Dairy Research Bulletin: Selected Articles from September 2022

Environmental Management and Sustainability

Roadmap for achieving net-zero emissions in global food systems by 2050. Costa C Jr, Wollenberg E, Benitez M, Newman R, Gardner N, Bellone F. Sci Rep. 2022 Sep 5;12(1):15064.

Food systems emit ~ 35% of global greenhouse gas emissions (~ 20 GtCO₂e/year). This level tends to raise given the expected increases in food demands, which may threaten global climate targets.
Through a rapid assessment, evaluating 60+ scenarios based on existing low-emission and carbon sequestration practices, researchers estimate that intensifying food systems could reduce its emissions from 21.4 to – 2.0 GtCO₂e/year and address increasing food demands without relying on carbon offsets (e.g., related to afforestation and reforestation programs).
However, given historical trends and regional contexts, a more diverse portfolio of practices, including diet shifts and new-horizon technologies, will be needed to increase the feasibility of achieving net-zero food systems.
One likely pathway consists of implementing practices that shift food production to the 30th-percentile of least emission-intensive food systems (~ 45% emissions reduction), sequester carbon at 50% of its potential (~ 5 GtCO₂e/year) and adopt diet shifts and new-horizon technologies (~ 6 GtCO₂e/year).
For a successful transition to happen, the global food systems would, in the next decade (2020s), need to implement cost-effective mitigation practices and technologies, supported by improvements in countries’ governance and technical assistance, innovative financial mechanisms and research focused on making affordable technologies in the following two decades (2030-2050). This work provides options and a vision to guide global FSs to achieving net-zero by 2050.

Drought and ozone air quality in California: Identifying susceptible regions in the preparedness of future drought. Lee HJ, Bell ML, Koutrakis P. Environ Res. 2022 Sep 28:114461.

California experienced extreme and prolonged drought conditions during the early 2010s. To date, little is known regarding the influence of drought on air quality.
This study quantified site-specific associations between drought (defined by the Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index; SPEI) and daily maximum 8-hour ozone (O₃) concentrations for California, USA, and then pooled these associations for the years 2009-2015.
Overall, ambient O₃concentration was higher during droughts by 1.18 ppb. The sensitivity of O₃ to drought was greater during the warm season than during the cool season (1.73 ppb versus 0.79 ppb higher O₃ during droughts) with substantial regional variation.
In a pooled analysis with meteorological parameters as potential effect modifiers, the spatial heterogeneity of drought-O₃associations was explained strongly by average relative humidity for each season (71.9% (warm season) and 73.4% (cool season) of the drought-O₃ associations explained), followed by the drought-related changes in relative humidity (47.6% (warm season)) and temperature (53.6% (cool season)).
The pooled analysis further identified regions susceptible for drought-related O₃increases as those with relatively low average relative humidity (44.3-47.3%) and larger drought-related decrease in relative humidity and increase in temperature.
As the drought events are projected to occur with increased frequency and intensity in the era of climate change, the excess health burdens from O₃exposures attributed to the projected drought events need to be taken into account when allocating air quality and health resources. The impacts of O₃ on health during droughts would confound the health burdens from the drought itself.

Decarbonization will lead to more equitable air quality in California. Zhu S, Mac Kinnon M, Carlos-Carlos A, Davis SJ, Samuelsen S. Nat Commun. 2022 Sep 30;13(1):5738.

Air quality associated public health co-benefit may emerge from climate and energy policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, the distribution of these co-benefits has not been carefully studied, despite the opportunity to tailor mitigation efforts so they achieve maximum benefits within socially and economically disadvantaged communities.
In this study, researchers quantified such health co-benefits from different long-term, low-carbon scenarios in California and their distribution in the context of social vulnerability.
The magnitude and distribution of health benefits, including within impacted communities, was found to vary among scenarios which reduce economy wide GHG emissions by 80% in 2050 depending on the technology- and fuel-switching decisions in individual end-use sectors.
The building electrification focused decarbonization strategy achieves ~15% greater total health benefits than the truck electrification focused strategy which uses renewable fuels to meet building demands. Conversely, the enhanced electrification of the truck sector is shown to benefit disadvantaged communities more effectively.
Such tradeoffs highlight the importance of considering environmental justice implications in the development of climate mitigation planning.

Nitrous oxide emission in altered nitrogen cycle and implications for climate change. Aryal B, Gurung R, Puadel SR, et al. Environ Pollut. 2022 Sep 24;314:120272.

Natural processes and human activities play a crucial role in changing the nitrogen cycle and increasing nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions, which are accelerating at an unprecedented rate. N₂O has serious global warming potential (GWP), about 310 times higher than that of carbon dioxide.
The food production, transportation, and energy required to sustain a world population of seven billion have required dramatic increases in the consumption of synthetic nitrogen (N) fertilizers and fossil fuels, leading to increased N₂O in air and water.
These changes have radically disturbed the nitrogen cycle and reactive nitrogen species, such as nitrous oxide (N₂O), and have impacted the climatic system. Yet, systematic and comprehensive studies on various underlying processes and parameters in the altered nitrogen cycle, and their implications for the climatic system are still lacking.
This paper reviews how the nitrogen cycle has been disturbed and altered by anthropogenic activities, with a central focus on potential pathways of N₂O generation. The authors also estimate the N₂O-N emission mainly due to anthropogenic activities will be around 8.316 Tg N₂O-N yr^-1in 2050.
In order to minimize and tackle the N₂O emissions and its consequences on the global ecosystem and climate change, holistic mitigation strategies and diverse adaptations, policy reforms, and public awareness are suggested as vital considerations.
This study concludes that rapidly increasing anthropogenic perturbations, the identification of new microbial communities, and their role in mediating biogeochemical processes now shape the modern nitrogen cycle.

Dietary protein consumption profiles show contrasting impacts on environmental and health indicators. Perraud E, Wang J, Salomé M, Mariotti F, Kesse-Guyot E. Sci Total Environ. 2022 Sep 27:159052.

Patterns of protein intake are strong characteristics of diets, and protein sources have been linked to the environmental and nutrition/health impacts of diets. However, few studies have worked on protein profiles, and most of them have focused on specific diets like vegetarian or vegan diets. Furthermore, the description of the environmental impact of diets has often been limited to greenhouse gas emissions (GHGe) and land use.
This paper analyzes the alignment of environmental pressures and nutritional impacts in a diversity of representative protein profiles of a western population.
Using data from a representative survey in France (INCA3, n = 1125), researchers identified protein profiles using hierarchical ascendant classification on protein intake (g) from main protein sources (refined grains, whole grains, dairy, eggs, ruminant meat, poultry, pork, processed meat, fish, fruits & vegetables, pulses).
The researchers assessed their diet quality using 6 dietary scores, including assessment of long-term risk for health, and associated 14 environmental pressure indicators using the Agribalyse database completed by the SHARP database for GHGe.
Five protein profiles were identified according to the high contributions of ruminant meat, pork, poultry, fish, or, conversely, as low contribution from meat.
The profile including the lowest protein from meat had the lowest impact on almost all environmental indicators and had the lowest long-term risk. Conversely, the profile with high protein from ruminant-based foods had the highest pressures on most environmental indicators, including GHGe.
The researchers found that the protein profile with low contribution from meat has great potential for human health and environment preservation. Shifting a large part of the population toward this profile could be an easy first step toward building a more sustainable diet.

Shifts of Antibiotic Resistomes in Soil Following Amendments of Antibiotics-Contained Dairy Manure. Kang J, Liu Y, Chen X, Xu F, Xiong W, Li X. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 30;19(17):10804.

Dairy manure is a nutrition source for cropland soils and also simultaneously serves as a contamination source of antibiotic resistance genes.
In this study, five classes of antibiotics including aminoglycosides, beta-lactams, macrolides, sulfonamides, and tetracyclines, were spiked in dairy manure and incubated with soil for 60 days.
Results indicated dairy manure application increased the antibiotic resistance genes abundance by 0.5-3.7 times and subtype numbers by 2.7-3.7 times and changed the microbial community structure in soils. These effects were limited to the early incubation stage.
Selection pressure was observed after the addition of sulfonamides. Bacterial communities played an important role in the shifts of antibiotic resistance genes profiles and accounted for 44.9% of the resistome variation. Firmicutesand Bacteroidetes were the dominant bacterial hosts for individual antibiotic resistance genes. The incubation period, but not the different antibiotic treatments, had a strong impact on the bacteria community.
This study advanced our understanding of the effect of dairy manure and antibiotics on the antibiotic resistome in soils and provided a reference for controlling antibiotic resistance genes dissemination from dairy farms to the environment.

Animal Health and Food Safety

Antimicrobial resistance in dairy slurry tanks: A critical point for measurement and control. Baker M, Williams AD, Hooton SPT, Stekel DJ, et al. Environ Int. 2022 Sep 13;169:107516.

Waste from dairy production is one of the largest sources of contamination from antimicrobial resistant bacteria (ARB) and genes (ARGs) in many parts of the world. However, studies to date do not provide necessary evidence to inform antimicrobial resistance (AMR) countermeasures.
Therefore, researchers undertook a detailed, interdisciplinary, longitudinal analysis of dairy slurry waste.
The slurry contained a population of ARB and ARGs, with resistances to current, historical and never-used on-farm antibiotics; resistances were associated with Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria and mobile elements (ISEcp1, Tn916, Tn21-family transposons).
Modelling and experimental work suggested that these populations are in dynamic equilibrium, with microbial death balanced by fresh input. Consequently, storing slurry without further waste input for at least 60 days was predicted to reduce ARB spread onto land, with > 99 % reduction in cephalosporin resistant Escherichia coli. The model also indicated that for farms with low antibiotic use, further reductions are unlikely to reduce AMR further.
The researchers conclude that the slurry tank is a critical point for measurement and control of AMR, and that actions to limit the spread of AMR from dairy waste should combine responsible antibiotic use, including low total quantity, avoidance of human critical antibiotics, and choosing antibiotics with shorter half-lives, coupled with appropriate slurry storage.

Effect of Cephalosporin Antibiotics on the Activity of Yogurt Cultures. Navrátilova P, Borkovcova I, Stastkova Z, Bednarova I, Vorlova L. Foods. 2022 Sep 7;11(18):2751.

The presence of antibiotics in milk is a significant problem affecting the technological safety of dairy products.
The aim of the study was to determine the sensitivity of yogurt cultures to residual levels of selected cephalosporin antibiotics (cephalexin, cefoperazone, cefquinome, cefazolin, and ceftiofur).
Five yogurt cultures were selected containing strains of Lactobacillus delbrueckii bulgaricusand Streptococcus thermophilus. Artificially fortified milk samples with cephalosporins at a concentration of the maximum residue limit were used to evaluate the sensitivity of the yogurt cultures by monitoring the pH, titratable acidity, and the concentration of selected organic acids (lactic, pyruvic, citric, acetic, orotic, oxalic, formic, uric, and succinic acids) at the end of fermentation.
Ceftiofur had the greatest effect on the yogurt culture activity, with a statistically highly significant effect on the pH, titratable acidity, and the content of lactic, pyruvic, and acetic acids in all cultures. Other cephalosporins also showed an inhibitory effect on yoghurt metabolism as seen by the evaluation of the lactic and pyruvic acid concentrations.

Multiple Antimicrobial Resistance and Heavy Metal Tolerance of Biofilm-Producing Bacteria Isolated from Dairy and Non-Dairy Food Products. Ejaz H, Junaid K, Yasmeen H, Bukhari SNA, et al. Foods. 2022 Sep 6;11(18):2728

Foodborne pathogens have acquired the ability to produce biofilms to survive in hostile environments. This study evaluated biofilm formation, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and heavy metal tolerance of bacteria isolated from dairy and non-dairy food products.
Researchers aseptically collected and processed 200 dairy and non-dairy food specimens in peptone broth, incubated them overnight at 37 °C, and sub-cultured them on various culture media.
The AMR of the isolates was observed against different antibacterial drug classes. Heavy metal salts were used at concentrations of 250-1500 µg/100 mL to observe heavy metal tolerance.
The researchers isolated 180 (50.4%) bacteria from dairy and 177 (49.6%) from non-dairy food samples. The average colony-forming unit (CFU) count for dairy and non-dairy samples was 2.9 ± 0.9 log CFU/mL and 5.1 ± 0.3 log CFU/mL, respectively.
Corynebacterium kutscheri(n = 74), lactobacilli (n = 73), and Staphylococcus aureus (n = 56) were the predominant Gram-positive and Shigella (n = 10) the predominant Gram-negative bacteria isolated.
The correlation between biofilm formation and AMR was significant for most cephalosporins, aminoglycosides, and fluoroquinolones. Heavy metal tolerance tended to be higher in biofilm producers at different metal concentrations.
The pathogens isolated from dairy and non-dairy food showed a high burden of AMR, high propensity for biofilm formation, and heavy metal tolerance, and pose an imminent threat to public health.

Heritable and Nonheritable Rumen Bacteria Are Associated with Different Characters of Lactation Performance of Dairy Cows. Zang XW, Sun HZ, Xue MY, Zhang Z, Plastow G, Yang T, Guan LL, Liu JX. mSystems. 2022 Sep 14:e0042222.

Rumen bacteria produce volatile fatty acids which exert a far-reaching influence on hepatic metabolism, mammary gland metabolism, and animal production. Recent studies have reported that some rumen microbes are heritable. However, it is necessary to clarify the functions and specific contributions of the heritable rumen microbes to cattle phenotypes (microbiability) in comparison with those that are nonheritable.
This study aimed to identify the distribution and predicted functions of heritable and nonheritable bacterial taxa at species level in the rumen of dairy cows and their respective contributions to energy-corrected milk yield, protein content and yield, and fat content and yield in milk.
Thirty-two heritable and 674 nonheritable bacterial taxa were identified at species level, and the functional analysis revealed that predicted microbial functions for both groups were mainly enriched for energy, amino acid, and ribonucleotide metabolism.
The mean microbiability (to reflect a single taxon’s contribution) of heritable bacteria was found to range from 0.16% to 0.33% for the different milk traits, whereas the range for nonheritable bacteria was 0.03% to 0.06%. These findings suggest a strong contribution by host genetics in shaping the rumen microbiota, which contribute significantly to milk production traits.
It is suggested that targeted nutritional and genetic breeding approaches could be used to manipulate them to improve dairy cow performance. Therefore, there is an opportunity to further improve milk production traits through attention to host genetics and the interaction with the rumen microbiota.

Human Nutrition and Health

Consumption of Dairy Products and the Risk of Overweight or Obesity, Hypertension, and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: a Dose-Response Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review of Cohort Studies. Feng Y, Zhao Y, Liu J, Zhang M, et al .Adv Nutr. 2022 Sep 1:nmac096.

Dairy product has been suggested to be related to the prevention of overweight or obesity, hypertension, and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). These associations are currently controversial, however, and a systematic quantitative meta-analysis is lacking.
Therefore, researchers examined the associations between dairy products and the risk of overweight or obesity, hypertension, and T2DM, and tested for dose-response relations. 42 articles were included in the review and meta-analysis.
For overweight or obesity, the linear association was observed for total dairy, milk, and yogurt. The risk decreased by 25%, 7%, and 12% per 200 g/d increase for total dairy, high-fat dairy, and milk, respectively, and by 13% per 50 g/d increment of yogurt.
For hypertension, a nonlinear association was observed in total dairy, while inverse significant associations were found for low-fat dairy (RR: 0.94), and milk (RR: 0.94) with per 200 g/d intake increase.
For T2DM, all types of dairy food consumption except for milk and low-fat dairy products showed nonlinear associations, with total dairy and yogurt intake associated with 3% and 7% lower risk per 200 g/d and 50 g/d intake increase, respectively.
These study results suggests that total dairy is associated with a low risk of overweight or obesity, hypertension, and T2DM, especially milk and yogurt for overweight or obesity, low-fat dairy and milk for hypertension, and yogurt for T2DM.

Association between dairy consumption and cardiovascular disease events, bone fracture and all-cause mortality. Guo J, Givens DI, Heitmann BL.PLoS One. 2022 Sep 9;17(9):e0271168.

Dairy products are important constituents of a healthy and balanced diet, but their association with health outcomes remains to be established.
Researchers investigated the association of total dairy, total fermented dairy, and different dairy subtypes (including total/high-fat/low-fat milk, yogurt, cheese, butter, and cream) and the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), coronary heart disease (CHD), bone fracture and all-cause mortality among 1746 Danish healthy men and women (30-60 years, 52%female).
During a mean follow-up of 30 years, high intake of total fermented dairy was associated with lower fracture risk (HR 0.67) than observed in the lowest tertile of the fermented dairy group.
Furthermore, high intake of low-fat milk was associated with lower risks of CVD (HR 0.84), CHD (HR 0.82), and all-cause mortality (HR 0.77) compared with the lowest tertile of low-fat milk group. No associations were found with other dairy subtypes.
The findings from this prospective cohort study suggest an inverse association between total fermented dairy and fracture risk, and also inverse associations were found between low-fat milk consumption and risk of CVD, CHD and all-cause mortality.

A study on the effect of symbiotic fermented milk products on human gastrointestinal health: Double-blind randomized controlled clinical trial. Liao W, Su M, Zhang D.Food Sci Nutr. 2022 May 3;10(9):2947-2955.

Several studies have claimed that the consumption of fermented dairy products can improve human gastrointestinal (GI) health. However, the numbers of systematic clinic trials are limited.
In this study, a yogurt containing both probiotics and prebiotics was developed and a double-blind randomized controlled clinical trial was carried out to evaluate the effect of the product on human gastrointestinal health in three different aspects: (1) the effect on functional constipation (FC) and functional diarrhea (FD); (2) the effect on gastrointestinal (GI) tract immune system; and (3) the changes in GI tract microbiota.
Participants who suffered FC or FD were randomized into three groups (n= 66 each group): the first group was treated with fermented milk with Lactobacillus plantarum ST-III (7 mg/kg) and inulin (1.5%), the second group was treated with L. plantarum ST-III (7 mg/kg) and inulin (1.0%), and the third group (control group) was treated without probiotics and prebiotics.
Half of the participants stopped the treatment after 14 days and the rest of the group continued the trial to the full 28 days.
The fecal samples of participants were analyzed regarding their short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA), and microbiota. A survey on GI tract health was conducted and the Bristol stool scale was recorded.
The results showed that the consumption of the symbiotic yogurt for 14 days and 28 days can both improve the digestive system, with the continual consumption of product containing L. plantarumST-III (7 mg/kg) and inulin (1.5%) for 28 days showing the most significance. The consumption of this product may be used as a potential functional food.

Consumption of fermented dairy products is associated with lower anxiety levels in Azorean university students. Sousa RJM, Baptista JAB, Silva CCG. Front Nutr. 2022;9:930949.

A growing number of studies have found that the gut microbiota is involved in a variety of psychological processes and neuropsychiatric disorders, which include mood and anxiety disorders. Consumption of dairy products may contain bioactive compounds and probiotic bacteria with various therapeutic benefits.
The aim of the study was to investigate possible associations between the frequency of consumption of different types of dairy products and the state of anxiety in university students.
The subjects were 311 Azorean university students, 231 women and 80 men, with an average age of 20.5 years. Subjects completed a quantitative questionnaire on the frequency of dairy product consumption and a short version of the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) test.
Among dairy products, semi-skimmed milk was the most commonly consumed, followed by cheese (ripened), drinking yogurt, skim milk, and set yogurt, while fresh cheese, whole milk, and dairy ice cream were the least common.
Discriminant analysis showed that consumption of fermented products (yogurt and cheese) was significantly higher (P< 0.05) in the group with low anxiety level (score <40 in STAI test) than in the group with higher anxiety level (score ≥ 40).
In this analysis, 62.4% of the initially grouped cases were correctly classified according to the frequency of fermented products consumption. No correlations were found between anxiety and unfermented dairy products. The results indicate that the consumption of fermented dairy products has a positive effect on reducing anxiety in young Azorean university students.

Habitual dairy consumption is inversely associated with depressive and social anxiety symptoms among children and adolescents aged 7-17 years: Findings from a cross-sectional study in Beijing, China. Liu J, Chen M, Ma Y, Ma T, Gao D, Li Y, Wang X, Chen L, Ma Q, Zhang Y, Ma J, Zou Z, Dong Y. J Affect Disord. 2022 Sep 23;319:309-317.

Knowledge remains limited about dairy consumption and childhood depression and social anxiety, which is our purpose.
Therefore, a cross-sectional study including children and adolescents aged 7-17 years was conducted in 2020 in Beijing.
Depression and social anxiety were assessed using the Children’s Depression Inventory and the social anxiety scale for children. Habitual dairy consumption was defined as ≥6 days/week.
A total of 1353 participants were included, with a mean age of 12 years old. There were 53.58 % habitual dairy consumers and nearly 11.01 % consumed of ≤1 day/week.
The prevalence of depression and social anxiety was 14.04 % and 29.64 %. Compared to participants with less dairy intake, the scores of depression and social anxiety in habitual dairy consumers decreased by 1.725 and 1.083.
Correspondingly, habitual dairy consumption was inversely correlated with depression (OR = 0.602) and social anxiety (OR = 0.622). Such inverse associations were more pronounced in younger participants, those without siblings, with higher parental education and higher consumption of fruits or vegetables.
This study showed that habitual dairy consumption is inversely associated with childhood depression and social anxiety. A potential attempt could be implemented when recommending dairy products as an adjuvant therapy for childhood mental disorders. Conclusions about causality remain speculative due to the cross-sectional design.

The effectiveness of whey proteins in prevention and treatment of cancer: a review. Thampy A, Palani Kumar MK, Serva Peddha M, Reddy M. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2022 Sep 15:1-17.

Cancer prevalence is rising rapidly around the globe, contributing immensely to the burden on health systems, hence the search for more effective and selective treatments still remains enticing.
Whey, as a natural source, has received extensive focus in recent years because of its intriguing applications to health benefits. Growing consumer appreciation of the nutraceutical effects of whey components makes them an attractive field within cancer research.
Whey is a valuable source of superior-quality proteins, lactose, vitamins, and minerals that contribute to proper nutrition as well as help hamper illness and even complement certain disease-related therapy prognosis.
As a result, industry leaders and dairy producers are devising new ways to valorize it. Great emphasis on cancer prevention and treatment has been given to whey protein (WP) by the scientific community.
WP intake has been proven to induce anti-cancer effects in various in vitro and in vivo studies. Nutritionists and dietitians are now enormously endorsing the role of WP in the therapeutic field, notably for cancer cachexia management. However, human intervention studies with WP are in their infancy and remain to be established with different tumor entities to provide valid proof of its ability to act as a coadjuvant in cancer treatment.

Innovation, Economics, and Dairy Alternatives

Comparison of the Effects of High Hydrostatic Pressure and Pasteurization on Quality of Milk during Storage. Yu T, Zhang X, Feng R, Wang C, Wang X, Wang Y. Foods. 2022 Sep 14;11(18):2837.

High hydrostatic pressure (HHP), a mature non-thermal processing technology, has been widely used in the food industry. Its earliest application in the food field was sterilization. HPP leads to microbiological inactivation due to two reasons: cell injury and protein denaturation. During HHP treatment, the denaturation of enzymes, which are important for the metabolism of bacteria, occurs.
In addition, HHP is considered to be a physical process, in that pressure destroys non-covalent bonds, such as hydrogen bonds, disulfide bonds, and hydrophobic bonds, in the three-dimensional structure of biological macromolecules, but has little effect on covalent bonds. In consequence, HHP has almost no influence on small molecules, such as vitamins, flavors and pigments.
Therefore, compared with traditional heat treatment, HHP can retain the original color, aroma and taste of food to the greatest extent. This advantage also reduces the use of food additives and decreases the risk of chemical substances, in line with the development trend towards clean labels, which is of great significance today when minimal processing is advocated
In this study, HHP (600 MPa/15 min), pasteurization (72 °C/15 s), and pasteurization-HHP (72 °C/15 s + 600 MPa/15 min) processing of milk were comparatively evaluated by examining their effects on microorganisms and quality during 30 days of storage at 4 °C.
The counts of total aerobic bacteria in HHP-treated milk were less than 2.22 lgCFU/mL during storage, while they exceeded 5.00 lgCFU/mL in other treated milk.
Although HHP changed the color, it had more advantages in maintaining the nutrient (fat, calcium and β-lactoglobulin) properties of milk during storage.
Moreover, the viscosity and particle size of HHP-treated milk were more similar to the untreated milk during storage. However, consumer habits towards heat-treated milk have led to poor acceptance of HHP-treated milk, resulting in a low sensory score.
In sum, compared with pasteurization- and pasteurization-HHP-treated milk, HHP-treated milk showed longer shelf life and better nutritional quality, but lower sensory acceptance.

Accurate detection of dairy cow mastitis with deep learning technology: a new and comprehensive detection method based on infrared thermal images. Wang Y, Kang X, He Z, Feng Y, Liu G. Animal. 2022 Sep 29;16(10):100646.

Mastitis is one of the most common diseases in dairy cows and has a negative impact on their welfare and life, causing significant economic losses to the dairy industry. Many attempts have been made to develop a detection method for mastitis using thermal infrared thermography. However, the use of this detection technique to determine the health of the cow’s udder is susceptible to external factors, resulting in inaccurate detection of dairy cow mastitis.
Therefore, this study explored a new and comprehensive detection method of dairy cow mastitis based on infrared thermal images.
This method combined the left and right udder skin surface temperature (USST) difference detection method with the ocular surface temperature and USST difference detection method with improvements.
The effect of external factors on dairy cow USST was effectively reduced. In addition, after comparing different target localisation algorithms, this paper used the You Only Look Once v5 (YOLOv5) deep learning network model to obtain the temperature information of eyes and udders, and mastitis detection of dairy cows was performed.
A total of 105 dairy cows passing through a passage were randomly selected from the thermal infrared video and detected by the new and comprehensive detection method, and the results of cow mastitis detection were compared with somatic cell count.
The results showed that the accuracy, specificity, and sensitivity of mastitis detection were 87.62, 84.62, and 96.30%, respectively. Using the YOLOv5 deep learning network model to locate the key parts of the cow had a good effect, with an average accuracy of 96.1%, and an average frame rate of 116.3f/s. The detection accuracy of dairy cow mastitis by deep learning technology combined with the detection method in this paper reached 85.71%.
The results showed that the new and comprehensive detection method based on infrared thermal images can be used for the detection of dairy cow mastitis with high detection accuracy. This method can reduce the influence of external factors and can be integrated into the automatic identification system of dairy mastitis based on YOLOv5 to realise on-site monitoring of dairy mastitis.

Discrepancies Between Implementation and Perceived Effectiveness of Leading Safety Indicators in the US Dairy Product Manufacturing Industry. Van Derlyke P, Marín LS, Zreiqat M.Saf Health Work. 2022 Sep;13(3):343-349.

In the United States, the dairy product manufacturing industry has consistently had higher rates of work-related nonfatal injuries and illnesses compared to the national average for industries in all sectors. The selection and implementation of appropriate safety performance indicators are important aspect of reducing risk within safety management systems.
This study examined the leading safety indicators implemented in the dairy product-manufacturing sector (NAICS 3115) and their perceived effectiveness in reducing work-related injuries.
Perceptions were collected from individuals with safety responsibilities in the dairy product manufacturing facilities. OSHA Incident Rate (OIR) and Days away, restricted and transferred (DART) rates from 2013 to 2018 were analyzed.
The perceived most effective leading were safety observations, stop work authority, near miss reporting, safety audits, preventative maintenance, safety inspections, safety training attendance, and job hazard analysis/safety analysis, respectively.
The 6-year trend analysis showed that those implementing all eight top indicators had a slightly lower rates than those that did not implement all eight. Production focused mentality, poor training, and lack of management commitment were perceived as the leading causes of injuries in this industry.
In conclusion,collecting leading indicators with the unique interest to meet the regulatory requirements and to document the management system without the actual goal of using them as input to improve the system most probably will not lead to an effective reduction of negative safety outcomes. For leading indicators to be effective, they should be properly selected, executed, periodically evaluated and actions are taken when necessary.

Nutrition and Health through the Use of Probiotic Strains in Fermentation to Produce Non-Dairy Functional Beverage Products Supporting Gut Microbiota. Dahiya D, Nigam PS.Foods. 2022 Sep 8;11(18):2760.

Pure viable strains of microorganisms identified and characterised as probiotic cultures are used in the fermentation process to prepare functional beverages. The fermented probiotic products can be consumed as a source of nutrition and also for the maintenance of healthy gut microbiota.
The functional beverages contain the substrates used for the preparation of product with a specific culture or a mixture of known strains used to perform the fermentation, hence these drinks can be considered as a healthy formulation of synbiotic products. If a beverage is prepared using agriculturally sourced materials, the fermented substrates with their oligosaccharides and fiber content act as prebiotics.
Both the components (probiotic strain/s and prebiotic substrate) exist in a synergistic relationship in the product and contribute to several benefits for nutrition and gut health.
The preparation of such probiotic beverages has been studied using non-dairy-based materials, including fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, and cassava, a staple diet source in many regions. The consumption of beverages prepared with the use of probiotics, which contain active microbial cells and their metabolites, contributes to the functional properties of beverages. In addition, the non-dairy probiotic products can be used by consumers of all groups and food cultures, including vegans and vegetarians, and particularly consumers with allergies to dairy-based products.
The aim of this article is to present a review of published research highlighting specific probiotic strains, which have the potential to enhance sustainability of healthy GI tract microbiota, used in the fermentation process for the preparation of non-dairy beverages.

A Scoping Review of the Environmental Impacts and Nutrient Composition of Plant-Based Milks. Berardy AJ, Rubín-García M, Sabaté J.Adv Nutr. 2022 Sep 9:nmac098.

Dairy milk is a ubiquitous nutrient-dense beverage and ingredient, especially in Western diets. However, consumers are increasingly seeking alternatives to dairy, called plant-based milks (PBM), to avoid allergens, pursue a plant-based diet, or reduce their environmental impacts.
The base ingredients used in PBM have a wide range of environmental impacts, which may translate to substantial variation across the impacts associated with PBM themselves.
To assess the state of the literature on this topic, researchers performed a scoping review of the environmental impacts of PBM.
The researchers found 20 studies covering 6 types of PBM, but the literature does not examine many other types of PBM. All studies examined use the life cycle assessment methodology.
The most data regarding environmental impacts were available for soy and almond based milks, and the most common impact quantified was greenhouse gas emissions. The researchers also examined the nutrient composition of PBM compared to dairy using data from the USDA.
PBM attempt to replicate the organoleptic properties of dairy, but often do not exactly match the nutrient profile of dairy. The researchers identified a need for the application of a standardized methodology to facilitate more comprehensive assessment of environmental impacts of the wide variety of PBM available which are presented as environmentally preferable to dairy.