If there’s a universal truth we can all count on, it’s that America’s three favorite ice-cream flavors will always be vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. Right? Wrong. Per the International Dairy Foods Association, Washington, D.C., our top three picks last year were vanilla, chocolate and butter pecan.

Between cutbacks from China and an embargo by Russia, their imports dropped 16.3 billion pounds. Meanwhile, global milk supplies expanded. The big question is: How will U.S. processors re-balance their stocks of dairy powders?

The U.S. dairy industry has the ingredients to meet the needs of beverage formulators. Functional beverages made with milk or whey protein aid in muscle care and weight management.

Dairy proteins can prevent stunting, slow sarcopenia, reduce incidence of low birth weight and more. We are helping UNICEF in its application to Codex for a global standard for ready-to-use foods with dairy in the formulation.

Dairy products take well to sweet and savory flavors. With the American public willing to try anything, flavor suppliers share ethnic concepts that just might become the next big things in the dairy case.

Acid whey disposal used to be an issue. A ‘natural’ blue color wasn’t available. And dairy processors want to reduce sugars. Suppliers developed solutions to all of these concerns.