Exotic milk flavors could be a new way to sweeten up the dairy market.

University of Nebraska Food Science and Technology professor Rolando Flores says students from UNL have been visiting with counter parts in India to bring dairy diversity back to the United States. “One of India’s major staple foods is milk,” Flores says. “We went to India and saw the development that dairy has in that country. When you’re talking about close to a billion people drinking milk, there’s a lot that can be learned.”

UNL students Yulie Meneses and Alex Nelson visited India this summer and spent much of their time learning about the variety of dairy products in that country, where dairy is the most successful food industry organized as a co-op and owned by the milk producers. After watching Indian products being developed, they made the products themselves.

Flavored milk is common in India, and Meneses and Nelson enjoyed much of what they sampled, including almond and pistachio flavors. They decided the two products they would develop for the UNL Dairy Store would be pistachio-flavored milk and gulab jamun, a popular Indian dessert.

Before the products can be sold at the store, Meneses and Nelson will serve them at a seminar they will give this fall to food science administrators, faculty and students. They also need to get the green light from Flores, who said he hopes Indian food products could be available in the store by the end of this year.