Got milk? Smart fridge and app mean you’ll never run out again!

The Internet Of Things and smart appliances are big at this year’s CES Consumer Electronics Show, which has just ended in Las Vegas. There are internet connected coffee makers, toasters, and ovens all designed to make consumers’ lives easier by letting them manage everything from their mobile phones.

Upping the ante on smart connected appliances, MasterCard and Samsung announced a partnership which will let people buy groceries directly from their fridges! 

Samsung’s new Family Hub refrigerator comes with an Internet enabled screen that people can use to order their groceries through a MasterCard app.

Read the full article on FoodBev here.

‘Virtual reality gets real for food and beverage'

The 2016 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which ended last week in Las Vegas, could be described as the show at which virtual reality (VR) got real.

While motion sickness remains a non-trivial issue for some VR technology suppliers to address, technology like Intel and IonVR’s MotionSync provides a high-quality mobile VR experience using hardware that will work with any VR-compatible mobile device – important from a consumer experience perspective as well as by providing a price point that more businesses and consumers can afford.

Below are some predictions regarding the application of virtual reality (VR) in the food and beverage space, and some examples of pioneering VR work already being done:

1. In what could be described as the most basic application of VR, beyond the conference or video call, food and beverage manufacturers can use VR for enhanced communication between facilities in geographically diverse locations, from day-to-day interaction to special projects and of course, training.

2. When building new facilities or commissioning new equipment, VR could be used for a smoother design-build process, for example when integrating new packaging and processing equipment into a facility or when building and commissioning a new facility.

3. Through VR, the learning opportunities offered by reference plant and site visits become a possibility for many more suppliers’ customers as the constraints of time to travel and cost of travel are removed.

4. VR could assist in food safety and environmental monitoring and quality control, through enhanced training of staff and also in helping personnel in preparing for audits.

Find out my other predictions by clicking here and reading on.

Composting Food For Thought On World Environment Day #WED15

The relationship between dairy packaging and composting is not that obvious because much dairy packaging involves plastics, which currently are not compostable.

In honor of World Environment Day, and to clarify some of the issues around the composting of dairy packaging, and also composting terminology, I wrote an article, "On World Environment Day, think about this: Composting for dairy packaging may becoming sooner than you think" as a guest blog piece for Dairy Foods.

Compostable packaging will figure strongly both with exhibitors as well as with speakers at the IFTAnnual Meeting and the Global Food & Beverage Packaging Summit that are coming to Chicago in July, 2015

According to Daphna Nissenbaum the CEO of TIPA, who is a speaker at the Global Food & Beverage Packaging Summit, "As more municipalities develop a food waste collection infrastructure for composting, or as cities like New York encourage consumers to take food waste for composting to drop off sites as a part of the NYC Recycles program, the possibility of including compostable flexible packaging with food waste will have a major impact in diverting this type of packaging from landfill."

For brand owners and companies interested in composting the US Composting Council (follow on Twitter @USCompostingCou), offers useful fact sheets and free reports as does the Michigan State Extension (@MSUExtension) and GreenBlue (@GreenBlueorg), an environmental nonprofit dedicated to the sustainable use of materials in society.

The City of New York (@NYCgov), through the NYC Department of Sanitation (@NYCRecycles), oversees NYC’s waste prevention, recycling and composting programs, and offers drop-off sites throughout the five city boroughs as well as a Master ComposterCourse.

Three "Do Not Miss" Conferences For Innovation In Processing, Packaging & Sustainability

From Istanbul, Turkey, through New Orleans, LA and Chicago, IL, if your interest lies in innovation from a processing, packaging or sustainability perspective, these are three conferences that are a "Do Not Miss" this summer.

Global Dairy Congress, 17-18 June, Istanbul, Turkey

The Global Dairy Congress, now in its 8th year, is a two day event incorporating market briefings, conference sessions and FoodBev Media’s annual World Dairy Innovation Awards to be presented at the gala dinner. The Congress will cover a range of key themes for the global dairy industry and provide excellent networking opportunities for industry leaders, suppliers, customers and analysts.

The theme for 2014 is Breaking new ground. The dairy industry has always been convinced of milk’s inherent goodness, but now consumers want even more in products, from pleasure and convenience, to excitement and innovation, alongside value, health and sustainability. The conference aims to open up discussion on meeting the challenge today of breaking new ground for tomorrow.

The event will cover the full range of market developments including global and regional trends, consumer concerns over health and the environment, as well as key areas of innovation.

I will be speaking on the afternoon of the first day on How dairy can deliver against consumers' sustainability expectations. My presentation will cover research that identifies what consumers sustainability expectations are for dairy, and how brand owners can deliver on these - through innovation throughout the value chain, from processing through to packaging and distribution.

When it comes to sustainability and reducing the carbon footprint for liquid dairy products, extended shelf life (ESL) features high on the list of ways to reduce energy consumption as this request from a processor in India on the Linkedin Global Dairy Innovation Networking Group illustrates: 

"We are a dairy start-up in India with a keen focus on providing fresh (un-pasteurized) milk to consumers through a temperature controlled supply chain. In the process the biggest challenge we face is preserving the freshness and taste of milk throughout the supply chain. The options that we have to chill the milk are quite energy intensive and at times inefficient. We would appreciate your suggestions for us to add efficiency and effectiveness to the entire process."

IFT Annual Meeting, 21-24 June, New Orleans, LA

More than 18,000 of the world’s top food science and technology professionals, representing the most prominent organizations in the global food sector, will be in New Orleans to learn about the most recent product, ingredient, and technology developments, and their potential business impact, as well as to identify trends that will shape the industry.

The IFT Annual Meeting & Food Expo brings together professionals involved in both the science and the business of food — experts in R&D, product development, and QA/QC, as well as executive management, marketing, procurement, sales, and more — from industry, academia, and government.

I will be the moderator as well as a speaker for a session on Ultraviolet light for food plant safety and ESL applications on June 24.

The session description reads as follows: 

Tom Gallagher, CEO of DMI

"According to Tom Gallagher, CEO of Dairy Management Inc., in the coming years, there will be hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in plant infrastructure renewal, often focused on new extended shelf-life (ESL) and aseptic plant capabilities that will bring the right products to consumers. In order for this to happen there needs to be an understanding traditional as well as novel and emerging technologies, e.g. ultraviolet (UV), and also the interrelationships between product processing and sanitary and environmental factors. This session will feature presentations from a research and manufacturing perspective focusing on the role that UV technology can play, with the end result being a comprehensive overview on how to leverage UV applications for quality, food safety as well as shelf life across product categories."

Global Food &Beverage Packaging Summit, 16-17 July, Chicago, IL

This year's event offers an enhanced program with two tracks to bring attendees strategies for marketing and brand differentiation plus technical intelligence to enhance production and engineering. Speakers from top brand owners and packaging companies include Kraft, Pepsico, Target and Tetra Pak.

I will be the Chairperson for the event and will also moderate a panel discussion on July 16 on, "Designing when the package is your only medium." Panelists will include Janet Eaton, Vice President of Strategy & Insight at Kaleidoscope Brand Strategy, Sneha Shah, Global Technical Director for Avery Dennison and Terry Schwartz, Director of Global Design for the Campbell Soup Company.

Processors look for sustainable packages for dairy foods, beverages

Sustainability is becoming increasingly important to consumers who expect the products they buy to be produced and packaged in an environmentally responsible way.

Speaking at the 2013 International Dairy Show in Chicago in November last year, EcoFocus Worldwide CEO Linda Gilbert said, “We know that dairy shoppers are rethinking their shopping decisions and making changes and choices that reflect a lifestyle commitment to being environmentally friendly.”

Cary Frye, vice president of regulatory and scientific affairs for the International Dairy Foods Association, said that sustainability is playing a big role in the evolution of the dairy sector. “We’re seeing that in packaging, with lighter packaging and more efficient packaging."

The Infini bottle from the UK’s Nampak Plastics exemplifies the kind of lighter and more efficient packaging to
which Frye was referring. The company was awarded the Waste Minimization Award in 2013 and received the
accolade of “Green Product of the Year” at last year’s British Engineering Excellence Awards. In making this award, the judges stated, “The reduction in material used in the Infini bottle is very impressive and will have a significant environmental impact.”

When it comes to making a slimmer milk package, there are generally three ways that this can be done. Read more in the February issue of Dairy Foods, or download a copy here.

Making Milk Matter: Reinventing Fluid Milk for Today's Consumer

I was very excited to attend the National Milk Producers Federation and Dairy Management Inc. (DMI) Joint Annual Meeting (#JAM13 / #DairyChat / #AgChat) which took place at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix, AZ from Nov. 11 - 13.

As I have spent most of my dairy career working on various extended shelf life processing technologies and packaging systems for fluid milk, I was particularly interested to see this statement by Tom Gallagher, the CEO of  DMI in a letter sent to all Annual Meeting attendees, describing the dairy industry's long-term strategy for rejuvenating the category, "As we've sat at the table with dozens of industry leaders, they too have looked at the longer-term issues and have committed to addressing the fundamental inhibitors to and opportunities for growing fluid milk. In the coming years, there will be hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in plant infrastructure renewal, often focused on new extended shelf-life (ESL) and aseptic plant capabilities that will bring the right products to consumers." 

Indeed, ESL processed and packaged milk has already begun to play an important role in the dynamics of many dairy markets including the U.S., along with the rapid development of new processing and packaging concepts. However, while thermal processes such as pasteurization, UHT, and sterilization have a long history of use and are well defined by regulators, there is no similar definition of ESL milk products, and the methods that can be used in ESL milk processing operations. 

The lack of clarity in the definition of ESL processing alternatives is what prompted Dr Tatiana Koutchma and I to write an article focusing on various treatments for ESL, and the way in which new non-thermal UV (ultraviolet) treatment can improve the microbiological quality of both raw and pasteurized milk. This article entitled Shelf Life Enhancement Of Milk Products appears in the October issue of the IFT's Food Technology journal. 

The article covers the various types of thermal processing that are available for treatment of milk products to extend storage life of raw and pasteurized milk, as well as  innovative processing technologies such as bactofugation, microfiltration, and turbulent flow UV processing as adjunct treatments before and after pasteurization. 

Shelf life enhancement of milk products. from Gail Barnes

Shelf Life Enhancement Of Milk Products

Demands for longer shelf life and wider distribution of chilled milk products have resulted in the concept of extended shelf life or ESL milk. ESL milk has begun to play an important role in the dynamics of dairy markets along with the rapid development of new processing and packaging concepts.

The role of UV processing in extending the shelf life of milk.

While thermal processes such as pasteurization, UHT, and sterilization have a long history of use and are well defined by regulators, there is no similar definition of ESL milk products, and the methods that can be used in ESL milk processing operations. This article focuses on various treatments for chilled distribution and the way in which new nonthermal UV (ultraviolet) treatment can improve the microbiological quality of both raw and pasteurized milk.

Ultraviolet or UV photosterilization via turbulent UV technology is one of the promising novel nonthermal adjunct processes that could provide milk processors with a safe, energy-efficient, and cost-effective process to gain an added measure of quality and extended shelf life as compared to pasteurization. Studies from commercially available turbulent UV photosterilization systems such as SurePure have found that UV processing of raw milk can reliably achieve a 3–4 log 10 reduction of initial microbial load measured as standard plate, psychrotrophic, coliform, and thermoduric counts, and extend shelf life up to 14 days.

Shelf Life Enhancement Of Milk Products was co-authored by Tatiana Koutchma, Ph.D., Research Scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Guelph, Ontario, Canada and Gail Barnes, Ph.D., a member of IFT and  a Partner at Personify LLC.

Shelf life enhancement of milk products. from Gail Barnes