R&D, at your service

Dairy Foods, Dec, 1998 by Donna Gorski Berry

Dean Foods' corporate technical staff assists its regional dairies with new product development and quality assurance programs

Sure, it takes visionary leadership, aggressive marketing and adept financing for a company to grow as Dean Foods Co. has. But the key to sustaining that growth and maintaining consistent quality among all those acquisitions lies some 70 miles northwest of Dean's Franklin Park, Ill., headquarters.

"Dean's R&D has never physically been a part of headquarters," George Muck, v.p. corporate research and QA, says from the Dean Technical Center in Rockford, Ill. "The belief was it should be close to its manufacturing plants so that the technical experts were always available for troubleshooting. Until a few years ago, we actually were located in a wing of one of the plants on the other side of town."

Today, with Dean's numerous acquisitions around the country, it is virtually impossible for R&D to be "close to its manufacturing plants." Nevertheless, the philosophy of "being available" continues. The only difference now is more frequent flyer miles for the staff.

"Many of the dairies Dean acquires do not have R&D facilities, sometimes not even a product developer," says Muck. "They have relied solely on their suppliers for new product ideas.

"Now they can turn to corporate R&D for assistance, if they choose to. We are not out to change any formulations or processes. If what they are doing works for them, let them continue."

Muck chuckles, "I remember awhile ago when we gathered eggnog samples from all the dairies and did an evaluation of them. The eggnog we ranked the poorest came from the dairy that sells the most eggnog," he says. "We'll never do that again."

Driving new products

Increased emphasis on consumer marketing and a trend toward value-added products is driving new product development at Dean's R&D facility.

"We have become much more marketing driven - which is OK, because what good is a new product if no one wants to buy it?" asks Muck.

Dean's dairy division includes a marketing development committee, which comprises both marketing folks and product developers. Together, these individuals brainstorm and identify product development projects.

Corporate marketing determines whether products are developed for regional or national markets. The marketing department also often acts as a liaison by communicating the R&D needs of individual dairies to corporate R&D.

"But we also talk with the individual dairies ourselves," Muck says. "It's an open-door communication policy here."

The R&D dairy division has three food scientists dedicated to cultured product development and three dedicated to fluid and ice cream. "We don't conduct any basic research, which is why we encourage the food scientists to be actively involved with professional organizations and to attend technical symposia and conferences," says Muck. "We also rely on our ingredient suppliers for a great deal of basic science."

The dairy R&D staff does formulating and procedure writing, whereas the analytical R&D staff does nutrition analysis and compositional assays. Packaging development comes from the engineering department, but of course, engineering and R&D must work closely together to make sure that a package is compatible with a product.

Currently, according to Muck, the cultured department is exploring new dip varieties to grow its refrigerated line, as well as procedures to enhance the quality of cottage cheese, as this category appears to be regaining consumer interest.

"We are excited about the very recent acquisition of the Curtice Burns aseptic canning facility in Benton Harbor, Mich.," he says. "They currently manufacture various functional canned drinks for private label." This gives Dean a chance to better understand the functional drink market and to decide when and how it wants to become involved in it.

Functional foods, defined as nutrient supplementation and fortification, are one of three product development areas that Muck has identified as an opportunity for the company. Another is probiotics.

"We are watching both of these areas closely and hope to identify a niche for ourselves," Muck says. "Specifically, we hope there are some breakthroughs in making claims associated with probiotics. We have been working very closely with the International Dairy Foods Assn. and Dairy Management Inc. on these endeavors."

The third opportunity is in low-fat dairy foods. "We believe this is where the future is in dairy," he continues. "Nonfat products just aren't palatable enough to the consumer, but low-fat is very acceptable. And the better we get at formulating them, the more they will sell."

This is one of the reasons R&D has an open-door policy with its suppliers. "When we are developing a product, we want to use the best ingredients to formulate the highest-quality product possible," Muck says. "Then, once it's formulated, we will work with marketing and purchasing to calculate the cost. But R&D does have the final approval for all ingredients, and we will not sacrifice quality for price."