Today's dairy foods manufacturers want it all when it comes to rolling out new products: Long shelflife, great flavor, inexpensive ingredients and simple process.

"We were not quite sure if we could develop a laboratory system capable of heating by both di-rect and indirect steam injection, but we knew there definitely was a need for such a system," says David Miles, v.p., MicroThermics Inc., Raleigh, N.C. "Nevertheless, when we put our minds to it, as the saying goes, where there is a will, there is a way. And, in fact, we did design the first Direct/Indirect Processor (DIP) earlier this year, and have been making more ever since."