2023 September Board Book

Fresno State Student Team wins Second Place in National New Product Competition A student team from Fresno State won second place at the

DMI-funded competition, with an innovative frozen dessert based on cott a ge cheese and manufactured their final prototypes at the creamery. Finalists presented their final product to the jury during the Institute of Food Technologists Meeting, July 2023, in Chicago.

Packaging

Plastic-free Yogurt Containers: a project to test the feasibility of using new plastic-free containers is in progress in partnership with CalPoly (packaging department). CDIC’s role is to identify solutions providers in the packaging industry,

support trials on a pre-competitive basis, and facilitate partnerships with processors. A project representative held meetings with industry and visited Pack Expo to meet packaging suppliers.

Reusable Milk Bottles Staff met with the Google Team in Sunnyvale to present concepts for reusable, metal bottles for milk served on Google’s Bay area campuses. Prototypes are in development in collaboration with Orora Packaging/ Landsberg group, and meetings will resume early 2024.

Bioplastics from Whey

The project consists of producing a compostable bioplastic resin through fermentation of delactosed whey

permeate. The resin will then be processed into films or containers as an alternative to traditional plastics with testing done at the USDA’s Western Laboratory in Albany, CA. Staff attended a project update meeting and met with the USDA’s team on location. The project is co-funded with, and supervised by, Dairy Management Inc.

Western Regional Research Center: Albany, CA