UMC Students Study Value-Added Dairy Foods
Consumers are demanding quality and variety in dairy foods, and producers are looking for ways to add value to their operations. Jason Bock, Osakis; Matthew Geiser, New York Mills; Amy Hedman, Crookston; Darcy Johnson, Kerkhoven; Keith Legatt, St. Joseph; Amber Moen; Glenwood; Jostin Phillips, Thief River Falls; Angie Pommerening; Hastings; Brian Ronholdt, Murdock and Julie Schlossberg, Crookston, all students at the University of Minnesota, Crookston, (UMC) recently traveled to Winnipeg for a first-hand look the opportunities and technologies in value-added dairy processing.
In the dairy industry, quality products require quality ingredients. But according to Dr. Lyle Westrom, associate professor of dairy at UMC, there’s much more. Careful processing using sophisticated equipment and controls is necessary to make cheese, yogurt, and other good tasting and healthful dairy products.
These students enrolled UMC’s Dairy Products class went to the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg to learn how fresh milk is processed into high quality dairy products. Families want quality, but they want variety too. So the class helped make Saskatoon Berry ice cream which, if successful, would create a new market for another agricultural crop.
According to Westrom, students often learn more by seeing and doing than by reading and listening. That’s how UMC students are learning to make great processed products that consumers want to buy, and that add value to the milk our dairy farms produce.
Posted 04/29/99 by Andrew Svec
Author and Contact: Barbara Weiler, 218-281-8435