June 7-8^th Cornell will be offering its 6^th Yogurt and Fermented Dairy Products Course. The course is designed for yogurt and fermented dairy product manufacturing employees, and provides a basic level of understanding for the science behind fermentation and yogurt manufacturing. The course is required for our Basic Yogurt and Fermented Dairy Products Certificate Program. Last year, we were able to make this course multi-modal. Because it is a time intensive course, we recorded a portion of the content into online modules that can be done remotely before coming to campus. This helps improve the flexibility of the course and lessens the burden of time on campus for attendees and their respective organizations. If you are interested in attending this class, please visit our website: http://dairyextension.foodscience.cornell.edu/

Beginning in March, current Cornell students have had the opportunity to take a class led by Carmela Beliciu, where they practice evaluating the sensory properties of different dairy products. Sensory evaluation skills are very important to dairy industry professionals in assessing product quality and potential processing opportunities. Students who participate in the Sensory Evaluation of Dairy Products class have the opportunity to attend several Collegiate Dairy Product Evaluation competitions a year.

On April 12-14^th, Cornell sent 3 students; Ivania Hartanto, Clint Hervert and Caroline Kesselem to the 3^rd Annual Student Dairy Showcase in Milwaukee, Wisconsin which is part of the 2016 International Cheese Technology Expo. Cornell was 1 of 5 Universities represented at the showcase, where the students and judges evaluated cheese, butter and yogurt produced at participating University Creameries. The Student Dairy Showcase is a great opportunity for students to receive feedback on their sensory evaluation skills from expert technical judges while networking with dairy industry personnel from all over the world! Cornell’s dairy products (made with student involvement) taken to the show included the signature Cornell Big Red Cheddar (aged 1 year), the new prototype, CamemBear and Cornell Greek Yogurt. All three of these products received very high scores (+96) and where highly lauded by the judges.

The students’ comments on the sensory evaluation program (below) show the importance of engaging and exposing future industry leaders to these types of events with professionals in the industry.

“As an active member of Cornell University’s dairy sensory evaluation team, the Student Dairy Showcase offered numerous opportunities to interact with industry leaders while exhibiting our excellent dairy products. The Cheese Expo and Student Dairy Showcase was an excellent experience and I would like to thank the individuals both inside and outside of our Department that made the trip possible.”  Clint Hervert

“Aside from the fact that we ended up with really great scores, it was an awesome experience to learn about the dairy evaluation process from the judges. They walked us through their reactions of our products and the scoring that went along with them. I feel more knowledgeable about the dairy sensory process because of their interactions with us. They were very encouraging about certain things that could be changed to make our cheese even better.”   Caroline Kesselem

“This was part of the 2016 International Cheese Technology Expo, a big event, where you can update with the new technology and try the best cheeses from the world. Overall, as a food science student, I found this experience very rewarding. It was such a great event both to learn about cheese and to build network within the cheese business. I am grateful to have this opportunity and even more, proud to showcase Cornell’s dairy products.”  Ivania Hartanto

We would like to acknowledge and thank those who have donated thus far to support this program:

Great Lakes Cheese

The 1,200 Farm Families of Agrimark/Cabot/McCadam

Northeast Dairy Foods Association Boosters

Northeast Dairy Foods Association Board of Directors

The Opportunities and Challenges of Marketing toward Millennial Shoppers

The food industry is and has been changing rapidly over the last few years, and for a good reason.  The Millennial generation has begun to mature to a point where many of them are “Primary Grocery Shoppers”. Having grown up in a world where information gathering and communication can happen at a high rate of speed, Millennials can gain exposure to new things more rapidly than any other generation of shoppers before them. This generation is characterized as more adventurous, and according to Barkely’s study, “American Millennials: Deciphering the Enigma Generation” about half of millennials believe interesting or exotic foods are an important component of picking a grocery store. In terms of branding, 51% of Millennials report buying brands that are reflective of their, “style or personality”. Millennials are essentially personalizing their food choices, and this causes very large changes for marketers. When we translate this to the dairy industry, Millennial shoppers have provided tremendous opportunity for new and exciting dairy products.

In order to accommodate for the increase in personalization of food choices, marketers have been differentiating products more than ever before. Consumers want more differentiation and excitement, and it makes good business sense to give consumers what they want. During the yogurt boom we have seen supermarkets extend their shelves with hundreds of new SKUs of yogurt. Greek yogurt, Australian style yogurt, organic yogurt and probiotic yogurt are just some of the ways products have been differentiated to hit different target markets. This is of great benefit to the dairy industry. Yogurt is well regarded as a healthy product. Therefore, any type of yogurt consumption further promotes dairy and provides more outlets for milk. This type of product innovation is what can really help drive an industry.

However, in an effort to appeal to Millennials through differentiation, have we as an industry segmented the market to a point where consumers feel they do not trust the dairy industry? For example, regular fluid milk is getting caught in this marketing crossfire. Some fluid milk labels now read that they are free of antibiotics. People privy to the dairy industry realize that every single load of milk is tested for antibiotics, and if antibiotics are detected, the load is dumped. Marketers have begun to see this fact as a call-out opportunity for their individual product and have innocently included it on their label. The reality of this situation is that when a consumer sees one brand of milk that is labeled as not containing antibiotics, and another brand sitting next to it not having the same disclaimer, won’t they wonder why antibiotics are supposedly in that milk supply? And, in order to keep up, won’t all milk labels start reading that they are free of antibiotics? Won’t shoppers then wonder why antibiotics would be in their milk at all? As a millennial, if I knew nothing about the dairy industry, I would pull out my smart phone and google the issue – and what I read may be a fact or be far from the reality of what happens on a dairy farm or in a manufacturing environment.

The same issue can be paralleled to conventional milk products versus organic milk products. Organic farming is an opportunity for the dairy industry to differentiate, and it fits into a certain segment of target consumers. With this being said, does it do any good for conventional and organic advocates to attack each other on practices? A certain amount of controversy over this issue is expected, as there is a difference in fundamental agricultural practices. However, when facts become distorted to appeal to consumers, distrust is bred.

There is a famous quote, “Trust takes years to build, seconds to break, and forever to repair.” While this may be typically referenced toward personal relationships – the same can be said for dairy industry’s relationship with the consumer. As a proponent of all types of dairy production and manufacturing, I would urge efforts to differentiate products not be at the expense of breaking consumers’ trust.

*Anika Zuber has experience working in the dairy processing industry as well as the grocery retail industry *The views and opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily reflective of Cornell University*