Innovative ingredient partnerships help open doors for exports of U.S. milk powder, whey permeate, milk and whey proteins, lactose, and other dairy ingredients.

Editor's note: Since 1939, June has been designated “dairy month” in the U.S. to celebrate our farmers and the nutritious milk their cows produce. In light of the U.S. dairy industry's growing emphasis on exports, the checkoff-founded U.S. Dairy Export Council presents this explanatory article, supplemented by videos, to celebrate National Dairy Month. On Monday, we featured an in-depth blog post about USDEC's global U.S. cheese programs.

The U.S. Dairy Export Council’s global ingredient partnerships are two-way streets.

USDEC establishes relationships with industry, academia and health professional thought leaders in major overseas markets to learn about the specific food and beverage needs and preferences of the regions. Then, through a range of engagement activities, USDEC works with its partners to demonstrate how U.S. dairy ingredients can fit local preferences—tastes, textures, flavors, etc.—while providing a range of benefits from innovation to nutrition to cost savings.

Developing partnerships in overseas markets is an essential part of USDEC’s efforts to raise the U.S. dairy profile and drive global demand for U.S. dairy ingredients.

Watch USDEC's "Passport to Innovation" video for an around-the-world snapshot of local-friendly product innovation activities using U.S. dairy ingredients.

Here are some of the partnership highlights of the past 18 months. 

Partnerships: Innovation and Ideation

Applications development work is an essential and beneficial pillar of USDEC’s ingredient partnerships—core to the strength, uniqueness and impact of USDEC ingredient marketing programs. In 2021 alone, partnerships with Singapore Polytechnic’s Food Innovation and Resource Centre (FIRC), China’s Jiangnan University and Japan’s Kiyota Sangyo, as well as other innovation relationships, generated 50 new product concepts featuring U.S. dairy ingredients.

Watch Martin Teo, USDEC’s technical director-food applications, Southeast Asia, do a product demonstration for longan goji berry protein balls developed by FIRC. This demo—part of USDEC's healthy aging webinar for Southeast Asian food manufacturers—took place in the presentation kitchen at USDEC's U.S. Center for Dairy Excellence in Singapore. 

Partnership: FIRC

In 2021, USDEC used beverage research and applications development work conducted by FIRC in a series of activities aimed at driving U.S. dairy protein demand.

Martin Teo, USDEC’s technical director-food applications, worked closely with FIRC, directing the applications work in 2020 and leading the team in disseminating the information this past year. Teo brought the FIRC research to life in a series of presentations over the past 18 months, including 2021's virtual Food Ingredients Asia trade show (as part of USDEC’s dedicated Dairy Day session), a panel discussion for Food Navigator Asia’s Growth Asia Interactive Broadcast Series and USDEC webinars and workshops. 

Most recently, Teo demonstrated the applications work at a June 1, 2022, seminar targeting bakery and confectionery manufacturers broadcast from USDEC’s U.S. Center for Dairy Excellence (U.S. CDE) in Singapore. The hybrid seminar—held in-person as well as online—marked the first major live event at the U.S. CDE since the recent easing of COVID restrictions in Singapore, and USDEC is planning a series of similar seminars for the second half of the year.

Watch Teo introduce three beverage prototypes developed at FIRC.

Partnership: Kiyota Sangyo

USDEC’s partnership with Kiyota Sangyo, which started in 2021,  looks to support U.S. dairy protein exports to Japan by helping USDEC and U.S. suppliers better identify and meet the demands of the Japanese marketplace. Kiyota Sangyo is an innovation solutions-focused consulting company specializing in providing new product ideation and recipe/formulation development support to food and beverage manufacturers. 

Watch the opening remarks from Hiroyuki Yoshida, president of Kiyota Sangyo, at a USDEC health and wellness webinar in Japan. 

Food scientists at Kiyota Sangyo developed 10 product prototypes containing U.S. dairy proteins over the last 12 months, presenting them to more than 750 Japanese food and beverage makers at USDEC webinars in September 2021 and April 2022. The prototypes focused on everyday Japan-friendly foods with applications that better fit local diets, such as the furikake outlined in the video below.  

Furikake is a dry seasoning condiment typically sprinkled over rice but also used on everything from salads to soups to snacks. It and other prototypes are prime examples of how USDEC works to localize product formulations using U.S. dairy ingredients, positions them to be relevant to audience lifestyles, and teaches food and beverage companies how to innovate with U.S. dairy ingredients. 

Watch a Kiyota Sangyo food scientist at a USDEC webinar demonstrate a product prototype tailored to the Japanese diet and utilizing U.S. dairy proteins.

Partnership: Jiangnan University (JU)

USDEC’s sustained partnership with China’s JU has allowed the Export Council to foster a team of local U.S. dairy experts to understand and communicate the technical, functional and nutritional benefits of U.S. dairy ingredients to local companies in their own language.

USDEC’s partnership with JU is multifaceted, including application research, workshops, support for USDEC ingredients marketing programs and sponsorship of an annual student new product development competition.

The 2021 Student Innovation Competition (USDEC’s third such event with JU) focused on U.S. dairy permeate. (Permeate was approved for food use in China in 2020 after a decade-long effort by USDEC.) The 2022 competition got underway in May. 

The competitions' aims are to bolster student success while laying the groundwork for long-term U.S. dairy demand growth. Students improve their understanding of U.S. dairy ingredient functionality and benefits, strengthen creative thinking and R&D skills, and gain knowledge they can take with them as they proceed in their dairy and food industry careers.

The competition, and more broadly the JU partnership, puts U.S. dairy ingredients on the map as useful, beneficial components for food innovation and augments the U.S. reputation as a knowledgeable food innovation partner. 

Watch this video recap of the Jiangnan University student new product development competition. The image below shows one of the winners: 3D printed ice cream containing milk permeate, skim milk powder and milk protein concentrate.

Partnership: Korea Food Forum (KOFRUM)

USDEC’s collaboration with the Korea Food Forum (KOFRUM) evolved from a three-year partnership with the Korean Dietetic Association. KOFRUM is a non-profit organization composed of food and health journalists, health professionals and influential food and beverage industry leaders.

Working with USDEC, KOFRUM formed the Whey Protein Forum last year to communicate reliable, science-backed information about dairy protein’s health and nutritional benefits to Korean media and consumers. Three forums held in 2021 yielded 113 news stories in print or online publications and 111 social media postings highlighting dairy protein nutrition and sustainability. Together, the coverage had a reach of 12 million people.

The fourth Whey Protein Forum took place on June 17, 2022, focusing on Korea-friendly applications and innovations using whey protein. The event attracted influential names in Korean nutrition and health and generated constructive discussions on the potential of using U.S. whey protein in baked goods and desserts. USDEC is again working on disseminating the messaging from the event via media communications as it did for the 2021 forums.

In addition to sparking U.S. whey protein usage in Korea, the KOFRUM collaboration also yields educational benefits for U.S. dairy protein suppliers who gain a Korean perspective on whey protein nutrition and how the product might fit regional lifestyles.

A Korean webtoon, disseminated in collaboration with KOFRUM, highlights the importance of protein consumption throughout the day for a healthy lifestyle.

Paul Rogers is a correspondent for the U.S. Dairy Export Council who has covered the dairy industry for 25 years. 

Learn more:

• How USDEC leverages global partnerships to build demand for U.S. cheese 

• INFOGRAPHIC: What the U.S. Dairy Export Council did to help lift 2021 exports to new highs

• U.S. dairy exports set multiple records in 2021

• FAQ 9: Why did USDEC build a dairy center in Southeast Asia?

• New website signals USDEC has 'put a stake in the ground' in SE Asia

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The U.S. Dairy Export Council fosters collaborative industry partnerships with processors, trading companies and others to enhance global demand for U.S. dairy products and ingredients. USDEC is primarily supported by Dairy Management Inc. through the dairy farmer checkoff. How to republish this post.