Dairy Management Inc.[TM]. (Lab Notes).

* Dairy Management Inc.[TM] (DMI), with funding from America's dairy farmers and through the Extraordinary Dairy[R] program, introduced a sensory language for cheddar cheese in 2000, which was developed by MaryAnne Drake, Ph.D., assistant professor of food science, North Carolina State University, through the Southeast Dairy Foods Research Center. Drake and her colleagues recently developed a similar lexicon for dairy powders including whey proteins and nonfat dry milk. She discovered 21 flavor terms that can be applied to milk powders, such as cooked/milky flavor, cake mix or vanillin, sweet and sour earthy, cereal and others. Each of these flavors is linked toa keyaroma compound. For instance, lactones lend a sweet flavor; while various free fatty acids stimulate a rancid or waxy flavor. This sensory language, linking responsible chemical factors and causal agents, provides common ground for food processors to discuss ingredient characteristics and improve product quality.