Guest Columnist / Editorial
Driving innovation in the dairy sector — the role of universities

Phillip S. Tong is director of the Dairy Products Technology Center and professor or dairy science at California Polytechnic State University where he has been contributing to and driving innovation and dairy sector growth for the past 20 years. He contributes this column exclusively for Cheese Market News®.

In recent years we have increasingly seen the word “innovation” used to describe beneficial — if not essential — activities for the continued health of the dairy sector. Because innovation is thought to be key to driving growth, it has become a part of corporate mission and goals statements. In addition, there are dairy innovation conferences, dairy innovation centers, dairy innovation awards and consultants who specialize in dairy innovation. In fact, a Google search on “dairy innovation” gives 1.25 million web results. Refining the search to “dairy foods innovation” or “dairy products innovation” barely changes the results.

What does it really mean to be innovative? The American Heritage dictionary defines innovation as the act of introducing something new. Robert Tucker, in his book Driving Growth Through Innovation, describes innovation simply as “coming up with ideas and bringing them to life.” He goes on to say that product, process and strategy innovation are all needed. But not all innovation has the same “wow factor” to jump-start company growth. Some say most innovation is evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Nonetheless, having a full portfolio of innovation is critical to growth.

How has the U.S. dairy sector realized innovation ­— coming up with new ideas and bringing them to life — to sustain growth? The answer is there were likely lots of different ways. But in the end to “bring it to life” people got involved and made something happen. Likely individuals with some dairy foods knowledge and skills needed to act. And how did they get this dairy foods knowledge and skills? They were formally trained through academic programs offered at universities. Or they obtained critical information through a phone call, e-mail, publication or other communication with a university member. Others may have attended a university outreach program (short course or symposium or presentation) or were trained by an industry person who previously was trained through one of these university routes. In other words, interaction with university scientists has been important and will continue to help drive innovation.

A look at the whey ingredients sector helps us understand the many ways universities have contributed to sparking innovation. On one front, strategic research on whey protein structure and function provided the foundation of scientific knowledge and trained key professionals to move into the industry. These trained professionals then built industrial research groups by hiring more university-trained people to work on applying scientific knowledge to produce value-added ingredients. Publications, symposia and other communication opportunities created fertile grounds for exchange of information, leading to improvements in product quality and process efficiency. New whey processing plants were built to convert the dilute whey stream to a series of value-added whey products. University-trained production supervisors became plant managers and hired more graduates as the whey industry grew. Continuing education programs on whey and products from whey sparked further ideas for innovation. University research provided important technical data on processing conditions that improved membrane separation systems for whey processing.

In recent years, research done at universities has sparked new information to demonstrate the value of whey proteins in diet and health. University-based dairy foods research centers are addressing new ways to utilize value-added whey fractions in novel food applications. In some cases, industry uses university pilot plants to bring innovative ideas to life. From the 70s to 80s to 90s to today, we have collectively used different types and degrees of innovation to take a cost center (liquid whey) and convert it to a profit center (from a waste liquid whey stream, to whey powders and lactose, to whey protein concentrates, to whey protein isolates and now to individual bioactive whey proteins). In 1970, the United States produced 620 million pounds of dried whey to avoid fines for polluting the environment. Thirty-five years later in 2005, 2.1 billion pounds of whey products were produced profitability. Today the number of products with whey or whey derivatives continues to grow. In some markets having the name whey featured prominently on the product label is a selling point.

Sometimes a single idea from a university-based initiative can be associated with significant innovation. But often universities contribute directly or indirectly some key element in a series of events that lead to innovation. Thus, while it is tempting to ask universities what they have done for the dairy industry today, I would suggest a better question is to ask how companies and other organizations can continue to support our public universities’ efforts to drive innovation and grow the dairy sector. The role of universities to drive innovation can be very direct and tangible. But the university role in the road to innovation can (while essential) be quite nebulous or circuitous too. So don’t overlook what might be the key element to a successful innovation path. Your industry’s growth may depend on it.

If you would like to learn more about how universities specifically help facilitate innovation and help drive dairy sector growth, I hope you will attend the Dairy Management Inc.-sponsored symposium on “Responding to Industry Needs for New Technologies, Products and Markets” at the American Dairy Science Association’s annual meeting this July in San Antonio, or pay a visit to your closest university with some focus on dairy foods.

CMN

The views expressed by CMN’s guest columnists are their own opinions and do not necessarily reflect those of Cheese Market News®.