On the top floor of Stocking Hall, Kathryn Boor '80, professor of food science, is on the phone doing some microbiological troubleshooting for Tom Eastham, plant manager for Empire Cheese in Cuba, N.Y.

Down in the basement, senior extension associate David Brown '69, M.S. '72, is giving instructions to a newly licensed farmstead cheese maker on how to get rid of an unwanted mold in his aging room. In a second-floor classroom, Associate Professor Martin Wiedmann, Ph.D.'97, is shaking up a new bunch of animal science undergraduates who, deeply engrossed in scientific strategies for economically efficient milk production, don't want to face the ever-changing irrationality of a consumer-driven marketplace. And in a first-floor office, Professor David Barbano '70, M.S. '73, Ph.D. '78, is tweaking the formulation for a high-protein, high-calcium shake that would be low in sugar as well as fat.

Safety first

Although nutrition, quality, cost and environmental issues are food-related worries on the minds of consumers, their foremost concern is safety. In the last quarter of 2006 alone, bacteria-tainted tomatoes, spinach and lettuce made the headlines with hundreds of people sick and several dead. But when it comes to dairy products, Cornell's Department of Food Science is doing the worrying for New Yorkers.

In collaboration with the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, the Food Science Dairy Extension Program works with every segment of the dairy industry, from the farm to the household refrigerator.

"We have our fingers in every single processing plant in the state -- big and small," says Boor, director of Cornell's Food Safety Laboratory. "So there's a mechanism in place for getting information about new regulations and new issues in food safety out in a timely fashion."

Taste matters, too

Milk, the state's leading agricultural product, is a billion-dollar industry in New York. The better milk tastes and the longer that good taste lasts, the better it sells. And that's why New York farmers put up nearly $400,000 per year to support the food science department's research and outreach. Funded by farmers, the Milk Quality Improvement Program is unique in the country, perhaps the world. Participation is voluntary (yet most of the state's processing plants participate) and involves routine testing of milk. Twice yearly, a sample of the plant's milk is taken unexpectedly and analyzed at three different times (at pickup, halfway through shelf life and at the end of shelf life) for its chemistry, microbial content and sensory characteristics. Annually, the best plant is awarded a gold medal at the New York State Fair.

Free trouble-shooting is offered to all participants. "They get very targeted, very directed feedback on exactly what they need to do," Boor says.

More than a beverage

More than one-third of the milk produced each year in the United States is manufactured into cheese. And more cottage cheese is made in New York than any other state. The big reason why this industry is so vital today is that a scientist in the food science department recognized that the same gas that carbonates soda can keep cottage cheese from spoiling.

"We ate a lot of cottage cheese when we were young, but by the mid-1990s my wife stopped buying it, saying that it spoiled before we used it up," recalls Barbano, director of the Northeast Dairy Foods Research Center, (a cooperative research and extension effort between Cornell and the University of Vermont) who took Professor Joseph Hotchkiss' discovery and developed the technology to make it work. The airtight plastic sheet beneath the lid that is now common on plastic cheese and yogurt containers was suggested by Barbano, who had found that the carbon dioxide escaped through conventional packaging. Not only did the cottage cheese taste better, but the shelf life was extended to 50 to 90 days from 21 days.

A year after adopting these new technologies, cottage cheese sales increased for the first time in 20 years and have been on the rise ever since.

Designing products for consumers' lifestyles

"The turnaround in cottage cheese sales is because we made the product fit the lifestyles of those who buy it," explains Barbano, who pioneered the development of reduced-fat mozzarella that's now popular on pizza.

He currently is working on ways to use a new filtration technology he's developed to deliver milk protein in beverages more acceptable to kids -- apple juice, for example. The drinks will have the same appearance and refreshing taste but with the nutritional value of milk. He also is working with calcium-rich caseins -- another of the separated proteins -- which, when concentrated in a low-sugar shake-type beverage, impart the mouth feel of a high-fat product without containing any fat at all and that will not need refrigeration before opening.

Program staff also offer technical assistance and critical guidance to New York's cheese makers, from giant corporations to the 24 artisanal cheese makers who produce sheep yogurt, organic gouda and goat's-milk cheese. Brown helps every step of the way.

"The failure rate of these businesses has been about 80 percent," he says. "I ask a lot of hard questions, give a reality check and keep my phone line open. I want that 80 percent to become a success rate."

The full version of this article was originally published in CALS News.