2012 Annual Report
2. Dairy Science and Processing Technologies: Basic and applied research is conducted on the processing, preservation and storage of milk, dairy foods, and milk-based food ingredients to enhance their nutrition and health-promoting properties, quality, functionality, safety, and sustainability. Collaborative research may be conducted to develop processing methods to modify the levels of biologically active compounds in milk and milk products; evaluate the quality traits of specialty cheeses and relate flavor and texture to consumer preferences; develop sustainable strategies to lower the environmental impact of dairy operations but maintain the nutrition of milk; and, develop technologies to enhance health properties of modified milk protein products. Collaborative research in lactic acid bacteria genetics and biotechnology may also be conducted to identify dairy starter and probiotic cultures with improved and useful biocatalytic properties for dairy product manufacture; and to develop food grade microorganisms and their natural products to process quality, safe and nutritious dairy products.
1) On November 29, 2011, Dr. Neal Martin hosted a delegation of northern Chinese dairy leaders at the U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center, Madison, WI. He gave a presentation on forage analysis. The delegation’s trip to the United States was organized by World Wide Sires of Visalia, CA. 2) ARS-DFFRU scientists collaborate with Northeast Agricultural University (NEAU), National Key Laboratory of Dairy Science, Harbin, China. The NEAU collaborator completed a 1-year sabbatical, ending in 2010. Significant research achievements include: production of a reduced-sodium Hispanic style cheese that maintains the flavor and safety of the high-sodium counterpart. 3) ARS-DFFRU collaborated with a graduate of NEAU, Harbin, and now with the College of Food Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Finance and Economics. The collaborator completed a 2-year sabbatical, focusing on the production of antimicrobial peptides by lactic acid bacteria with potential for uses as natural food preservatives, and the molecular mechanism with peptide synthesis to improve production and extend the range of applications.