Since the consumer's appraisal of a glass of milk is based solely on taste, flavor and keeping quality are of paramount importance to maintaining consumption of fluid milk and by-products.
For the past 5 years, the New York State Milk Flavor Program has identified off-flavor problem areas to the industry, particularly with regard to the farm supply. There has been a marked improvement where companies and the college have cooperated. Emphasis now is being placed on getting the finished product protected to the highest degree in an effort to improve shelf life. The program is carried out primarily by the Quality Control staffs currently employed by industry. This force is assisted by the extension staff in the Department of Food Science at Cornell in the following ways: (a) individual plant seminars for each plant or company participating in the program; (b) follow-up sessions to help solve special problems, to evaluate progress, and to maintain interest and enthusiasm; and (c) direct contact with top management to evaluate shelf life performance, route returns, relationships with non-owned outlets, and promotion of extra high quality dairy products.
Nadia Wassef. Shelf Life: Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York, NY, 2021. 240 pp., $27.00, Hardcover. ISBN: 9780374600181