The Wisconsin Dairy Products Association will host the 2007 Dairy Product Grading and Evaluation Clinic on Tuesday, October 2, 2007 at World Dairy Expo, Madison, Wis. The clinic is a comprehensive training program on dairy product grading (cheese, butter, cottage cheese, and whey) led by graders from the United States Dept. of Ag (USDA), Wisconsin Dept. of Agriculture, Trade & Consumer Protection (DATCP) and University of Wisconsin.
The Dairy Product Grading and Evaluation Clinic provides an excellent opportunity for dairy industry personnel to sharpen their present grading skills while learning new product evaluation techniques. This year’s clinic will feature an improved grading session format in which expert graders will comprehensively discuss common defects in dairy products, what buyers are looking for and how to properly grade dairy foods. Following this presentation, federal, state and selected industry graders will join attendees as they have an opportunity to evaluate over 40 different samples of cheese, butter, cottage cheese and whey.
In the afternoon, participants will hear informative presentations of issues that impact the dairy industry. The session begins with Tom Leitzke, DATCP and Dave Robbins, Dean Foods discussing the latest changes to state and federal dairy processing rules. Leitzke will highlight the recent revisions to Wisconsin’s processing rules (ATCP 80) and will join with Robbins to focus on amendments to the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance as a result of the 2007 National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments.
Following that discussion, there will be a presentation by Dr. Scott Rankin, UW-Madison, which pertains to a number of cheese issues, such as probiotics, Omega 3 and black spots in Aged Cheddar. The final presentation will be by K.J. Burrington, Center for Dairy Research, on the many unique ways in which whey is being utilized as a food ingredient.
The Dairy Product Grading & Evaluation Clinic will be of interest to all segments of the dairy processing industry – graders, quality and assurance personnel, technicians, salespersons, plant managers, retailers, suppliers, chefs and farmstead operations. The registration deadline is Tuesday, September 25, 2007.