It used to be that cultured products were used as components of something larger - cottage cheese for casseroles, sour cream as a condiment or dips for, you guessed it, dipping. Even yogurt adds a creamy value-added touch to pastries and sweet goods.

Dairy processors get ideas about ingredient and flavor trends from makers of non-dairy beverage.

Inspectors found deficiencies in plant design, pests in the processing area and failure by employees to wash hands at one cheese processing facility. How clean is your plant?

For many ice cream processors, less is more, and that means fewer complex ingredients.

Milk processors market dairy beverages as workout aids, develop lactose-reduced products and more drinkable yogurts and boost the health profile with probiotics. Nondairyprocessors formulate juices and ready-to-drink teas.

There is a distinct trend in healthy milk-based beverages that has grown greatly over the last few years, says Jim Dimataris, director of process relations for the California Milk Advisory Board, located in South San Francisco, Calif.

For 2009 and 2010, a grim economy has presented some bleak numbers in terms of new product launches, according to a survey conducted by Chicago-based Mintel. While consumers were pinching pennies, cheesemakers were clamping down on innovations for fear of spreading too thin.

The cultured products segment has been riding the coattails of its fellow dairy products, but not for long.