A variety of new products may soon tempt the American consumer into using and enjoying more milk in different forms, says Anthon Ernstrom, senior vice-president of the National Dairy Board.

The former Utah State University professor of nutrition and food science who is now in charge of the board's research programs, believes new and foreign types of cheeses, more frozen yogurt products, and possibly soft spreadable butter will be manufactured in this country in the future.

“There are ideas in the making and more new products to come, but if we discuss those” Ernstrom said, “people might expect to see them in the stores tomorrow and the new products aren’t there yet.”

“We can’t consume all the milk produced in Utah” said Ernstrom, “The future of Utah's dairy industry lies in its exported products. If cheese manufacturing is profitable then the future looks good.”

The National Dairy Promotion and Research Board was congressionally established by the Dairy and Tobacco Adjustment Act of 1983. The board consists of 36 dairy representatives appointed by the US secretary of agriculture. These representatives are from milk-producing regions all over the United States and they participate in developing and implementing advertising promotion education and research programs said Ernstrom.

The Western Dairy Foods Research Center established earlier this year at USU, is one of six research centers in the United States. Its purpose is to stimulate research for new uses for dairy products and to improve the quality and safety of dairy products for human consumption, said Ernstrom. It will receive 8,400,000 per year for five years from the National Dairy Board which is funded by a 15-cent assessment on every 100 pounds of milk produced in the United States.

“One of the interesting things is Utah State University has had an excellent record for implementing research findings” said Ernstrom, “Our pH-control starter system is now in wide use in many cheese factories This system is less expensive than the cost of preparing bacterial starters to make cheese. It's also a more efficient system and more uniform”

Ernstrom added: "Another one we’ve done here is the use of ultra-filtration for making cheese curd for use in processed cheese “Schreiber Foods in Arizona ships cheese curd to Logan to be converted to processed cheese The advantage is about a 15-percent greater yield of cheese curd because we recover all the fat and most of the protein out of the milk.

“Another thing we’ve done here is develop a cheese yield pricing system for milk so farmers can get paid for their milk on the basis of how much cheese it will produce” said Ernstrom “We can predict the amount of cheese by knowing the fat content of the milk and the protein content of the milk” Some of the dairy center’s research projects at USU are concerned with cheese and whey techniques use of cottage cheese cause of bitterness in Cheddar cheese negative starter cultures and waste disposal from dairy production plants said Ernstrom

“Some research projects have been completed others are going very well and some are in the making” he said. Ernstrom hopes new techniques will give dairy manufacturers a better profit margin and new products will encourage consumers to buy more dairy foods. This will help dairy farmers sell more milk at a better price and help reduce the milk surplus.

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