Much like the rest of the beverage industry, retailers and distributors of dairy beverage products are faced with the challenge of having to meet the needs of increasingly discerning consumers who are short on time and constantly on the go.

The U.S. dairy industry has been diligently gathering data, crunching numbers and double-checking methodologies to ensure that the carbon footprint and life-cycle assessments for fluid milk and cheese are consistent with internationally accepted schemes and protocols. Since we are pretty much done with those, now what?

What key factors does the U.S. dairy industry depend on to deliver safe dairy products? There could be many answers, but the predominant factor is an educated, motivated and well-trained workforce.

Ever since I can remember I have been challenged with swallowing pills. When I was a little girl, my mom would dissolve the orange-flavored baby aspirin in a spoon of water for me to swallow. Thank goodness Flintstones vitamins were chewable. When I got older, my doctor encouraged me to take the same approach as one does with their pets, and that is to hide the tablet or capsule in a piece of cheese or some bread. Let’s just say it’s pretty challenging to trick oneself.

The consumer can find a wide range of textures in fermented milk products. From drinkable to spoonable to spreadable – these foods are expected to exhibit textures of semi-solid gels, viscous liquids or thin liquids, depending upon the specific product (for example, fermented milk beverage, stirred yogurt, quark, etc.) and consumer expectations.

As the days grow short and the nights get long, I’m about to launch into a rhyming song. We have come to December and the winter solstice, A time when Santa checks who was naughty and nicest.

It’s hard to be optimistic with so many fundamentals in disarray - millions are out of work, the stock market gyrates daily and our President and Congress seem incapable of reaching agreement on ways to change our course or to even send a message that stability and hope lie ahead.

Is your company bottling grape juice? If not, it might be a good idea to add this beverage to your filling lines. Here’s why: Sales of the drink, measured in dollars, increased 345%, unit sales increased 178% and the average unit price increased $1.16 to $3.09. Clearly, the purple beverage is a superstar, according to 52-week data provided by Chicago-based market researcher SymphonyIRI Group.

At Alpina Foods, we believe that innovation and change should exist across all consumer touchpoints. Just look at how Alpina developed and marketed its new yogurt in the United States,

We are a snacking nation. Almost 87% of U.S. consumers snack between meals. In 2009, domestic consumers spent more than $93 billion for foods eaten during a snack occasion. Given