Society for Microbiology’s mBio, demonstrated “how the built environment in processing plants can have significant but still unpredictable impacts on the microbial quality of foods.” There are three major ways that this research can impact the dairy industry, she notes. First, it can help identify probable contamination points in processing, such as the pieces of equipment or precise steps where contaminants enter. Second, it can shed light on effective cleaning protocols, such as when and how to clean and how much time should elapse before a piece of equipment should be cleaned again. “Contaminant bacteria can build up over time, so our work is focused on helping processors refine their cleaning procedures,” she says. And third, using DNA sequencing will help increase the ability to predict spoilage. Understanding how to predict which milk would most likely result in a defect in cheese or other dairy product can improve the treatment and handling of milk and thus ensure consistently high-quality products, Dr. Marco emphasizes.

This type of testing is not intended to replace the widely used diagnostic assays that effectively identify pathogens such as Listeria or Salmonella and Campylobacter in milk. Instead, it is an additional approach that can help identify a potential safety risk. “This has shown that we have to be mindful that frequent sampling is needed and that, by using methods we never had before, we can really monitor the equipment to keep the contaminants down,” Dr. Marco says.

Genomics Tools

Metagenomics and metatranscriptomics have moved food safety, including dairy safety, into the arena of nontargeted screening to give early warning signals of deviations that could indicate a safety issue. The use of genomics also provides a more precise method of detecting, characterizing, and identifying pathogens in foods such as milk, according to Martin Wiedmann, DVM, PhD, Gellert Family Professor in Food Safety at Cornell University. Sequencing DNA and RNA means that the microbiomes can be profiled all along the milk supply chain.

Cornell is collaborating with IBM Research as part of the Consortium for Sequencing the Food Supply Chain (the university is one of several members). The goal of the consortium is to categorize and understand microorganisms and the factors that influence their activity in a normal, safe environment, and to develop the science and the tools that can be used for analysis. Researchers at Cornell are using the university’s own approved and licensed dairy farm and processing facility as a “model system for how we can implement on a routine basis these types of tools,” Dr. Wiedmann says.

Another focus of the program is defining the baseline for “normal” raw milk, and then being able to define “abnormal” milk, he points out. “We have started developing the knowledge to detect some of these abnormalities earlier and trace them back to identifying the cause and, therefore, more effectively and more rapidly address or further characterize the abnormalities.”

One example of how these techniques can be applied has been the identification of certain bacteria that can make refrigerated, pasteurized milk in partially filled containers turn gray or be streaked with gray, as discussed in a July 2017 article in the Journal of Dairy Science. “We found that there are organisms that required oxygen to make the color compound, and we were able to identify which genes are responsible. So if you have these genes and they are expressed and they have enough oxygen, then you are going to get this defect. It was a microbial contaminant that causes the problem, not a disgruntled employee tampering with the product, as had been suspected,” Dr. Wiedmann says.

Other applications include individualized troubleshooting to identify the likely cause of a defect, such as a taste defect, so that intervention can begin to eliminate that cause. Using the tools for genomic sequencing, it is now possible to quickly take a bacterial isolate and accurately identify the microbes involved. “We want to get to the point where individual dairy processors can do this type of testing. As futuristic as it may sound, I think it is feasible that it will probably happen in three to five years in more sophisticated plants,” Dr. Wiedmann notes. Metagenomics testing is likely to supplement traditional dairy testing methods, not replace them, and will allow for more risk-based testing, he says.

U.S. dairy products are “probably some of the safest products around, and the countries where we export pay premium for U.S. dairy products because of the excellent safety record,” Dr. Wiedmann elaborates. “Anything we can do to show that we use cutting-edge tools will hopefully improve that ability for the U.S. to export some of these products.”

Image Analysis

A team of researchers at Osaka University and Rakuno Gakuen University, both in Japan, have developed a technique that uses a camera and AI to monitor lameness among dairy cows. Lameness, if untreated, can result in declining quantity and quality of dairy production. The researchers waterproofed and dustproofed a camera-based sensor capable of measuring distance to an object and set it in a cowshed. Based on the large number of cow gait images taken by the sensor, the researchers could characterize cow gaits and detect cows with lameness through machine learning.

Professor Yagi Yasushi at Osaka University says this research “will mark the start of techniques for monitoring cows using AI-powered image analysis. By showing farmers cow conditions in detail through automatic analysis of cow conditions, we can realize a new era of dairy farming in which farms can focus entirely on health management of their cows and delivering high-quality dairy products.”

Raw, Unpasteurized Milk

One dairy product that continues to be associated with disease outbreaks is raw, unpasteurized milk and cheese. The FDA does not regulate the intrastate sale or distribution of raw milk, leaving that up to each state. Thirty-one states allow consumers to purchase raw milk directly, although in many states it can only be purchased at the farm, at farmers’ markets, or through a cow-share program. Twelve states allow its purchase at retail stores. Raw milk cannot be sold across state lines or internationally. In Canada, it is illegal to sell or buy raw milk.

Research published in 2017 of the CDC’s Emerging Infectious Diseases reported that unpasteurized dairy products are responsible for almost all of the 761 illnesses and 22 hospitalizations in the U.S. that occur each year because of dairy-related outbreaks attributed to Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp., Listeria monocytogenes, and Campylobacter spp. People who consume raw milk are 838.8 times more likely to experience an illness and 45.1 times more likely to be hospitalized than people who consume pasteurized dairy products. The cause of most of these outbreaks is pathogen contamination at the dairy farm, according to the report.

Dr. Marco describes raw milk as a “microbial zoo.” The soil, gut, and aerosol bacteria found in raw milk means that it is a product “that should not be considered probiotic. It has the wrong kind of bacteria, the kind that can make you sick, particularly children and people who are immunocompromised or are recovering from an illness.”

Dr. Wiedmann grew up drinking raw milk as a child, but does so no longer. “I would not let my kids drink raw milk or my friends or pregnant friends, elderly people, or people with weakened immune conditions,” he says. “There are too many risks, and the benefits are anecdotal at best. The risks are very clear, very well described, and ironclad with regards to the science.”

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