Dairy Buzz

Well, it could be a while yet actually, but this is what the future holds for dairy products. A company in Italy has applied for a patent in order to preserve dairy ingredients like cultures and rennet in a form where all you need to do is to dissolve it in milk and you get your fermented milks or your cheese. The company Biofarm was founded in 1992 by Fausto and Marco Pinta and in 2004, it became Biofarmitalia S.p.A. They have applied for many patents for cosmetic and pharmaceutical applications as well.

How will this new discovery affect dairy products? Currently, most dairy cultures are available in liquid or lyophilized forms. Both these have their problems when it comes to stability as well as durability. If not handled and stored well, they run the risk of contamination, with the lyophilized form also very susceptible to changes in temperature and moisture in the air as it is hygroscopic. This is especially a problem for small dairies where they need to use a much smaller amount than what is available in the packs that most dairy culture manufacturers sell.

What this new process will do is to coat the cultures with an edible film made of a dissolvable material. This will render the product stable and it can be made into very thin strips so all you need to do is to snip off the desired amount and dissolve it in the milk. It sounds so simple and yet, it will be just the thing to revolutionize the dairy industry. It means that all the problems associated with the dairy fermentation process could be history!