IDFA is pleased to present a new and exciting educational program designed specifically for fluid milk professionals. The Milk Technology Conference will offer a variety of sessions, from new formulation technology and the latest regulations to the future of milk in schools and innovations in packaging, sustainability initiatives and product development — all designed to provide the tools you need to succeed in today's competitive market.

Here's just a sample of the presentations you'll hear from leading experts:

• Update on Flavored Milk Reformulations
• Chemical Security and Food Defense Issues
• Regulatory Update on Listeria Guidance and NCIMS
• Fortification Opportunities, Challenges and Obstacles
• Sustainability, Carbon Footprinting, and Energy Management
• The Benefits and Burdens of Safe Quality Foods (SQF)
• Pick the "Most Innovative Package for a Dairy Beverage" and "Most Innovative New Dairy Beverage Flavor"
• And Much More!

Discuss the successes and challenges of the past year at the Industry Hot Topic Discussions, which will provide networking opportunities for Conference participants.

Take advantage of two new Milk Technology award programs:

• Most Innovative Package for a Dairy Beverage
• Most Innovative New Dairy Beverage Flavor

Whether you work in plant management, quality assurance or product development, you won't want to miss the premier fluid milk meeting of the year.

This conference is specially priced at only $795 for members and $995 for non-members. For more information, please contact Lauren Ledermann, lledermann@idfa.org or (202) 220-3557.

AGENDA

DAY ONE - Tuesday, June 3, 2008
	Breakfast sponsored by:
8:30 a.m.-9:00 a.m.	Introduction and Overview
9:00 a.m.-9:45 a.m.	Flavored Milk - Improved Lowfat, High-Flavor Reformulations As concern grows about the obesity epidemic among children, a number of groups, including the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, are actively working to change consumer's dietary habits. A new dairy industry program, launched in 2006 in response to this call to action, is promoting healthier beverage consumption among kids and teens through the use of improved product formulations. Hear the good news on the role of dairy in fighting obesity, and learn how to develop great tasting lowfat flavored milk. Speaker: Doug Adams, President, Prime Consulting Group
9:45 a.m.-10:30 a.m.	How to Re-work Your Rework and Product Commingling Plants pay close attention to product loss related to their main product streams, but significant losses related to product rework and commingling can have a substantial impact on shrinkage. Examine the proper use of existing and new technology to accurately track rework. Learn to measure and monitor compositional information for improved operational control and product consistency. Speaker: Rudy Westervelt, President, Power in Learning
10:30 a.m.-10:45 a.m.	Break Sponsored by:
10:45 a.m.-11:30 a.m.	Traceability: Global Product Identity Congress and federal agencies have expressed concern about the ability to track and trace food products and have called for new powers to fix the problem. While the government was expressing concern, a small group within our industry has been working diligently and has developed a conceptual Global Product ID system - a standardized method of identifying food products and components, as well as their geographic ancestry. This session will describe the powerful tool that could be in the hands of the food industry in the near future. Speakers: Craig Nelson, Founder, Vigilistics Rudy Westervelt, President, Power in Learning
11:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m.	FDA's New Listeria Guidance New FDA guidance that is mandatory for all plants producing ready-to-eat refrigerated or frozen foods will soon require additional Listeria control and monitoring measures. This guidance adds several new elements that need to be implemented, significantly increasing plant Listeria monitoring and control documentation. Prepare your dairy plant for FDA enforcement of the new Listeria guidance. Speaker: Mary Losikoff, Senior Regulatory Microbiologist, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
12:15 p.m.-1:15 p.m.	Group Luncheon
1:15 p.m.-2:15 p.m.	Choosing the Right Wireless Technology for Process Control and Monitoring Gain more flexibility to reconfigure the equipment footprints on your plant processing floor. Traditionally, dairy plants have had to run new electrical lines and wiring whenever physical changes were made on the plant floor. By using off-the-shelf wireless technology, ongoing physical equipment changes may not require costly electrical wiring changes for process control and information-gathering systems. Explore the options offered by wireless technology. Speaker: Douglas Finley, Territory Manager, Honeywell
2:15 p.m.-3:00 p.m.	"Milk for Everyone" - Milk Fortification Opportunities, Technical Challenges and Regulatory Obstacles Non-dairy beverage companies are increasingly fortifying their products with essential vitamins, minerals, probiotics and other nutrients. In response, the dairy industry has created an initiative to identify fortification opportunities, address the technical challenges of incorporating these nutrients into milk beverages and overcome any existing regulatory obstacles. Hear about the latest fortification opportunities that can provide a competitive advantage for drinking milk and dairy beverages. Also, learn more about other competitive advantages for dairy, such as the industry-led research that reveals the ability of lowfat chocolate milk to restore athletic endurance. Speaker: Gail Barnes, Vice President, Industry Innovation Consulting, DMI
3:00 p.m.-3:15 p.m.	Break Sponsored by:
3:15 p.m.-4:15 p.m.	Donning and Doffing Compensation – Could You Be Next? A national newspaper recently reported that processing plant employees have been awarded tens of millions of dollars to reimburse them for the time needed to put on (donning) and take off (doffing) uniforms. Learn the latest on this important issue, which can have an impact on employee relations as well as the bottom line. Speaker: Jan Eudy, Corporate Quality Assurance Manager, Cintas Corporation
4:15 p.m.-4:45 p.m.	Medium-Term Economic Trends The cost of raw dairy inputs for dairy processing plants has reached historical highs over the past year. A panel of nationally known dairy economists will draw on typical dairy economic cycles, worldwide dairy demand, anticipated national economic health, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) commodity pricing data and dairy product futures to identify economic trends over the next 12 months to two years. Learn how to better understand trends in dairy economics. Speaker: Mike Brown, Dairy Economist, Glanbia Foods Inc.
5:00 p.m.-5:30 p.m.	Pick the "Most Innovative Package for a Dairy Beverage" and "Most Innovative New Dairy Beverage Flavor" Help judge the Milk Technology's competitions for Most Innovative Package for a Dairy Beverage and Most Innovative New Dairy Beverage Flavor. Vote for your favorite of 2008! Attendees are invited to submit one entry per category. See your registration confirmation notice for more information. Sponsored by:
5:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m.	Meet and Greet Reception Sponsored by:
DAY TWO - Wednesday, June 4, 2008
	Breakfast sponsored by:
8:00 a.m.-9:15 a.m.	Going Green – Sustainability in the Dairy Industry To many dairy processors, "sustainability" means costly government- or customer-imposed requirements. However, sustainability also creates opportunities for dairy processors to make operational modifications that will differentiate products, improve company image and increase trademark value. Become familiar with the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) guidelines designed to ensure that "green" marketing messages are truthful and not misleading. Learn what consumers think about sustainability, explore developing technologies and understand "carbon" footprint marketing. Speakers: Jim Dudlicek, Editor, Dairy Field Reports Kate Peringer, Marketing Communications Manager, The Hartman Group
9:15 a.m.-10:15 a.m.	Quality Foods (SQF) – New Burden or New Opportunity? Driven by food retailers, the Food Marketing Institute's Safe Quality Foods (SQF) is sweeping the U.S. food industry. As a comprehensive third-party food-safety and quality system recognized by international certification bodies, SQF is here to stay. To help members adopt SQF requirements in their dairy plants, IDFA has established the SQF Task Force and is becoming an SQF-recognized trainer and consultant. Make SQF work for your plant. Hear directly from the lead SQF administrators and get your concerns and questions answered in person. Speaker: Gustavo Gonzalez, Education Program Manager, Silliker, Inc.
10:15 a.m.-10:30 a.m.	Break Sponsored by:
10:30 a.m.-11:00 a.m.	Normalization Factors for Quantification of Carbon Footprinting in Dairy Plants "Carbon" labeling is quickly becoming a hot topic when it comes to eco-friendly product marketing, and has become the center of discussion in many of today's boardrooms. However, determining the criteria, measurements and benchmarks to use in calculating a carbon footprint is now a major concern across the dairy industry. If yield optimization, shrink reduction, burden variances, sanitation and packaging are all part of a product's carbon footprint, what normalization factors should be used? Explore how to use normalization factors. Speaker: Vernon Spaulding, Vice President, Integration Services, Data Specialists, Inc.
11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.	Improving Energy Management The explosive cost of energy continues to drive up the cost to operate a dairy plant. With energy costs expected to remain high, dairy plants must learn how to monitor energy use and implement reduction strategies. This session will provide participants with ideas ranging from energy evaluation and monitoring tools to a review of case studies by processing plants that have successfully reduced their energy footprint. Examine how to manage your energy - a must for industry personnel responsible for plant operations. Speaker: Jim Dudlicek, Editor, Dairy Field Reports Raj Rajan, Vice President, Engineering, Ecovation, Inc.
12:00 p.m.-1:30 p.m.	Practical Determination of Raw and Pasteurized Milk Quality Gain a new perspective on methods to effectively measure raw milk quality and to re-calibrate your purchasing specifications to achieve extended shelf life. Review new laboratory equipment and analytical methods for ensuring process control related to dairy product quality and safety. Speaker: Steve Murphy, Senior Extension Associate, Cornell University
2:15 p.m.-3:00 p.m.	Federal, State and NCIMS Regulatory Update Currently, many state and federal agency regulatory activities directly affect milk plants. Learn more about recent updates to FDA initiatives for changes in the good manufacturing practices (GMPs) and generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status of sodium; revisions to the nutrition label daily values and use of non-nutritive sweeteners in fluid milk. Hear how some states are trying to change regulations on claims on dairy products from cows not treated with rbST. Explore issues for the 2009 NCIMS Conference regarding the definition of Grade "A" dairy products, modification of raw milk residue testing protocols and the Milk Industry Foundation Cottage Cheese Challenge Study. Speaker: Allen Sayler, Vice President, Regulatory and International Standards, International Dairy Foods Association
3:00 p.m.-3:15 p.m.	Break Sponsored by:
3:15 p.m.-4:30 p.m.	Industry Hot Topic – Practical Sustainability Projects for the Dairy Industry Plant personnel will share their insight on sustainability projects developed within their organization to address consumer and customer expectations. Participate in this roundtable, which will include questions from the audience on how to successfully implement sustainability initiatives. Speaker: Corporate and Plant Production Managers (invited)
4:30 p.m.	Adjourn

Back to Top

HOW TO REGISTER

You have five easy options for registering! The conference is priced at $795 for members and $995 for non-members. To register:

1. Register on-line at www.idfa.org
2. Call IDFA's Registrar at (202) 220-3557
3. Fax the registration form to (202) 331-7820
4. Email the registration form to lledermann@idfa.org
   OR
5. Mail the registration form and check to IDFA, 1250 H St, NW, Ste. 900, Washington, DC 20005.

Back to Top

HOTEL AND TRAVEL INFORMATION

Call the Hilton Salt Lake City Center at 801-328-2000 to reserve a room today. Refer to Milk Technology Conference 2008 and receive a special $169.00 single/double room rate. The deadline to secure a room is May 19, 2008. We have secured a large block of rooms, but once all the rooms have been reserved, we cannot guarantee that additional space will be available. Check-in time is 3:00 p.m. and check-out time is 12:00 noon.

If you have any questions, please contact Lauren Ledermann, lledermann@idfa.org or (202)-220-3557.