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Cheese Claims The Top Spot In Spending For Specialty Foods

The specialty foods industry has seen a spike in sales recently, topping $75 billion in 2011. Cheese is the number one specialty food purchased, with $3.44 billion in sales. We definitely contributed to that number here at Culture!

The next largest retail sales categories are meats, poultry and seafood; chips, pretzels and snacks; coffee, coffee substitutes and cocoa; and bread and baked goods. Functional beverages are the fastest growing segment, followed by yogurt and kefir.

Ontario Cow Named World Champion for Lifetime Milk Production

"Gillette E Smurf" has broken the current world record with 216,893 kilograms of her milk, thanks to her superbly long life span -- she's 15, or 105 in human years. This Holstein shows no signs of slowing down, either. She's currently pregnant with her eleventh calf!

He [dairy farmer Louis Patenaude] credits her success to good care and good genes. Four generations of dams all lived to age 10 or much older, he says. Smurf, whose middle initial “E” stands for her sire Emperor, was named after a young farmworker called Murphy, who bought a share in her grandmother.

Earning the title of world champion is the dairy industry equivalent of winning the Stanley Cup, says Patenaude.

Cold beer: Soft-serve head keeps brew chilled

Japanese brew company Kirin, has figured out how to keep your beer colder longer. Better than a beer koozie, soft-serve frozen beer topping keeps your bev cool for 30 minutes:

To make the topping, regular Ichiban beer is frozen to -5 degrees Celsius (23 degrees Fahrenheit) while air is continuously blown into it. It's kind of like when a child makes bubbles in their drink, except inside a blast freezer. Once the topping is placed onto regular, unfrozen beer though, it acts as an insulating lid and keeps the drink cold for 30 minutes.

Almost Pizza: 'SNL' Skewers Processed Food Industry With Fake Pizza Commercial

Processed, frozen "pizza" is in the limelight of this Saturday Night Live skit, starring Kristen Wiig.

6 Ingredients You May Not Want In Your Food

Yikes! Make sure to check out these creepy additives in common food -- including milk.

These days it's hard for even die-hard foodies to know what they're eating or drinking. That's because food has changed from something that didn't need a modifier -- if it walked, swam, flew or grew out of the ground, it was food -- to something that stopped off at Mr. Burns' nuclear plant on the way to your plate.

Cornell Forest Experts Advocate for the Return of Silvopasturing

When one pictures grazing land for cattle, the forest isn't usually what comes to mind, but that's exactly what Cornell Forest Experts are trying to get farmers to imagine. Managed livestock grazing in the woods, known as silvopasturing, could be a beneficial practice for all involved.

To give farmers a greater incentive to convert forested acreage into silvopasture, the New York State Senate recently voted to amend the state's agricultural assessment program to include silvopasturing. Silvopasturing also benefits woodland managers -- livestock can help clear the underbrush and create a more productive stand of timber, said Brett Chedzoy, a CCE agriculture educator.

Cheese Olympics end Hampton cheese week

In the spirit of the 2012 London Olympics, Hampton held their own curd-related contests to celebrate the end of their first-ever cheese week.

Children enjoyed building towers of cheese boxes and won a prize if they managed to pile them up as tall as themselves.
Participants also played a themed word search and quiz on Saturday, March 31. They bowled balls into cheese boxes and had to catch the mouse coming down one of three tubes.

Creole cream cheese with mint and strawberry-infused balsamic

This tangy and sweet cream cheese dessert can be served in martini glasses for flair.

Add strawberries and peppercorns to a nonmetal, airtight container and submerge berries in vinegar. Seal the container and let it sit in a warm, dry spot for at least a day. Transfer the container to a refrigerator until ready for use. The berries are preserved in vinegar; longer sit times increase the intensity of the flavor.

New cheese plants boost Wisconsin's rural areas

Platteville, Pulaski and Thorp, Wisconsin are each set to receive a new cheese plant, the opening of which will mean more job opportunities for cows and humans alike.

Wisconsin leads the nation in cheese production, and there are more cheese plants here now than there were 10 years ago, said John Umhoefer, executive director of the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association. There are 135 plants, up from 120 a decade ago. Wisconsin doesn't always get three plants a year and sometimes goes several years or more without a new facility. For years, the number of plants dwindled with fewer farms and industry consolidation. Now there are numerous expansions under way, in addition to the new plants, according to Powers.

Grandview cheese company agrees to federal order removing its products from market

Another recent Listeria monocytogenes scare cropped up, this one in Washington state. Del Bueno has agreed to pull its products from store shelves until the company develops a control program for Listeria.

Del Bueno must, among other actions, hire an independent laboratory to collect and analyze samples for the presence of Listeria, retain an independent sanitation expert, develop a program to control Listeria for all employees in both English and Spanish, and destroy all food items currently in the facility. Once the company is permitted to resume operations, the FDA may still require the company to recall products or cease production if future violations occur.