Articles by Kimberly Decker

Wild Floavors purple color
Hints for tints

How to work with natural colors in dairy foods and beverages

Don’t mourn the passing of synthetics just yet, says one color supplier. The demand for artificial colors has not decreased. It has remained very consistent and we expect to see that trend continue, he said.
Kimberly Decker
September 15, 2013
For ages, cheesemakers used spices to color their products. Other dairy food processors, however, have formulated with synthetic colorants. As consumers scrutinize food labels, the entire dairy industry is seeking natural alternatives. Thankfully, the technology has improved.
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Cultures and Enzymes Q&A feature

A cultures and enzymes Q&A

Cultures help transform milk from a mild-flavored beverage into a smorgasbord of flavors, textures and products.
Kimberly Decker
June 14, 2013
Cultures help transform milk from a mild-flavored beverage into a smorgasbord of flavors, textures and products. Here’s the latest about cultures, including the emerging “workhorse” of bacteria and how to maximize phage robustness (while minimizing sensitivity).
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added sugars in flavored milk

Sugar in the spotlight

Making foods taste sweet is one of sugar’s roles. It also provides bulk to foods and beverages, and depresses the freezing point in ice cream.
Kimberly Decker
April 16, 2013
Dairy manufacturers are well aware of the health-and-wellness trend that is forcing serious re-evaluations of their ingredient choices.
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Using coffee and tea as ingredients

Using coffee and tea as ingredients

Americans drink tea and coffee because they enjoy the beverages and because they expect health benefits. Our roundtable discussion gives dairy processors ideas for creating foods with coffee and tea ingredients.
Kimberly Decker
March 8, 2013
Millions of Americans can’t be wrong. And what is it that we are not wrong about? Our choice in beverages, that’s what. According to “Coffee and Tea Foodservice Trends in the US” (a report from Packaged Facts), fully 183 million Americans enjoy their regular infusions of java and 173.4 million take tea.
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Ice cream with inclusions

Nuts, fruits and inclusions for dairy

Kimberly Decker
February 12, 2013
Kimberly Breedlove, director of research & development at Pecan Deluxe Candy Co., Dallas, knows that a truly transcendent inclusion is worth hunting for. When one really hits the mark, she said, it “should make you want to dig around to find each piece and eat it first. It can be that little welcomed surprise you get when taking a bite of your favorite ice cream that makes you smile and brag about it to your friends and family.”
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Strawberries with dairy

Texturants: Dairy’s ace in the hole

In creating healthy foods, formulators often reduce fat and sugar, the very ingredients responsible for the attributes creamy, smooth and soft that consumers expect in dairy foods. What’s the solution? Texturants.
Kimberly Decker
January 20, 2013
In September 2011, a study appeared in the journal Appetite reporting that texture, not flavor, best predicted the level of satiation that subjects expected from certain dairy products. In three separate experiments, the researchers wrote, product samples with the thicker texture — whether yogurt, custard or chocolate milk — rated higher for expected satiation than thinner ones.
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