Greek yogurt: Whey too much?
By Sharmin Sampat for www.ecoanchornyc.com, October 20, 2016
Greek yogurt is a booming $6-billion-dollar industry nationwide and New York generates 70% of the supply. A total of 695 million pounds of Greek yogurt was produced in New York in 2012.1 The economic impacts are strong and largely positive amounting to 3.7 billion U.S. dollars in 20153.
For every 3-4 oz. of milk, Chobani and other companies can produce only 1 oz. of creamy Greek yogurt. The rest becomes acid whey- a thin, runny waste product that cannot be dumped easily.2 Although whey is a natural by-product of food production, in large quantities, it can pose a risk to the environment if not managed properly1. For every 7000 gallons of farm milk that
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Without the need for any additional regulatory checks or animal welfare guidelines, the USDA altered the small dairy farm herd caps from 199 to 299 cows5. This means that more farms breeding increasing number of cows and increasing the strain on planetary resources and pollution levels.
How is whey managed?
As an animal feed and soil nutrient: The farmers mix it with the total ration to feed the animals. It is also used as a fertilizer for the land. This increases the acidity of the land and the manure and fertilizer end up getting washed off into waterways. This causes widespread concern2.
Further processing of acid whey into one or more products: Research is on for special filtration methods for separating and recovering the protein in the acid whey and use it as an infant formula. Acid whey is a good source of galacto-oligosaccharides, an important pre-biotic and are working towards obtaining regulatory approval for human consumption6. Researchers at University of Wisconsin, Center for Dairy Research are experimenting to figure out a way to get edible-grade lactose out of acid
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To put it plainly, this is unacceptable. But, the tidal wave of Greek yogurt is not slowing down anytime soon. There is no U.S federal standard of identity for Greek yogurt and is not expected anytime soon. A standard of identity for Greek yogurt should be sought out and it should not only be written around nutritional characteristics such as protein level, but also on the process and ingredients. Another area where the government involvement is needed, is in facilitating the building of large-scale anaerobic digesters, including full range of tax and investment incentives that might encourage the building and operation of such facilities. Ways to reduce interconnection costs between digesters and state’s electricity grid must be examined. There is a desperate need for the federal/state/local governments as well as universities involved in research to ensure the strength of milk production sector in New York as well as address important concerns of Greek yogurt processing8 and advance towards more sustainable
In 1990, there were over 9300 dairy farms in Ontario housing almost 450,000 cows. The farm-gate value of milk produced exceeded 1.3 billion dollars. At the retail level, dairy product sales in Ontario exceeded 4 billion dollars. The number of dairy herds in Ontario on a milk-testing program had declined from about 7100 in 1985 to 6000 in 1990. Moreover, a continued decrease was projected.
One of the ways food is unnecessarily wasted is through the USDA’s grading of produce based on cosmetic value. Produce with cosmetic imperfections are valued at a lesser price and thus often farmers will not even make the effort to sell produce that has nothing wrong with it other than the fact that it is “ugly” (Glickman, 2015). Furthermore, businesses are required to throw out food that has passed its expiration date. However, expiration dates tend to be quite random and often have little truth to them (Glickman, 2015). They are simply to be used as estimates but end up adding to the amount of food waste. And all the food waste lands in landfills that cause the release of methane gas into the earth’s atmosphere. In fact, food waste which is categorized as organic waste is the primary source of methane gas (Baussan et. Al,
Although some people are not aware of this problem, generating food is quite expensive, because it wastes energy, fresh water and natural resources during its growth, package and delivering. Furthermore, some scientists have found that decomposing uneaten food produces high levels of methane emissions. The world's population is growing extremely fast. As a result, if humans keep on wasting food at the same pace as today, the waste of generating food will increase proportionally, (Kruszelnicki, 2012).
From the information about Chobani in the case and at the start of the chapter. (a) Whom did HamdiUlukaya identify as the target for his first cups of Greek yogurt and (b) what was his initial "4Ps" marketing strategy?
The other thing that we should consider before using dairy products is from the ethical point of view. Drinking cow’s milk or consuming any dairy product is equal to torturing thousands of cows, due to changing their nature and way of living in order to make them useable for ourselves. It has become evident that milk is not the only source and product that we can reach vitamins, proteins and calcium from, in fact there are many natural and healthy products that we can reach out those factors that we are looking for it in milk, for instance fruits. Contrary to common belief, people should stop consuming milk because it is unhealthy, unnatural and unethical.
Parents are concerned about the milk being pasteurized and its harmful effect on their children since most of the nutrient in the milk is destroyed during the process of pasteurization. Soy milk has gained an image as a healthy alternative milk, if now being transformed, parents will consider the soy milk like a high-risk milk. Drinking milk is nature’s most perfect food. Our children need great source of milk in order for them to be strong and healthy women and men tomorrow. In today’s world, there is a major wake-up call for anyone who use pasteurized or processed food. These kind of food weaken our body and our health. Imagine our little ones being fed with them, it
will result in lower prices, more variety in dairy products, and an increase in quality from
The profound effects of the livestock sector are amongst the top contributors to serious environmental problems at both a local and global scale (Bourgeois, 2012).
The breakfast significantly affects your body weight and can help you lose your extra pounds. Therefore, the following 16 recipes are abundant in fiber, protein, and other important nutrients that will boost your health and help you lose weight.
With the rapid rise of the industrial food animal production system, an increasing number of food animals once raised on pastures are now raised
Since the beginning of the Greek Empire to the modern times, the Greek cuisine has always been fondly praised for its unique tastes and large variety of foods. A typical dish, both modern and traditional, included olive oil, olives, cheese (primarily feta), wine, fish and a number of vegetables, meats and herbs. Most deserts generally consist of chopped nuts, honey and are wrapped in phyllo dough. In the United States the majority of Americans has never tasted a real, authentic Greek meal. The closest they have ever come to it is when they eat Baklava, a dessert consisting of nuts, phyllo and honey, or a sweet syrup that holds the dessert together, or Activia, which claims to be Greek, but in reality is of French origin.
When the deal is implemented, it would allow for more imports of milk, yogurt, ice
The USDA has roles not only to promote and regulate the food industry, but to encourage American’s health thorough dietary policy. At times, these multiple roles of the USDA can conflict, which is seen by the its support of the milk and dairy industry for consumption by all Americans, in spite of its ill health effects on many Americans who cannot digest milk properly (Bock, 2015, lecture 6). In the US, milk and dairy products are generally seen as a food staple, and those who have “lactase persistent”, or produce the enzyme to digest milk sugar, can use it for a good source of nutrients such as calcium and Vitamin D. According to the USDA and the US Department of Health and Human Services “Dietary Guidelines for Americans: 2010” regarding dairy consumption, the “recommended amounts are 3 cups per day of fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products for adults.” (USDA & USDHHS, 2010). The consumption of milk is portrayed as a norm for a healthy American diet and the many Americans that lack the enzyme to digest milk properly, or “lactase impersistent”, are seemly regarded as abnormal. To which can be asked, “But what about the 30 to 50 million Americans who are lactase impersistent?” (Wiley & Allen, 2013, pg. 109) Those Americans will suffer from gastrointestinal symptoms, possibly causing negative health effects if they drink milk, which is championed by the USDA. There seems to be an apparent disconnect between the policy of the USDA to encourage a healthy diet for all Americans, and it’s downplay of the negative health effects of dairy consumption to those millions of Americans that are lactase impersistent. (Bock, 2015, lecture 6) The government has a major influence on Americans diet, as the consumption of milk and dairy continues to be ubiquitous and widely consumed, possibly even by those who may suffer ill health
Yoghurt is basically a product of lactose fermentation (a milk sugar) to produce lactic acid. The decrease in pH due to the formation of acid, causes the milk to change physically and form the soft gel that we associate with the physical characteristics of yoghurt (Pillsbury et al,
Which brings us to the quality of the milk, lots of commercial farms put steroids in there cows to produce more milk than a regular cow could produce, prolactin, steroids including estrogens, progesterone, corticoids, and androgens, these are just some of the steroids commercial farmers inject in there cows. Sometimes when a cow produces too much milk they could develop mastitis in cows, mastitis is an infection or inflammation in the udders which makes them produce chunky milk it can be potentially fatal in the mammary gland and very expensive for the dairy commercial/industrial farms says HDB dairy, if the udders of a dairy cow doesn 't work they often get shot and get butchered for meat just because the farm was pushing them to hard