ITHACA, N.Y. -- For the first time since New York state began judging milk quality and flavor, a dairy has won a perfect 100 score to earn the 2004 Gold Medal. The dairy, Niagara Milk Cooperative (Wendt's Dairy) of Niagara, N.Y., will receive the award this morning (Aug. 30) in the Empire Room at the New York State Fair Dairy Day awards breakfast at 8:30 a.m.

"Before this, no dairy has ever earned a perfect score," said Kathryn Boor, Cornell University professor of food science, who administers the milk judging. "Wendt's did everything right. They were perfect in all categories. Wendt's had exceptional hygiene, the processing equipment worked perfectly, and they brought in good milk to process. This shows they have done everything just right."

Other New York state dairies in the top five for 2004 are: Crowley Foods, Albany, with a score of 96.3; Lewis County Dairy, Lowville, with 93.8; Stewart's Marketing Corp., Saratoga Springs, with 89; and Cornell University Dairy, Ithaca, with 88.8.

The 73-year-old Niagara Milk Cooperative, owned by 180 farms in western New York state, has been selling its milk primarily to Tops Markets, a subsidiary of Royal Ahold USA, for 40 years.

James Miklinski, general manager of the cooperative, attributes the perfect score to maintaining good cleaning systems and the commitment of his 98 employees. Frank Buzzelli, the cooperative's plant manager, explains that the clean-in-place system for sanitizing production lines and pasteurization tanks has been updated. The plant staff scrubs the equipment with the latest cleansers made by EcoLab, and many production-line gaskets are changed daily to keep bacteria from forming. "Those are little things, but they're important," says Buzzelli.

The milk judging is part of the New York State Milk Quality Improvement Program and is sponsored by the New York Milk Promotion Order. Analytical testing is done at Cornell. Judging criteria includes butterfat content and post-pasteurization bacteria counts within the milk's sell-by date. The most critical attributes analyzed are product flavor and stability during shelf life, says Boor.

Every year random samples of whole, reduced-fat, low-fat and fat-free milk are evaluated by the program. The New York 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.

More than 400 milk samples were collected between July 1, 2003, and June 30, 2004, and nearly 4,000 individual tests were run to determine the winners. The milk was first examined when it was received and again 14 days later, near the end of the sell-by date. Microbiological and chemical tests were performed, and panelists tasted and scored each sample based on flavor and odor.

Milk quality and flavor research at Cornell was pioneered by W. Frank Shipe in 1964. He found that the flavor and quality of more than half of the milk sold in New York state at that time warranted "consumer complaint" within seven days of processing. Over one-third of the milk he tested bore an "oxidized" flavor. As a consequence, the Tri-State (New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania) Milk Flavor Program was initiated to identify and correct quality problems through research and extension efforts.

The New York Milk Promotion Board funded its first project -- to examine school milk quality -- with Professor Emeritus David Bandler of Cornell's Department of Food Science in 1972. The resulting survey, published in 1974, revealed that children in school districts receiving off-flavored milk consumed 30 percent less milk than did children in school districts regularly receiving fresh-tasting milk.

Shipe also identified the incidence of rancid flavor, which was widespread in the regular commercial milk supply. To address the problems between milk quality and product consumption, the milk promotion board has provided support for Cornell's ongoing research and extension efforts designed to improve the quality of the state's dairy products, giving rise to the Milk Quality Improvement Program.