Category Archives: The Faces of Cornell Dairy Foods Extension

New Team Member of Dairy Foods Extension: Aljosa “Al” Trmcic

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Welcoming Aljosa Trmcic as
the Dairy Program Extension Associate

We are pleased to welcome Aljosa- or Al as we like to call him- to Cornell as the new Dairy Program Extension Associate where he will be immersed in all our extension and research activities including fluid milk Voluntary Shelf-Life (VSL) Program, our oldest program that marks the beginning of Milk Quality Improvement Program and Dairy Extension work at Cornell University.

Al is not all that new to Dairy Foods Extension.  During his time as a Postdoctoral Associate in Cornell’s Milk Quality Improvement Program he contributed to a number of on-site and off-site workshops as well as worked with two artisan cheese producers as part of Cornell’s dairy business incubator. Al is returning to join our team after working for nearly four years in different academic and government roles in Canada one of which was as a Food Safety and Dairy Specialist at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control.

Dr. Aljosa Trmcic received a degree in Food Technology from University of Ljubljana, Slovenia and a joined doctoral degree in Food Biotechnology from both University of Ljubljana and AgroParisTech, France. His is passionate about all aspects of food microbiology and has more than 10 years of research experience working with beneficial, spoilage and pathogenic microbes relevant to the dairy industry.

Although his work has involved a lot of detailed science he made sure to always remain connected to his basic training as a Food Technologist and the Dairy Industry. Through his work in four different countries he has been involved in different aspects of teaching, assessing, standardizing and implementing dairy production procedures as well as developing different dairy products.

 

Faces of Dairy Extension: Monika Crosby

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Faces of Dairy Extension: Monika Crosby
The newest member to Cornell Dairy Foods Extension team, Monika will act as the Program Aide assisting with the daily responsibilities and logistics of each food safety workshop.  
    Monika’s career within agriculture is deeply rooted within her family history.  Growing up on a small livestock farm outside of Penn Yan, NY she learned the value of hard work, patience, a good laugh and most importantly- understanding that within agriculture you are not only a steward of the land but the people & community within it.  
    Once receiving her bachelors degree from Penn State University in 2013, Monika went on to managing agricultural partnerships & produce procurement for Pennsylvania’s 2nd largest food bank.  Here Monika’s main focus was to develop new agricultural partnerships by reducing the unnecessary waste of perfectly good food for those in need.  Helping to rescue on average of 4-10 million pounds of produce each year.  And assisting in the development of new revenue source streams for local dairy farms within the state, which lead her back to her roots here in the Finger Lakes and to Cornell’s Dairy Foods Extension Team.

Faces of Dairy Foods Extension: Ariana Rojas

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My name is Ariana Rojas, I joined the Food Science Department this past June as a Technician for the Milk Quality Improvement Program to work on the Pasturized Milk Voluntary Shelf Life Program. I attended Cornell during undergrad as a transfer student after completing my first two years in Texas. I recently finished my Bachelor’s a month before joining the MQIP.

My day to day schedule is mostly filled with performing our routine testing of milk samples received from dairy plants across the north east. In order to help maintain high standards and low bacterial counts, I test samples between 4 and 6 times throughout their shelf life and monitor how and when spoilage happens. I then collaborate with the rest of the VSL team to work with plants on areas of improvement. That way we can have the best possible milk on store shelves for you!

Emeritus Professor James White comes to Reunion Weekend at 102 Years Old

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Professor James White pictured in front of the photo of himself that hangs in a conference room in Stocking Hall.  White ’39, Ph.D. ’44, first set foot in Stocking Hall when he arrived on campus as a freshman in 1934 to study bacteriology.

As faculty member in the former Department of Dairy Industry, he enriched the building with his expertise in milk safety and dairy engineering—and enlivened it with his flair for storytelling—until his retirement in 1972. A gift from Jay ’71, MEN ’72, and Julie Carter, HumEc ’71, that names this conference room for him ensures that his legacy will be honored in the newly renovated Stocking Hall.

Thank you for visiting, Professor White!

Dairy Foods Extension Welcomes New Harvest New York Dairy Processing and Marketing Specialist: Barbara Williams (Northern New York)

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Barbara Williams joins the Harvest NY team as the Northern NY Dairy Processing Specialist. Barbara earned a BS in Biological Sciences from Siena College in Loudonville, NY. She received her Certificate in Fluid Milk Processing for Quality & Safety from Cornell University in 2014. She is currently working towards her Masters of Science in Food Safety through Michigan State.

Previously, Barbara worked for HP Hood LLC for over 20 years. During her time with Hood, Barbara worked her way from part time lab technician to SQF Associate. Her responsibilities included being the plant SQF Practitioner, ensuring regulatory compliance, writing and maintaining both the Food Safety and Food Quality Plans, and maintaining the pre-requisite programs. She was also responsible for developing and implementing plant wide food safety training for all employees.

Barbara is looking forward to utilizing her experience in manufacturing, food safety planning and quality to assist dairy facilities of all sizes in Northern New York.

Barbara Williams: bw495@cornell.edu

Cell: 315-813-1250

 

Faces of Dairy Foods Extension: Marie Lawton

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Marie Lawton is a Ph.D. student studying Food Microbiology in the Alcaine Research Group at Cornell University. She graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a B.S. in Food Science in 2016. At Cornell, her research focuses on utilizing biopreservation methods to reduce food waste. She is currently working on producing a vinegar beverage from acid whey using yeast. A product like this could become popular on the market as a health tonic and would be made entirely from a waste stream. She is also looking at several lactic acid bacteria with antilisterial activity as an application to fresh cheese to protect against Listeria monocytogenes. In addition to research, Marie is Vice President of the Graduate Student Division of the American Dairy Science Association where she leads the Career Development Committee. As Marie works toward completing her degree she aspires to lead her own research program one day, contributing to cutting edge tools for food safety.

Faces of Dairy Foods Extension – Sofia Lara

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Faces of Dairy Foods Extension – Sofia Lara
Sofía is a master’s student in the Alcaine Research Group. She graduated from the University of Costa Rica with a bachelor’s degree in Food Engineering. Early in her undergraduate studies she decided to follow a career in dairy science, intrigued by the versatile field that relies on the integration of chemistry, microbiology, and engineering in order to produce desirable products.
Her current research focuses on dairy biopreservation. Specifically, her work involves investigating the application of lactose oxidase as an enzymatic preservative to improve the shelf life and safety of dairy products. In addition to research, Sofía is a trained dairy sensory panelist, where she has participated in national competitions and is currently the assistant coach of Cornell’s Dairy Products Sensory Evaluation Team.
Upon graduation, Sofía aspires to continue serving the dairy industry by developing products and applying new technologies in alignment with consumer needs, as well improving consumer education to promote dairy products consumption. She aims to innovate and help in transferring knowledge to the industry, not only to improve the processing and quality of food, but also to generate new opportunities for dairy producers.

Faces of Dairy Foods Extension – Miquela Hanselman

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Miquela graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in Animal Science, and is now a member of the inaugural Master of Public Health class at Cornell. The dairy industry has been a part of Miquela’s life ever since she was baby, as she grew up on a dairy farm with her six siblings in Delaware County, New York. Her parents, now with her three brothers, continue to operate Del-Rose Farm, the same farm that she grew up doing daily chores on. Whenever she has time, she goes home to lend a hand with milking the cows or feeding the calves.

Miquela is the lab technician working on the Voluntary Shelf Life program, and has found it an extremely rewarding experience. She loves being able to see this aspect of milk’s journey from farm to consumer.  Her background and education has made her very aware of the procedures for milk quality on the farm, but her work in this program has exposed her to procedures and milk quality at the processing level.

 

Miquela’s focus in her MPH program is food systems.  She hopes upon completion of her Masters in 2019, she will be able to tie her agriculture background and passion for the industry with a career that will help bridge the gap between producers and consumers, including the possibility of working in policy development. She firmly believes that the health of a population is tied not only to the access to food, but also to the knowledge and understanding of how food is produced.

Faces of Dairy Foods Extension – Erika K. Ganda

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Faces of Dairy Foods Extension – Erika K. Ganda

Post Doctoral Associate

Erika obtained her veterinary degree in Brazil in 2012 and her PhD in Animal Science at Cornell University in 2017. Since the beginning of her veterinary training, she has been interested in dairy cows not only from the clinical point of view, but was also fascinated by the many pieces that compose the dairy industry and their interplay.

During her PhD Erika employed molecular techniques to study the milk microbiome in dairy cows affected with mastitis, and the impact of antimicrobial treatment in mastitis cases caused by gram-negative bacteria. She is currently working on a project that aims to use Next Generation Sequencing to monitor dairy products throughout the processing chain for safety and quality.

Erika is passionate about problem solving, evidence-based decision making, knowledge transfer, and the use of cutting edge technology to generate knowledge and make a distinct impact in the dairy industry.

Faces of Dairy Foods Extension- Sam Reichler

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Faces of Dairy Foods Extension

Spotlight

Sam Reichler

Sam Reichler is a second year PhD student in the Milk Quality Improvement Program laboratory at Cornell. Sam began working in the lab in 2013, when he was an undergraduate earning his B.S. in food science. His past projects have focused on the growth of spore forming bacteria in fluid milk at refrigeration temperatures and on the spoilage of yogurt by yeast and mold. Sam is currently working with New York State dairy plants to detect and characterize the Gram negative bacteria in their milk responsible for post-pasteurization contamination and subsequent spoilage. His project’s goal is to implement corrective actions at the plant level, including novel cleaning and sanitation chemistry and modified worker behavior, that will improve the quality and shelf-life of fluid milk by reducing the instance of post-pasteurization contamination.