The Dairy Processing and Products Research Unit

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The Dairy Processing and Products Research Unit

• Dr. Peggy M. Tomasula
• Research Leader
• USDA/ARS/ERRC/DPPRU
• 600 E. Mermaid Ln
• Wyndmoor, PA 19038
• 215-233-6703

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Management Units

• Crop Conversion Science Engineering - Kevin
  Hicks
• Dairy Processing and Products Peggy Tomasula
• Fats, Oils, Animal Co-Products - Bill Marmer
• Food Safety Intervention Technologies Don
  Thayer
• Microbial Biophysics Residue Chemistry Shu-I
  Tu
• Microbial Food Safety John Luchansky

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Resources - Unique Facilities

• Food, Dairy, Bioengineering Pilot Plants
• Leather Research Tannery
• Wool Utilization Research Laboratory
• Botulism Research Laboratory

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Resources - Unique Facilities

• Irradiation Laboratories
• Cesium-137, Gamma Radiation, 1 Million Curies
• Fruit Processing Pilot Plant (BL-2)
• Pathogen Compatible Food Processing Suite (BL-2)

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Resources - Core Technologies

• - Research Data Systems Unit Bill Damert
• - Microscopic Imaging Unit Peter Cooke
• - Scientific Information Resources Unit Wendy
  Kramer
• - Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Unit Janine
  Brouillette
• - Nucleic Acid Sequencing Unit Connie Briggs

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Technology Transfer Partnership
Collaborators Interests
ARS Mission
Area of Interaction
Jerry Crawford, Ph.D. Technology Transfer
Coordinator
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The Dairy Processing and Products Research Unit
http//www.arserrc.gov/dp
Mission To apply knowledge of the chemistry of
milk to the development of new methods and
processes to increase its utilization and
safety.
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Who is the Dairy Processing and Products Research
Unit and What Do We Do?
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The Dairy Processing and Products Research Unit

• Only group in ARS doing postharvest research on
  milk farm to table
• Over 60 years of pioneering research on dairy
  science, specialized instrumentation, and new
  process development
• Perform long term research only
• Personnel 13 researchers chemists, engineers,
  food scientists, molecular biologists and 13
  support scientists

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Types of Dairy Research at ERRC

• Dairy Food Processing and Development
• Dairy Starter Culture/Biotechnology
• Dairy Food Quality and Preservation
• Dairy Food Science and Technology
• Biosecurity of Milk and Dairy Products
• Support USDA and other action agencies (School
  Lunch Program, Food for Peace, APHIS, the
  Military)
• Share expertise and resources with our
  stakeholder groups, our customers, and
  universities through CRADAS, trust agreements,
  and licenses.

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Selected Accomplishments ERRC Dairy Program

• Reduced lactose and lactose-free milk (Lactaid)
  and other products

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Low-fat Mozzarella Cheese

• ERRC Mozzarella cheese has lt 10 fat, melts well
  and has good texture.
• Used by the School Lunch Program, sales have
  reached over 23M pounds with an estimated value
  of 34.5M.

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DPPRU Collaborators
Universities
ARS Athens Beltsville NCAUR Penn
State PIADC Other Govt APHIS FDA Natick Foreign C
IAD, Mex Moorepark Embrapa, Br.
Stakeholder Groups NMPF DFA DMI IDFA
Cal Poly Cornell Fort Valley St. Langston North
Carolina St Penn State Rutgers University of
Arkansas University of Delaware University of
Hawaii University of Wisconsin Utah State
University
Companies Devine Foods EnerGenetics Grande
Cheese MM Mars SMBI Dupont AirLiquide
The Dairy Processing and Products Research Unit,
ERRC
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Current Project Titles
Molecular Basis for Improved Milk Protein Based
Dairy Products
Use of Novel Processing Methods to Develop
Specialty Cheeses With Unique Functional
Properties
New and Improved Processes to Foster Utilization
of Milk Components
Development of Lactic Fermentation Bacteria for
the Production of Bioactive Food Ingredients
Protein Processing Using High Pressure Gases
and Supercritical Fluids
Biosecurity of Milk from the Farm to the Dairy
Processing Plant
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Processing Methods for Specialty Cheese with
Unique Functional Properties Lead Scientist
D. VanHekken M. Tunick D. Olson A. Bricker
P. Tomasula
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Why Hispanic-Style Cheeses?

• Growing Hispanic population in the US and a
  demand for this style of cheese for use by the
  food service industry.
• Functional and textural property data for these
  cheeses do not exist. No standard of identity
  definitions.
• Many are fresh style varieties and techniques are
  needed to extend their shelf-life for sale in the
  US and ensure their safety.

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Objectives

• Establish the properties of 3 selected
  Hispanic-style cheeses made from raw or
  pasteurized milk.
• Determine influence of proteolytic breakdown
  system on the properties of the cheeses by either
  starter culture or indigenous microflora.
• Identify the cheesemaking steps that are key
  elements in
• developing the desired characteristics in
  these cheeses and that meet US standards and
  retain properties of raw milk cheeses.
• Develop cheesemaking procedures to extend the
  shelf life of selected fresh
  Hispanic style cheeses.
• Determine the flavor components and generate
  flavor profiles to define the cheeses. Identify
  microorganisms in the raw milk cheeses and
  evaluate their impact on flavor development.

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Characterize Hispanic-style cheeses - pasteurized
milk

• Cheeses of interest
• Soft - Queso Blanco, Queso Fresco, Panela
• Semi-hard - Asadero, Oaxaca, Menonita/Chihuahua
  
• Hard - Cotija

• Properties of interest
• - Functional - melt, color change
• - Textural - TPA, torsion, viscoelastic

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Soft cheeses

• Queso Blanco, Queso Fresco, Panela
• High moisture (45-58), full fat (18-30),
• protein (17-22), salt 1-3
• pH 6.3
• Does not melt
• Good slicing and crumbling properties

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Queso Blanco acid or rennet set
Queso Fresco rennet set, curd finely milled
before salting
Panela Combination acid and rennet set, CaCl2
added
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Semi-hard Cheeses

• Asadero, Oaxaca, Mennonita/Quesadilla/Chihuahua
• medium moisture 40-48, full fat 18-30
• protein 21-30, salt 0.8-2.3
• pH 5.0-5.5
• Mesophilic starter cultures, rennet set
• Excellent melt and slicing properties

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Asadero add acid whey after rennet Pasta filata
step
Oaxaca Pasta filata step
Mennonita Cheddar step
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Collaboration with researchers at Centro de
Investigacion en Alimentacion y
Desarrollo, Cuauhtemoc, (CIAD) Chihuahua, Mexico
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Functional Properties

• Examine cooking properties
• Melting ability
• Color changes when broiled or baked

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Meltability
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Mexican Mennonite cheeses made in Chihuahua,
Mexico

• Raw vs pasteurized milk
• Cheeses from 13 manufacturers

• Evaluated
• Composition
• Rheological properties

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Rheological Properties

• Shear Rigidity (kPa)
• Range Average
• raw 11-52 36
• pasteurized 24-72 49

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Sensory

• Training panelists at ERRC to identify flavors in
  fresh Hispanic-style cheeses.

Collaboration with MaryAnne Drake, NCSU
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Sensory Data for a Hispanic Cheese

• Basic and young flavors
  Aged flavors

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Preliminary Composition Data
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Texture of Chihuahua Cheese

• How well do the Chihuahua Chester cheeses
  cluster

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Food Safety Focal Points at ERRC
Interventions

• Chemical (Na Lactate)
• Mechanical (Design change)

• Physical (Irradiation)
• Biological (LAB)

Fabricate
Process
Slaughter

• Raw Material

Finished Product
Recovery/Characterization
Modeling

• Biosensors (Micro. Immuno)
• Nucleic Acid (PCR, PFGE)
• Genomics Proteomics

• Predictive Microbiology
• (PMP, ComBase, CEMMI)

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DPPRU Projects

• Determination of effectiveness of pasteurization
  in elimination of FMD Virus from milk with Plum
  Island Animal Disease Center
• Evaluation of microbial pathogen food safety of
  fresh cheeses Queso Fresco- shelf life studies,
  and interventions - with Microbial Food Safety
  RU.

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ERRC Food Safety Collaborative Projects - Brazil

• Collaboration with Embrapa Dairy Cattle Center
  and the Dairy Technology Institute
• Developing specifications and evaluating safety
  of soft cheeses.
• Bacteriocins with activity against Salmonella and
  Listeria
• Survey of Food Safety Farm to Slaughter for
  Salmonella, Listeria, and E.Coli 0157H7.

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In Summary

• The Dairy Processing and Products RU at ERRC
  maintains a multidisciplinary group of dairy
  professionals
• To respond to the critical needs of our
  stakeholders
• To anticipate the needs of the dairy industry by
  incorporating new ideas in chemistry and
  biotechnology into processing, for the consumer
  of tomorrow
• To ensure the continued quality, utilization and
  safety of milk and milk products

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U. S. Whey Products Range
0.37 - 5.00/ kg
1.5-2.0/ kg
gt500
1-10/ kg
0.35-0.50/ kg
Modified Wheys
Whey Fractions
WPCs
Lactose
Sweet whey
Permeate
WPIs
Feed Food Pharma
5-6.0/kg
Calcium
Lactose derivatives
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New and Improved Processes to Foster Utilization
of Milk Components Lead Scientist C.
Onwulata R. Konstance

• Objectives
• Develop thermal and non-thermal extrusion-based
  processes
• that denature and functionalize milk
  proteins to create texturized
• casein and whey protein ingredients.
• Develop process protocols for texturizing milk
  proteins through
• non-extrusion shear processes.

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Why Extrusion?

• A twin-screw extruder, with its shearing screws
  operating at various speeds, uses mechanical and
  heat energy to cook, mix, pump and ultimately
  change the texture of dairy products.
• Low shear processing for pasta and doughs
• High-shear processing for puffed products

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Research Approach

• Use new extrusion processing techniques to create
  texturized products based mainly on whey and
  nonfat dry milk
• Use other shear based processes that manipulate
  the structure of whey proteins with other food
  ingredients.

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Potential Products

• Simulated Meat Products
• Meat extenders
• Functionalized protein products for inclusion in
  snack foods and meal-replacement bars

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Protein Processing Using High Pressure Gases and
Supercritical Fluids

• Lead Scientist PM Tomasula MF Kozempel
• Objectives
• Design a new environmentally-benign process for
  producing
• enriched fractions of the whey proteins
• Develop new environmentally-benign processes for
  dairy
• protein modification that utilize
  supercritical fluids as reac-
• tion media and carriers.
• Develop new, cost effective technologies for
  processing
• protein fractions into non-food products

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Why Use Carbon Dioxide?

• Its an environmentally benign solvent in large
  supply its cheap its GRAS and it can be
  reclaimed for re-use in the process.

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Research Approach

• Use high pressure and supercritical carbon
  dioxide in new processes
• to isolate casein from milk
• to produce enriched fractions of the whey
• proteins
• modify dairy proteins for food applications
• And
• Investigate processing of dairy proteins for
• nonfood applications

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Potential Products

• Increased utilization of milk and whey by
  creation of new protein products
• New technologies for dairy protein utilization
• Increased utilization of milk and milk products
  in nonfood products

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Development of Lactic Fermentation Bacteria for
the Production of Bioactive Food
Ingredients Lead Scientist G. Somkuti
Objectives

• Develop lactic fermentation bacteria with the
  capacity to
• overproduce biologically active ingredients
  from milk
• proteins for improving the nutraceutical,
  functional and
• biopreservative properties of dairy foods
• Develop techniques for optimized and cost
  effective
• production of milk protein components by
  microbial
• technology and assess their impact on the
  quality and
• marketability of value-added dairy foods.

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What are Bioactive Peptides?

• Bioactive peptides are the peptides generated
  from the native proteins in milk during the
  digestion process when milk or other dairy
  products are consumed. However, they are produced
  in small quantities.

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Properties of Bioactive Peptides

• Antihypertensive
• Antithrombotic
• Opioid
• Immunomodulatory
• Antitumor
• Antimicrobial

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Research Approach

• Use lactic fermentation bacteria to produce
• large quantities of bioactive peptides for
  the
• food and pharmaceutical companies.

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Molecular Basis for Improved Milk Protein Based
Dairy Products Lead Scientist H. Farrell P.
Hoagland P. Qi E. Malin Objective To
elucidate the basic milk protein structural
motifs responsible for
protein-protein interactions in milk
and dairy products, especially for lowfat
cheeses. Physical-chemical
basis for protein functionality is
evaluated and computer molecular models are
used to augment
interpretation of the structural information
at the molecular level.
Environmental factors influencing
protein folding and micelle assembly in vitro
are used to predict milk
protein secretion in vivo.
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Molecular Modeling

• Provides knowledge of the molecular basis for
  structure/function behavior of dairy products and
  the ability to predict this behavior.
• Especially useful in the design of low-fat
  products where the functionality of the product
  relies on protein-protein interactions that
  replace the role of the fat.