Novel bioscientific opportunities for dairy products

It is a truism that the dairy industry is an integration of technology and biology. Advances in both the technology of milk and milk product processing and in the improvement of the biological organisms which supply that milk is a bedrock of fresh technology in dairying. In recent years it has become clear that at the interface between technology and biology there is the potential to make gains that were previously unprecedented and unanticipated. More than ever before, the accelerating revolution in biological knowledge is having an impact on the industry and its direction, both in actual results and in the excitement of unrealised potentials. There are tools in place and in development that afford us with control over the biology underpinning our industry, in some cases to a degree which we have previously enjoyed over the technology only. The next decade will show how this conversion of the new biology into technology - biotechnology - will enlarge and reshape our industry. A critical mass in developing biological technologies has been reached, evinced by the changes in research from focussed, single-issue projects to high-throughput multivariate analyses. Genomics has replaced genetics. This is no incremental improvement but a step change, a quantum leap which offers revolutions in the way biological products will be brought to the customer. The new bioscience is a great opportunity and a great challenge.