James Carper

Milk. It's not just for breakfast anymore. Here are 8 ways to go through a half-gallon in 12 hours.

Nestlé USA is North America's largest dairy processor, bumping off Dean Foods Co. which held the spot for at least half of the 20 years that Dairy Foods has been compiling the Dairy 100.

Never mind that most of the world freely uses and understands the word Parmesan as it applies to cheese. To the EU, however, Parm means only Parmigiano-Reggiano. And feta is a cheese made only in Greece. The EU is trying to force its approach to food names on every country in the world. It already has gummed up the South Korean market for non-EU makers of Asiago, feta, fontina and gorgonzola.

High atop Dairy Management Inc. headquarters, DMI staff rolled carts through the conference room and delivered food samples created by the students. It was like being in a dim sum restaurant, except there were no egg rolls, dumplings or noodle dishes. Instead, the judges tasted dairy-based treats with fanciful names like Mooofins, Easy Qurd and Whey-Go.

Smith Brothers Farms has positioned itself for growth from new products and from co-packing opportunities. Raw milk capacity increased 55% to 70,000 gallons and pasteurized milk capacity soared 300% to 60,000 gallons. 

Dairy Foods editors toured all 13 dairy processing plants that have been nominated for the 2013 Plant of the Year. We found best practices in each of them.

Why buy Swiss cheese when you could buy Swiss cheese made in small batches from milk given by cows who spend their summers at high altitudes in the Bavarian Alps of Germany?