In celebration of World Milk Day, industry leaders today are raising their voices to rally around sustainable solutions that benefit the environment, human nutrition and the socio-economics of dairy production. 

Speaking to key players across the global lactosphere, FoodIngredientsFirst showcases the latest dairy highlights that include new antibiotic detection tech, cell-based dairy innovation in Europe, packaging solutions to curb wastewater, and the rising prominence of Asian milk brands.

“World Milk Day is an international day, which was established in 2001 by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to recognize the importance of milk as a global food,” comments Alejandro Cabal, vice president packaging solutions, Tetra Pak.

“This year’s World Milk Day focuses on the theme of sustainability and the dairy industry’s commitment to innovation to reduce its carbon footprint.”

Alice ODonovan, legal and policy advisor at the European Association of Dairy Trade (Eucolait), adds: “It is good to have a day that honors and highlights the EU’s largest agricultural sector and that we hope that EU policies will continue to enable to keep the milk moving.”

Addressing water scarcity and milk sector emissions 
While water scarcity is on the rise, wastewater in the dairy sector is increasingly becoming a pressing industry concern. Up to a fifth of Tetra Pak’s customers are based in high or extremely high-risk water areas, according to the packaging specialist.

Tetra Pak has unveiled its new UHT 2.0 heating portfolio and Tetra Pak E3/Speed Hyper packaging equipment for milk. These solutions are designed to help slash GHG emissions, as well as steam and water usage, while reducing operational costs by up to 30 percent.

The UHT 2.0 portfolio is combined with oneStep technology to processing steps out of the production line, without affecting end-product quality. oneStep removes the multiple steps of pasteurization and intermediate storage in the traditional process of preparing milk from powder before UHT treatment.

“In a single unbroken step, raw milk is preheated, separated, standardized and homogenized, before undergoing UHT treatment and regenerative cooling, and then transferred to the aseptic tank,” Cabal explains.

“By removing the pasteurization and intermediate storage steps, the processing time is shortened from as much as two days to just a few hours, and the operating costs cut by up to 50 percent compared with conventional line solutions (without oneStep technology).”

Adding a Water Filtering Station unit to Tetra Pak E3/Speed Hyper further helps recover 5500 L of water per filling machine running hour (up to 95 percent), while contributing to lower water consumption.

The launch follows Tetra Pak’s 2020 pledge to reach net zero emissions in its own operations by 2030, while achieving the same target across the value chain by 2050. Toward these targets, the company has committed at least €100 million (US$122.3 million) annually over the next five to ten years. 

Antibiotic residue detection in milk
In line with World Milk Day today, Royal DSM has launched Delvotest Accelerator Smart – a fully automated system designed to be used in combination with DSM’s internationally validated Delvotest plates to optimize antibiotic residue detection in milk, milk, cheese and yogurt.

The solution is designed to help milk control laboratories and dairies reduce costs, bolster accuracy and achieve faster, more reliable results, while also preventing milk loss and ensuring complete traceability.

As an all-in-one system, the solution requires no extra incubation or reading equipment.

To leverage the tool, technicians only need to start the incubation of the dairy sample, with no requirement to attend the device during the process – saving up to 40 minutes per plate. With a higher output of samples, the associated labor costs of testing milk are reduced.

In addition, the new Delvotest Accelerator Smart has a compact design, allowing multiple units to be connected to one computer. Easy to store and save space, laboratories of all sizes can access the same high-quality antibiotic residue testing – even wher space is at a premium.

“Consumers place their trust in the milk production industry to deliver safe and healthy milk and milk products, so it is essential that milk control laboratories and dairies ensure testing accuracy and reliability every time. But doing so efficiently and cost-effectively hasn’t always been possible,” comments Ana Lemos, global business manager of milk tests at DSM.

Asian milk brands gain global prominence
The Vietnam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company (Vinamilk) recorded a robust performance in 2020 despite the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

With revenue of US$2.6 billion in 2020 – an increase of 5.9 percent year-on-year – the company has jumped six notches among the Top 50 leading global dairy companies.

According to the 2021 ranking by UK-based business financial analyst Plimsoll Publishing, Vinamilk currently ranks 36th among the world’s Top 50 dairy producers by total sales.

Since 2017, the Vietnamese brand has become the only dairy producer in Vietnam and Southeast Asia to enter the Top 50, along with dairy companies from the US, New Zealand, and Europe.

In other Asian milk market developments, Chinese dairy giant Yili highlighted a year-over-year revenue increase of 32.49 percent, with total revenue in the first quarter reaching RMB 27.363 billion (US$4.3 billion).

Yili’s revenue hit RMB 96.886 billion (US$15.2 billion), while net profit attributable to its parent company was recorded at RMB 7.078 billion (US$1.1 billion).

After China announced its goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2060 last year, Yili responded by releasing its own vision of carbon neutrality and became the country’s first dairy company committed to do so.

Milking cell-based dairy potential
Spanish dairy specialist Pascual recently launched what is tipped as the first global incubation program for cellular agriculture technologies in the dairy industry. The program, Mylkcubator, is run by the group’s new Corporate Venture unit, Pascual Innoventures, which has been set up to support start-ups disrupting the milk value chain. 

Eatable Adventures, a prominent global food-tech accelerator, is lending support to Pascual in this program as a strategic partner. The goal is to enroll ten start-ups, entrepreneurs or scientific projects, with innovative dairy solutions within the following spaces: cell-based, fermentation based and applied technologies.

Pascual Innoventures aims to become an early stage investor for these start-ups, with the objective of incorporating them into its future business operations.

“The goal is to identify those start-ups that can create cell-based milk with at least the same nutritional value of traditional milk if not superior,” Sejal Ravji, director of Pascual Innoventures, tells FoodIngredientsFirst.

“Several components of milk are lost during the pasteurization process, these new processes could help recover these nutrients,” he explains.

“Milk is used as an ingredient in many food and pharmaceutical products. These biosynthetic processes will help create these ingredients in a more sustainable way.”