Cornell's Department of Food Science has selected Upstate Farms of Rochester, N.Y., as producer of the highest quality milk in New York state. The annual selection was announced Aug. 28 in Syracuse at the New York State Fair's Dairy Day.
The selection is part of the New York State Milk Quality Improvement Program and is sponsored by the New York Milk Promotion Order. The analytical tests are run at Cornell.
Upstate Farms of Rochester received a score of 95.7, the highest score attained since the contest was initiated in 1997. Crowley Foods of Albany came in second place with a score of 94.2. Crowley Foods of Binghamton came in third with a score of 84.0.
Cornell Dairy's own milk scored 94.6 points, which would have qualified for second place in the state. But because the school conducts the judging, it is not eligible for an award.
Judging criteria included butterfat content, post-pasteurization bacteria counts within the milk's sell-by date and vitamin levels. The most critical attributes analyzed were product flavor and stability over shelf life.
Each year, random samples of whole, reduced-fat, low-fat and fat-free milk are evaluated by the program. The New York State Milk Promotion Order is funded by revenues collected by the state from dairy producers. It is administered through New York's Department of Agriculture and Markets. Nearly all commercial milk processors in the state participate.
From July 1, 1999, to June 30, 2000, more than 500 milk samples were collected and nearly 6,000 individual tests were run to determine the winners. The milk is first examined when it is received and again 14 days later, near the end of the sell-by date.
Trained testers taste each sample and give it a score, said David Bandler, Cornell professor emeritus of food science, who was the director of the Milk Quality Improvement Program from 1972 to 1997.
Kathryn J. Boor, Cornell associate professor of food science, currently directs the program. "These processing plants are working very hard to make their quality the best ever. We see it across the board in the consumer sensory tests," said Boor. "In the last few years, we've seen measurable improvements in flavor scores, even near the end of product shelf-life."
The young cheddar cheese at McCadam Cheese Co., Heuvelton, was judged the top cheese in New York state for 2000, beating out cheeses in all categories in judging that took place at Cornell in mid August. The cheese winner also was announced at the New York State Fair's Dairy Day.
This year's judging started Aug. 11 when cheese and other dairy products from across the state arrived at the Cornell campus's food science department. For two days, four judges tasted and graded 18 different categories of cheese.
The head judge was Charles (Chip) Lindberg, a dairy product specialist from the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets. Other judges, besides Brown, were Eric Dutton, a retired inspector and cheese grader from the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets; and Cornell's Boor and Bandler.
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