Dean Foods and Tetra Pak have created worked together to create an aseptic package that allows milk to stay shelf stable without refrigeration. This new package has allowed the companies to donate 250,000 cartons of milk to the North Texas Food Bank’s Food 4 Kids program.
Every weekend, 11,000 children in North Texas go home with backpacks filled with lightweight food that doesn’t need refrigeration or heating. Cereal, nuts, dried fruit and juice are staples. And for the second year in a row, so is milk.
Employees at Dallas-based Dean Foods came up with the idea of donating to Food 4 Kids in September 2010. But the company’s local Oak Farms plant doesn’t make milk that can sit unrefrigerated on shelves. So Dean started working with Tetra Pak to produce milk in aseptic packaging.
Aseptic technology sterilizes food with “ultra-high†temperatures (between 279 and 284 degrees), said Carla Fantoni, vice president of communications for Tetra Pak. The food is then put in sterile containers and sealed to keep out air, light and contaminants.
Food 4 Kids targets elementary school children who are “chronically hungry,†said Elizabeth Liser, director of corporate engagement for the food bank. That means that at least once a week, the kids don’t know where their next meal will come from.
Liser said Food 4 Kids aims to not only feed children over the weekend but to feed them nutritiously. Milk, she said, is key to fulfilling that goal. The USDA recommends children get 2 ½ to 3 cups of the stuff daily to develop strong muscles, teeth and bones.
The difference the extra food makes for the children in the program is huge, Liser said.Food.
Source:Â The Dallas News; Dana Meredith
