A few clicks, a big collection

Helping dairy stay relevant in the evolving world of online shopping.

From clothes and jewelry to toys and electronics, almost everything you need nowadays can be purchased with the click of a button. Add groceries, fresh produce and your dairy favorites to that list, and there’s almost no reason to ever leave the house again. Well, maybe.

Online grocery shopping, also known as click and collect, is increasingly replacing many people’s weekly trips to the grocery store. Greg Czernik, senior director of consumer insights, analytics and trade at Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), wants to know what makes consumers tick, what their motivations are around shopping and how they make decisions. He explains that e-commerce has been around for many years, starting with the retail-giant Amazon, but buying food online, especially fresh foods like dairy and produce, is just now gaining popularity.

“Online grocery shopping continues to be just a small part of total grocery shopping, but it’s growing very fast,” Greg says.

According to the sales and marketing company Acosta, only 3% of grocery dollars are being spent online. However, over the next three years, those sales are expected to triple, reaching 74 billion dollars by 2023. Retailers such as Kroger, Walmart and Target have jumped on board in the last few years, so they don’t miss out on the action. They’ve also invested in redesign and organization to feature pickup locations near the front entrance for shoppers, giving them the VIP grocery shopping treatment.

The idea behind click and collect is that you can sit in the comfort of your home, or plan out dinners during the workday, and build a virtual shopping cart without having to roam through the store. Then, you have two options: Have your groceries delivered to you or go to the store and pick them up. Shoppers can also save their virtual cart and refer back to it if they want to purchase those groceries again. It’s easy, convenient and fast. From young adults to baby boomers, people of all ages are jumping on board the bandwagon — especially parents. Households with kids are taking the most advantage of click and collect because of its convenience. “Parents don’t have to worry about having someone watch the kids or taking the kids with them to the store,” Greg says.

When it comes to dairy, Greg says this trend is helping it remain a shopping cart staple. The refrigerated items category is the fastest growing click and collect category for stores that allow in-store pickup or delivery. Originally with Amazon, shoppers didn’t have the option to order fresh dairy products because those items had to be shipped. Even now, Amazon primarily sells shelf-stable milk or packaged cheese. When other retailers decided to join the movement, it opened a new door for delicious dairy. Now, fresh milk, ice cream, cheese and butter can be purchased in a matter of minutes and delivered straight to your door. It can’t get much easier than that.

“I can ask them to select bananas for me, or a gallon of milk, or ice cream, and I trust what they are going to collect for me. And as a shopper, I don’t have to worry that it’ll be sitting in transit overnight or arrive melted because it will either be waiting for me at the store at a set time for me to pick up or they’re going to bag it and deliver to me within a few hours,” Greg says.

According to Acosta, here’s what some shoppers have to say is their favorite part about the online grocery shopping experience:

“It saves me time walking around the store to find what I need, especially on busy weekdays.”

— Millennial

“It’s easy and I can track what I buy and have a list at my command to refer back to.”

— Baby Boomer

“The convenience cannot be overstated. As I am getting older, it is hard for me to pull heavy carts and load them in my car.”

— Baby Boomer

“The ease of it. Someone else does my shopping for me.”

— Generation X

Only time will tell, but click and collect looks like it’s here to stay.

Farm to Plant and Everything in Between

Moving Dairy Farmers of America’s (DFA) family farm-owners’ milk from farm to plant is no exception. When milk haulers pick up a load of milk, they test it for safety and quality, ensuring all milk is antibiotic free. To track this, haulers complete a paper manifest, entering all relevant information by hand — like where the milk came from, on-farm test results, where it’s going and who it’s being sold to — essential to dairy farmers getting paid and consumers receiving safe, high-quality milk. 

With paper manifests being handwritten, there’s an increased possibility for misplaced notes, as well as extended processing times. For dairy farmers, the waiting game can cause unforeseen quality issues. For haulers, it creates stress of keeping track of paperwork on the road, extra work and inefficiencies. 

How much paperwork are we talking about exactly? In 2018, DFA collected 1.3 million paper manifests.

So, to reduce paper usage and increase efficiencies, DFA’s Mountain Area region recently implemented a new process for moving milk from farms to plants. This new innovation — a mobile manifest system — is helping cut down on potential errors and the amount of time it takes to process a load of milk. It makes the hauler’s job easier and brings value to farmers, customers and consumers by creating a reliable information trail.

Before going mobile, on average, the time between a load of milk being delivered until the data was captured off the paper manifest verified was three days. With a digital manifest, verification takes less than a day. And the advancements don’t stop there.

Data is captured in the mobile manifest when a user scans a QR code, which automatically completes the manifest without anyone having to verify the information. Ship to, sold to and more is captured immediately and readily available for users to help bill customers and pay DFA’s family farm-owners. Even better, the digital manifest collects more data than ever before. 

Want to know who the name of the driver hauling the milk? Easy. 

Need an exact time stamp to help judge timing when testing? It’s there.

When dealing with a perishable product like milk that communities around the country and world rely on for unbeatable nutrition, every hour counts.

The launch of this innovative idea started in Colorado and has since moved to Utah and Idaho with plans to continue to expand to DFA’s other regional Areas across the country. 

Future plans for the system include farmers receiving an email when the milk truck leaves their property, so they’re aware of every step in the process.

Innovations like this is what’s incredible about the dairy industry — telling the story beyond the gallon through quality and traceability.

The Science Behind Fermentation

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From kefir, kimchi and kombucha to pale ale and pinot noir, some of our favorite foods and beverages are fermented. Fermentation enhances flavors, makes wine and sourdough bread possible and has also been linked to gut health and mental wellness. The process has been around for thousands of years and is still experiencing innovations today. And when you combine the process of fermentation with real dairy straight from the family farm, the benefits multiply.

Fermentation is an enzymatically controlled anaerobic breakdown of an energy-rich compound (such as a carbohydrate to carbon dioxide and alcohol or to an organic acid). Jessica Niblick, an innovation food scientist for Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), explains how it works:

“Dairy is an excellent base to start with because it’s full of fats, sugars and proteins that cultures need to thrive.”

— Jessica Niblick

“It all begins with a base, to which you’ll add the culture that starts the anaerobic breakdown. Dairy is an excellent base to start with because it’s full of fats, sugars and proteins that cultures need to thrive. The culture can be a bacteria, mold or yeast,” she says. “These are your work horses, driving the development of the product and its final flavor or functionality.”

“The cultures take the raw materials in the base and either break them down or reconstruct them into the desired product. From there, it’s a matter of balance,” Jessica says. “Keep an eye on the temperature and acidity, and make sure the culture has plenty to eat.”

Most of the cultures found in fermented dairy products, like yogurt, are beneficial to helping keep a healthy balance of good bacteria in the digestive system. The probiotics present help support the gut’s microbiome. “Additionally,” Jessica says, “the fermentation process breaks down components of dairy and other foods into more easily digestible products that make the nutrients stored in those foods more readily absorbed by our bodies.”

The process also results in natural preservation, which accounts for a lot of its historical importance. It has been used around the world for thousands of years to prevent foods and beverages from spoiling without refrigeration. However, gut health and preservation aren’t the only reasons fermentation is so popular.

“Consumers are looking for clean labels with recognizable ingredients,” says Bill Hayes, director of innovation on the ingredient solutions team at DFA. “Savory umami flavors are currently quite popular, and people want to get those flavors through recognizable ingredients. Fermentation allows us to create strong, distinctive flavors with healthy dairy products that still have that clean label.”

While yogurt, kefir and sour cream are probably top of mind when you think about fermented — or cultured — dairy products, recent innovations have widened the breadth of choices. Restaurants are transforming dishes by adding exciting new flavors through fermented dairy powders, and new cultures are being discovered every day.

“It’s a fascinating process, and there are so many cultures out in the world that can make anything from bioplastics to pharmaceuticals to delicious food,” Jessica says. “Who knows what we could be making in 10 years? There are really no limits.”