Located at Cornell’s campus in Ithaca, New York, the centre will concentrate on fluid milk and dairy ingredient research.
Both these research areas are priorities for the not-for-profit US Dairy Research Institute, which is affiliated with the Innovation Center for US Dairy.
Work will also be done at Cornell on applications and technical support for improvement in milk powder quality to help establish the “next generation” of dairy ingredients.
Co-ordinated national research
The purpose of the programme is to provide a unified, co-ordinated national research programme to make the best use of dairy research and development (R&D) resources.
The NEDFRC has also announced a new short course programme, dedicated to dairy food safety and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP).
Short course training will also be available in dairy processing, with a specific focus on fluid milk processing, cheese making and artisan dairy production.
Dave Barbano, director, Northeast Dairy Foods Research Center, said that the centre had a long history of providing basic and applied research outcomes to help drive sector innovation.
“For instance, filtration technology for milk protein fractionation and ingredient applications has been a major focus of the Northeast center, as milk is a rich source of nutrients that can be fractionated into a wide range of components and used as ingredients to boost the protein value of foods and beverages,” he added.
"This and other planned research could change how dairy processing plants perform their work.”
Accelerate product opportunities
Dairy Research Institute president, Gregory Miller, said: “We are pleased to partner with Cornell University for their widely recognized expertise in milk powders, fluid milk, filtration and food safety.”
Miller added that the partnership would allow the institute to make better use of Cornell’s technical insights for its strategic initiatives and “accelerate new product opportunities for dairy processors and the entire food and beverage industry”.
Skip Hardie, owner of Hardie Farms in Lansing, New York also serves on the board of Dairy Management, which manages the US national dairy check-off (an industry-funded scheme to drive demand for dairy products and ingredients) and directs R&D funding priorities.
Hardie said: “With Cornell and the Northeast Dairy Foods Research Center in the national dairy research plan, dairy producers can further leverage producer investments in sound nutrition, product and technical research in ways that benefit the entire industry.”
The US National Dairy Foods Research Program has research centers in New York, California and Wisconsin, as well as in the Midwest, Southeast and West of the country.
Each center is equipped with a dairy pilot plant and facilities for dairy- product, ingredient, processing and packaging research.