The Cornell Milk Quality Improvement Program

At some point in your life, you’ve probably smelled spoiled milk. In fact, you’re probably remembering the rancid odor right now. It can be hard to forget. While this typically happens because you forgot the milk was in the fridge, there’s a chance the milk came that way. 

The good news for consumers of New York State milk, the Cornell Milk Quality Improvement Program (MQIP) is working behind the scenes to keep dairy products at their freshest. The scientists and extension agents in the MQIP support dairy processors  to help ensure the safety and quality of dairy products for. Let’s look at the MQIP and how it’s helping dairy farmers, processors, and consumers in New York. 

History of The Milk Quality Improvement Program

The Department of Dairy was founded in 1903 and has since gone through several name changes. In 1960, the name was changed to The Department of Dairy and Food Science. In 1966, the word dairy was dropped altogether to make The Department of Food Science, which is what it’s called today. 

Even without dairy in the name, The Department of Food Science still has a large focus on dairy research because of the importance of the dairy industry as the largest agricultural commodity in NY and through the continued support of the NY Dairy Promotion Board. This has allowed studies and research to be done on milk processing, quality and safety at Cornell. In fact, a professor at Cornell named W. Frank Shipe started doing research on milk quality and flavor in the 1960s. 

During his research, Shipe found that the flavor and quality of more than half the milk in New York was getting customer complaints within a week of processing. Over a third of that milk had rancid flavor defects due to oxidization. Simply put, Shipe found that a lot of the milk being sold to consumers didn’t taste good, and it needed to be fixed. Thus, the Milk Flavor Program was born. 

In 1972, the Dairy Promotion board funded the first project within the Department of Food Science. Through this grant the Milk Flavor Program, later renamed the Milk Quality Improvement Program,  studied the quality of milk in schools. They wanted to know why some kids were drinking more milk than others. 

The survey done showed a direct correlation between milk flavor and how much of it kids were drinking. When kids were given milk that didn’t taste right, they drank 30% less milk than those given milk that tasted fine. This study also showed that most commercial milk was being sold with flavor defects, as well. 

With all this work to be done to make sure milk is safe and tastes good, the MQIP continues to do research today. The goal is to improve the quality of milk products and help processing plants and dairy farms make sure they have what they need to do so. 

What Does the MQIP Do?

Now that we know how The Cornell Milk Quality Improvement Program came to be, let’s talk about what they do. First, we should look at the MQIP mission statement:

• The mission of the MQIP is to support NYS milk producers and processors in their efforts to maintain and improve the quality of raw and processed milk and milk products and to ensure their safety and wholesomeness. 

Essentially, the MQIP strives to provide support to dairy manufacturers to ensure that top-quality products that taste good are offered to consumers. They provide advice to improve the quality of dairy products, along with regular visits to processing plants and audits for quality control. The idea isn’t to shut facilities down, it’s to help them improve their products with professional assistance from scientists. 

The Voluntary Shelf Life (VSL) Program is the foundational program in the MQIP, focusing on fluid milk quality in NY state. Through this program, New York processing plants are visited for testing at least two times a year. Milk products are collected and studied over shelf-life for key parameters including microbiological and sensory quality. The dairy plants are given reports on the samples  and provided with support to improve quality when necessary, from the extension agents in the MQIP Overall, results of this program are utilized by individual processors to improve quality and shelf-life of their products as well as to identify long-term trends and opportunities to improve quality, safety, processing efficiency and sustainability of NY dairy products. 

They’re there to make sure the people of New York are getting safe and fresh milk that doesn’t taste like it’s been in the back of the fridge for months.

Along with the VSL program, the MQIP conducts a broad range of applied and translational research along with providing training to dairy industry stakeholders through  workshops that provide continuing education opportunities. Some of these workshops  include basic dairy science, sensory evaluation, and more. Cornell also offers certificates in cheese making, fluid milk, and yogurt & cultured dairy foods. If there’s something you want to learn about dairy, you surely can at Cornell!

Not only does the MQIP assist milk processing plants, but they also work with dairy farmers in New York. They help them understand dairy safety and spoilage to ensure quality in every step of the dairy production process. 

Conclusion

To sum it up, The Cornell Milk Quality Improvement Program is essential to the New York dairy industry. Without it, there wouldn’t be research done to ensure safe practices and quality processes across the board. Milk consumers can rest easy knowing that they’re in good hands.