Focus Areas

We develop dairy scientists and innovate dairy technologies, ingredients, and products through industry-driven collaborative research to drive regional and global opportunities for Midwest Dairy farmers.

The Midwest Dairy Foods Research Center has two research focus areas that are consumer centric and address national and global needs.  Our objective with each area is to grow the value of our farmers' milk and make the Midwest and the U.S. dairy industry more competitive. All of our research research priorities are aligned with faculty expertise and capabilities at land-grant Universities affiliated with the Center

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Consumer Solutions

  • Modern wellness (immunity, calmness, energy, and digestive health) through dairy-derived components for targeted consumer sections (youth/schools/Gen Z) .
  • foundational research on milk components to improve consumer experience includes higher protein, high fat, clean label, and sugar reduction.
  • E-commerce (packaging, food safety, sensors).
  • Educate consumers on sustainability.
  • Nutrition: Strategies to understand and enhance bioavailability of nutrients in dairy products.

Industry Solutions

  • Enable cheese and dairy ingredient exports (product and process interventions, shelf life, quality, and functionality).
  • Improve dairy ingredients and permeates powder quality, safety, and functionality.
  • New platforms and untapped market for dairy.
  • Upcycling dairy co-products.
  • Analytical tools and testing methods to measure and predict the quality and safety of products/ingredients.
  • Novel and scalable technologies to improve microbial quality and safety of dairy products and ingredients.
  • Optimize water and energy usage and wastewater management.