ITHACA, N.Y. – A new carbonated, milk-based beverage could put the fizz back into a flat fluid milk market.
The new drink, e-Moo, was developed by Cornell University food scientists and is made by Mac Farms of Burlington, Mass.
It is anticipated that e-Moo will be in East Coast supermarkets within months.
Extends shelf life.
“The carbonation does the same thing in soft drinks as in e-Moo. It provides a carbonated sensation,” said Joseph Hotchkiss, one of the Cornell researchers who worked with Mac Farms on the product’s development. “Also, it extends the shelf life of what you would expect from milk”
Initially e-Moo will come to the market in three flavors: Orange Cremecicle, Cookies and Cream, and Fudge Brownie.
But unlike carbonated soft drinks, supercharged with sugar, flavoring, and little – if any – nutrition, e-Moo is good for you.
The product contains all the nutrition of non-fat milk with added calcium and only half the sodium found in other flavored milks. It is sweetened with fructose instead of refined sugar.
Spotted trend.
The fluid idea of the e-Moo beverage began when George and Mary Ann Clark of Mac Farms noticed children, teens and young adults drinking large amounts of sports beverages and soft drinks.
“At the same time, we also noticed that sales growth in the fluid dairy industry was flat,” said Mary Ann Clark, vice president of marketing at Mac Farms.
Mac Farms turned to Cornell’s food science expertise to produce a formula and to provide data on product stability, nutritional efficacy and the modifications to standard milk processing equipment for production.
St. Albans Cooperative Creamery of St. Albans, Vt., a co-op of more than 600 dairy farmers from Vermont, New York, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, provided the initial funding for product development.
“If there is a salvation for the fluid milk business, which has been on an economic downslide, it is making a beverage with milk components,” Hotchkiss said. “And this could be one successful product.”
