Industry Insights
- September 22, 2023
by Steve Funk | Senior Cheese Technologist at Nelson-Jameson
Cultures and enzymes are biological catalysts for dairy product production, but they’re also catalysts for the dairy industry as a whole. These hard-working elements work quietly behind the scenes to strengthen the industry’s brand reputation, increase dairy product market share, and delight consumers.
As the industry continues to adapt to changes and face new and long-standing challenges, cultures and enzymes help dairy advocates respond with answers. The trend toward plant-based alternatives is answered with vegetarian enzymes. Interest in health and wellness is answered with cultures that stimulate the probiotic benefits of yogurts, kefirs, and other cultured dairy. Here are five ways that cultures and enzymes are helping dairy processors.
Consumer Trends: Year after year, dairy processors aim to strike a balance between tradition and innovation. Consumers
- April 11, 2022
Nelson-Jameson is a proud member of the Innovation Center for US Dairy. The Center and its members have a common goal “to advance a shared social responsibility platform and demonstrate U.S. dairy’s collective commitment to provide the world responsibly produced dairy foods that nourish people, strengthen communities and foster a sustainable future.”
Nelson-Jameson and the Center have a combined passion for furthering food safety in our nation. Recently, the Center published a terrific food safety resource for the dairy industry that includes numerous Spanish language materials. Resources to take advantage of include: interactive training courses for artisan ice cream and cheesemakers, food safety plan writing assistance, training support, pathogen guidance documents, and much
- December 04, 2020
A light snow falls on a cold December afternoon. Up pulls the delivery person with a parcel for you. As you eagerly await them to make their way up to the entryway, you can’t
- August 19, 2020
Have you heard the term Annatto before? You're probably wondering if it's a fun tropical island you can travel to, or maybe even an article of clothing you can wear, but really, it's something that is more prevalent in your daily life than you had imagined.
Annatto is a type of food coloring made from the seeds of the achiote tree. It ranges from yellow to red-orange in hue, depending on the application and dosage rate, and is a staple in the food and beverage industry. It is also considered a staple in the dairy industry because it is stable, economical, and comes in a wide variety of forms, including powder, paste, liquid, and essential oils, making it applicable for use in
- August 19, 2020
Annatto extract is a carotenoid color extracted from the coatings of seeds from the tropical achiote shrub and can be either oil-soluble (bixin) or water-soluble (norbixin). It ranges from yellow to red-orange in hue depending on the application and dosage rate, and is a staple in the food and beverage industry. Annatto is stable, economical, and comes in a wide variety of forms, making it appropriate for use in almost any application. Available as powders and liquids, in both water soluble and oil soluble formulations along with Certified Organic liquid.
Other colors from natural sources like fruits, vegetables and seeds result in beautiful natural colors that meet the needs of consumers and manufacturers alike. Consumer interest in healthier products is shifting towards more natural ingredients. To meet the demand for safe and sustainable food, Nelson-Jameson can offer options for your color application.
Contact our Ingredients Specialists for more information at (800)
- July 14, 2020
To craft cheeses with precise flavors and textures tailored to specific markets, cheesemakers must carefully select cultures, adjuncts, and coagulants. The choice of coagulant is particularly crucial for cheeses like pasta filata, cheddar, and continental varieties, where texture, sliceability, and shredability significantly impact productivity and profitability. Selecting a coagulant enzyme with low proteolytic activity, specifically targeting k-casein, enhances texture, moisture distribution, and sliceability, leading to reduced waste during slicing. Coagulants also play a pivotal role in flavor development by supporting cheese ripening and preventing the hydrolysis of β-caseins, avoiding bitter off-flavors. dsm-firmenich Ingredients, through products like Delvo®Cheese starter cultures and Delvo®ADD adjuncts, provides cheesemakers with the tools to optimize texture and taste, meeting the demands of diverse markets. Maxiren® and Fromase® from dsm-firmenich cater to
- June 04, 2020
Food safety truly is a collective effort. From the farm to the table, ensuring food safety is a way we can reaffirm our investment in, and care
- August 08, 2018
Nelson-Jameson is proud to partner with Valcour Process Technologies to provide our customers with the equipment needed to inspect a wide assortment of product to prevent contamination. The Shield Allegro is a powerful X-ray inspection system that provides a higher level of inspection over traditional metal detectors.
While metal detectors provide reliable and robust contaminant detection technology, X-ray inspection technology
helps to ensure improved product quality by providing these additional benefits:- Designed to inspect a wide assortment of packages up to 450 mm (17.7") wide and 254 mm (10") high. Products are typically inspected after packaging but can be inspected as raw product or packaged in a box.
- Detects smaller sizes of stainless steel (2-2.5 mm vs. 6-8 mm), as well as a variety of other contaminants that aren't possible with a metal detector.
- Easy to use, 17" touch screen display provides a digital trail of images for each product
- May 16, 2017
In February I had the opportunity to attend the “Artisan Dairy Producer Food Safety Initiative Workshop” to learn about the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) along with other leaders in the dairy industry here in Wisconsin. It was put on by the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association and was offered at no expense thanks to a generous grant from USDA-NIFA. Marianne Smukowski, from the Center for Dairy Research (CDR) and Matt Mathison from the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board (WMMB) were the trainers for the workshop. The workshop was a brief overview of the expectations that the FDA has put before every business in the food industry, from the large to the small plants. This workshop was geared towards the dairy industry, focusing on the hazards that arise, and how to put a detailed plan together to prevent them. One of the hazards that was of special interest, especially due to the sheer amount of news coverage that it has gotten in the previous months, was the elimination and prevention
- May 08, 2017
The National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments (NCIMS) is scheduled to meet in May 12-17 in Grand Rapids, Michigan and will be considering a proposal for lowering the maximum allowable somatic cell count (SCC) in milk to 400,000 cells per milliliter. The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) has long been a proponent of lowering the SCC threshold to 400,000 cells/ml. The current threshold is 750,000 cells per milliliter. The European Union (EU) and other countries have adopted the 400,000 cell/ml standard, placing import bans on any dairy products sourced from farms with SCCs above that level.
SCC levels measure dead white blood cells in milk, an indication of mammary gland infections. Lower levels of somatic cells indicate higher quality milk. Some federal milk marketing orders have a 350,000 cells/ml threshold to determine milk quality premiums. Dairy processors believe that lower SCC thresholds impact cheese yield, taste and shelf life.
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