Working with the FPC

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04/02/2025 Added

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Working with the FPC by Ellie Watts, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. 2025 High Pressure Processing and Dehydration Workshop

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[00:00:00.000]So I'm Ellie Watts, and I am the director of our Food Processing Center here.
[00:00:09.840]Welcome to our Food Processing Center.
[00:00:11.760]I know that sounds kind of funny to welcome you when we're a day and a half in, but it's
[00:00:15.960]so exciting to be here together in the room.
[00:00:19.940]Just a little bit about me.
[00:00:21.060]So the Food Processing Center is a part of our Food Science Department.
[00:00:26.360]I am a graduate of our Food Science Department.
[00:00:29.400]I have spent about 22 years in a product development capacity, doing R&D work for large food companies.
[00:00:39.280]My journey brought me back home, and so I am here at the university.
[00:00:43.520]I started in this role in October.
[00:00:45.920]So I'm really excited, you know, all roads kind of lead back home.
[00:00:50.060]So I think that's really exciting.
[00:00:51.340]So I just wanted to welcome you to our home here.
[00:00:54.160]We're very much kind of like a tight-knit family, and I'm excited that you can learn
[00:00:59.220]more about our capabilities, right, and you're physically going to see our capabilities and
[00:01:05.220]lay your eyes on the equipment very soon.
[00:01:09.160]So just to give you a little bit of history, we were established in 1983, so we've been
[00:01:15.860]around for about 42 years as a food processing center.
[00:01:20.360]We're like a consulting service center providing multidisciplinary services to the food industry,
[00:01:27.280]so food companies.
[00:01:29.040]Companies of all size and scale, but also to entrepreneurs and startups.
[00:01:33.980]So many of you that are in this room today, we were one of the first universities to kind
[00:01:40.280]of start as like a business incubator with our research facilities here.
[00:01:45.100]So we were originally located on our east campus.
[00:01:50.200]Now we're on this amazing Nebraska innovation campus.
[00:01:53.900]So we moved over here about 10 years ago in 2015.
[00:01:58.240]So we're really excited.
[00:01:58.860]We're excited to have this renovated center in this building.
[00:02:01.920]And there's a lot of rich history on our innovation campus that we're on today.
[00:02:06.020]But yeah, I just kind of wanted to explain a little bit about like our history and
[00:02:10.820]our transition over to kind of this center, right, where we are all about innovation here.
[00:02:16.600]There's 80 different companies and startups that have a presence on this campus.
[00:02:21.420]So it's really exciting to be a part of that.
[00:02:23.180]And you just think about the innovation that's cranking out here.
[00:02:26.660]And for you to join us for this workshop,
[00:02:28.680]to be a part of that as well.
[00:02:30.260]So you can see what our prior facility looked like.
[00:02:35.440]And now you can see this new beautiful building that we're standing in today.
[00:02:38.740]Also part of that, I'll talk a little bit more, but we do have our dairy store
[00:02:44.060]that is still located in our original building on East Campus.
[00:02:48.460]And in 2020, we did a grand reopening of that dairy store.
[00:02:53.420]So that was pretty exciting for us.
[00:02:55.540]And then, just to give you just high level,
[00:02:58.500]we do receive some state funds.
[00:03:01.000]But because we are a service center,
[00:03:03.000]we are generating a fair amount of our income
[00:03:06.320]just from like fee to service work.
[00:03:08.020]Real quick snapshot of our mission, right?
[00:03:12.740]We're very proud of this, right?
[00:03:14.320]Advancing the food industry and the pet food industry,
[00:03:17.620]because that's huge as well, by applying science,
[00:03:21.060]investing in our people, and building businesses.
[00:03:24.180]And that's really why we're here today, right?
[00:03:28.020]This is my.
[00:03:28.320]This is my team.
[00:03:29.180]So this is a phenomenal team.
[00:03:32.440]So when I talk about we're kind of a family, a close-knit family,
[00:03:35.640]I really mean that.
[00:03:37.000]And everyone has an important aspect of our success here.
[00:03:42.220]And we're designed very strategically in a sense
[00:03:47.840]that we've got three faculty members that are supporting our food processing
[00:03:52.620]center.
[00:03:53.260]So they're an excellent resource to that firsthand knowledge
[00:03:58.140]and also to that expertise and the research that we're cranking out, right?
[00:04:03.120]And so they're just a fantastic support system and
[00:04:06.080]a research really grounding us around those educational principles.
[00:04:10.760]Our staff, we're kind of designed to where there's a manager for
[00:04:13.700]each one of our service areas.
[00:04:15.820]Adele Summers actually is our product development manager, so
[00:04:19.100]she's in the room with us today.
[00:04:21.400]We also have Angeline, she's a part of our product development team,
[00:04:24.920]joining us here in the room today.
[00:04:26.200]So just a quick shout out.
[00:04:27.960]To Adele and April as well.
[00:04:30.780]So if you see any of these faces walking around in the building, and
[00:04:34.660]I guarantee you'll see a few of the faces when we go down to the pilot plant.
[00:04:38.960]Now you can kinda recognize them and know who they are.
[00:04:41.340]Here's a little bit more the scoop on the UNL Dairy Store.
[00:04:47.400]So we won't go long on this, but there's so much rich history.
[00:04:51.480]Our dairy store started in 1917, which is pretty amazing to think about
[00:04:56.280]how long it's been around.
[00:04:57.780]We were originally called, now, like you can see our logo, the dairy store.
[00:05:03.140]But we were originally called the Varsity Dairy.
[00:05:06.000]We supplied milk to our dormitories.
[00:05:08.920]And I think the coolest fun fact is that for $0.05,
[00:05:12.720]if you brought your own glass, you could get unlimited milk.
[00:05:17.200]So that's pretty cool.
[00:05:18.820]I mean, obviously, the cost structure of things now,
[00:05:20.840]that probably wouldn't make us very profitable.
[00:05:23.160]So I'm glad maybe we aren't necessarily doing that anymore.
[00:05:26.940]We've gotten a little
[00:05:27.600]bit smart and business savvy through the years.
[00:05:30.700]We leverage our students as workers,
[00:05:34.680]right, for that hands-on learning experience.
[00:05:37.020]So you're going to see throughout
[00:05:38.700]the food processing center,
[00:05:39.900]not just in the dairy store,
[00:05:42.780]but we employ student workers in our pilot plan,
[00:05:46.200]in our product development labs,
[00:05:48.300]in some of our other research labs, right,
[00:05:50.840]to give them that hands-on learning experience.
[00:05:52.740]And that's really kind of what we're all about,
[00:05:54.480]investing in our people,
[00:05:55.900]ensuring that they're successful,
[00:05:57.420]once they graduate and they transition on,
[00:06:00.960]to be successful in industry.
[00:06:02.620]So next, this slide is all about our food processing center
[00:06:07.680]and overviews many of our service areas.
[00:06:09.980]So it's kind of a busy slide,
[00:06:11.740]or the QR code is in the middle.
[00:06:13.220]So if you wanna scan that with your phone,
[00:06:16.780]it'll take you to our website.
[00:06:18.840]But essentially, we support food industry,
[00:06:23.340]food companies from all sizes and shapes and scale, right?
[00:06:27.240]To startups and entrepreneurs.
[00:06:28.860]So we have a product development team, as I mentioned,
[00:06:33.120]and introduced you to a couple that are already in the room,
[00:06:36.560]but we can help with product development.
[00:06:38.680]So if someone brings a recipe to us,
[00:06:41.640]we can help convert that over to a ratio basis, right?
[00:06:45.700]We can help source commercially available ingredients,
[00:06:49.800]right, instead of chopping green peppers,
[00:06:52.800]you know, fresh from the produce section,
[00:06:55.520]we can help them source an IQS.
[00:06:57.060]products, so that way they can have that consistency with.
[00:07:01.880]So, so we'll help with the product development aspect
[00:07:04.640]and then scaling that up into our pilot plant
[00:07:06.960]that you'll see, see soon.
[00:07:09.080]So within our general pilot plant,
[00:07:11.600]we've got a lot of capabilities there from bars to baking,
[00:07:14.960]freeze drying, HPP retort capabilities.
[00:07:18.080]Within our extrusion plant, you know, we can,
[00:07:21.200]we can carry out scale up proof of concept work for snacks,
[00:07:25.340]plant-based proteins, pet foods,
[00:07:26.880]within our dairy plant, you know,
[00:07:29.880]our small batch ice cream production, cheeses, butter, yogurt.
[00:07:32.880]So a vast range of capabilities that you'll see downstairs.
[00:07:37.900]We also carry out nutritional labeling,
[00:07:40.900]regulatory compliance services.
[00:07:42.900]We've got an analytical lab actually on the second floor,
[00:07:46.900]sensory testing.
[00:07:48.900]So we have a whole center for conducting sensory tests
[00:07:52.900]on the first floor.
[00:07:54.900]We got micro testing and validation work
[00:07:56.700]and we can provide food safety plan assistance
[00:07:59.700]and auditing with the food safety program.
[00:08:01.700]Thermal process validation and obviously HPP validation
[00:08:05.700]with Grace and her team's expertise.
[00:08:08.700]Shelf life testing, applied research and engineering,
[00:08:12.700]and then extension and outreach.
[00:08:14.700]So that's really about the workshop you're in today.
[00:08:17.700]And we do offer a wide variety of workshops and trainings,
[00:08:20.700]which is really, really great.
[00:08:24.700]I think that folks like you,
[00:08:26.520]can find out about some of those offerings that we provide.
[00:08:31.520]And you can join us here on site, network,
[00:08:34.520]get to know a few names within the industry,
[00:08:36.520]as we've heard others talk about, which is so critical.
[00:08:39.520]So how we function, right?
[00:08:41.520]With just project onboarding on our website,
[00:08:44.520]there is a product development intake form.
[00:08:48.520]So that's where a lot of the projects start for us.
[00:08:53.520]It is specific to product development.
[00:08:56.340]But that's kind of a great way to at least like get your information to us,
[00:09:01.340]and then we'll reach out and understand a project scope.
[00:09:05.340]There's also on our website an analytical intake form.
[00:09:10.340]So we don't have an intake form for every one of our service areas.
[00:09:13.340]That would be a little bit, I don't know,
[00:09:15.340]it might be a little confusing and a little bit much.
[00:09:18.340]But we would encourage you to complete the intake form.
[00:09:22.340]Then one of the members of my team would reach out to you
[00:09:26.160]to kind of walk through what that scope looks like.
[00:09:29.160]We would put together a quote for the services.
[00:09:32.160]We would understand the timeline that would be required
[00:09:36.160]to carry out your objectives, and then the work would be completed.
[00:09:39.160]So that's pretty simple, pretty quick overview.
[00:09:42.160]A lot of our clients really find out about us through word of mouth
[00:09:47.160]or workshops like this.
[00:09:49.160]They're repeat clients through marketing individuals.
[00:09:53.160]You know, we've got a great partnership with some of our clients
[00:09:55.980]and some of our local groups and organizations here in Nebraska,
[00:09:59.980]like Grow Nebraska.
[00:10:01.980]So they might actually be funneling individuals to us that are reaching out
[00:10:06.980]and asking questions or through our extension partners as well.
[00:10:11.980]When I mentioned there's 80 different companies that have a presence here
[00:10:15.980]on this innovation campus, so NIC partners, Nebraska Innovation Campus.
[00:10:20.980]We love acronyms here.
[00:10:22.980]So hopefully you guys are picking up on some of our acronyms.
[00:10:25.800]But a lot of our partners here on campus, you know, they're clients,
[00:10:29.800]and they're actually becoming a partner with us, gives you discounts on our
[00:10:33.800]services and access to our faculty expertise and my staff's expertise.
[00:10:39.800]So that's actually a really great way that we bring in clients that way.
[00:10:44.800]And, you know, just different companies and startups that are needing some of
[00:10:48.800]that support and guidance.
[00:10:50.800]And Tony mentioned some of that earlier in his talk, and so I think there's --
[00:10:55.620]there's a lot of validity in us helping while you're growing your business, right?
[00:11:01.620]And you're kind of growing stepwise.
[00:11:03.620]And so that's where we can really help be that intermediary, help you kind of get a
[00:11:08.620]specification started, you know, as you are understanding, you know, what your
[00:11:14.620]product looks like, how you're getting distribution and gaining that distribution
[00:11:17.620]in stores and growing to where you're at the point you can go to a co-manufacturer
[00:11:22.620]or then eventually maybe have your own manufacturer.
[00:11:25.440]Here's a little bit more about the workshops and the extension outreach programs that we offer.
[00:11:32.440]So Recipe to Reality is a great one.
[00:11:35.440]I'm sure many of you, maybe some of you have taken that one.
[00:11:39.440]I know there are a few of you that have gone through Better Process Control School, FSPCA, Food Micro Workshops.
[00:11:46.440]We're in this one today, everybody knows about this one, High Pressure Processing and Dehydration.
[00:11:50.440]Everybody should be very familiar.
[00:11:52.440]Informed Principles of Micro Processing.
[00:11:55.260]We have microbiological food safety and quality.
[00:12:00.080]We also do a lot of sessions in the summer with youth, right, as kind of recruiting efforts.
[00:12:05.840]And then we do a ton of tours daily, weekly, which is awesome.
[00:12:10.560]It's always really fun to have dignitaries from other countries come through.
[00:12:15.340]We have other universities come through, and they're just curious about how we are set
[00:12:20.460]up, the offerings that we provide, because they want to mimic something at their university.
[00:12:25.080]And I think that's so amazing, because it's not competitive, it's very much in a spirit
[00:12:31.320]of helping each other out within this kind of educational realm.
[00:12:35.940]And I love that.
[00:12:36.940]Because when I was in industry, I wouldn't dream of bringing in a competitor from another
[00:12:42.180]large food company and touring them through your facilities.
[00:12:47.400]That would just be a little bit of a challenge, because you would not want to give away some
[00:12:52.460]of your intellectual properties.
[00:12:54.900]For us here, of course we maintain client confidentiality, and we can easily sign NDAs
[00:13:02.220]with our clients to make sure that that intellectual property is maintained, and we're not disclosing
[00:13:08.680]that to other clients that we're working with.
[00:13:11.720]But I love the fact that we're working with other universities and talking to each other,
[00:13:16.580]even referring, you know, a client to another university if they have capabilities that
[00:13:21.520]we don't or vice versa.
[00:13:26.000]Our sweet spot.
[00:13:27.040]So this is actually another really unique element that we offer here.
[00:13:30.860]So we have on this floor in the corner of the building, we've got office space.
[00:13:36.760]So like cubicle or full on office, cubicles and then desk space that can be rented out.
[00:13:44.400]So if you're growing to the point where you're a startup and you are nervous to invest in
[00:13:50.400]your own brick and mortar, you can actually just rent a desk space or an office space
[00:13:55.560]and have your company, or even if it's just you at that point in time, right, because
[00:14:00.640]you're still growing and building, you can have a presence here.
[00:14:04.140]And that unlocks so many opportunities for you, because as I mentioned before, you have
[00:14:09.400]access to our staff and our faculty, you have access to our university resources.
[00:14:14.160]Like, our libraries.
[00:14:16.820]Even access to, like, athletic tickets, just like you're, you know, a staff member at the
[00:14:22.440]university, which is pretty awesome.
[00:14:24.900]I think that's kind of a positive for many folks to hear that.
[00:14:29.440]But it gives you discounts on our services.
[00:14:32.280]And we also work really closely with the Department of Economic Development, right?
[00:14:38.320]So we can kind of talk through if there's certain grants and funding that might
[00:14:43.920]help you get a start without having to put so much seed money in yourself up front, right?
[00:14:51.860]So there's a lot of benefits there.
[00:14:53.520]But essentially, right, it's a suite of onsite private offices.
[00:14:57.660]It provides you that access to the state of the art facility right here.
[00:15:02.740]You would be located on Nebraska Innovation Campus where there's so many other startups
[00:15:06.980]and just a lot of excitement, webinars, just different events and activities weekly.
[00:15:13.680]And really why, right?
[00:15:15.200]So we are leading the industry as one of the first university incubators.
[00:15:20.640]We've been established for 42 years, so it just makes a lot of sense.
[00:15:24.140]We've got a lot of knowledge and know-how, and we can help our clients get a really great
[00:15:28.860]start.
[00:15:30.680]So right now, some of our current sweet spot partners, we've got a food ingredient company
[00:15:36.720]that leverages our lab and our pilot plants.
[00:15:40.920]They've sourced their own talent.
[00:15:43.440]And then they have an office here, so they leverage the state investment very well.
[00:15:48.060]They're adding people to their team, and they have an office housed in our sweet spot.
[00:15:53.040]We've got a pet food company.
[00:15:54.460]They've relocated two scientists here that are working in our pilot plant daily, which
[00:15:58.980]is pretty awesome.
[00:16:00.620]They operate companies' R&D activities here on site.
[00:16:04.340]They're expecting strong multi-year activity, and they're producing 100% of their saleable
[00:16:09.080]product in our pilot plant facility as they're growing.
[00:16:12.200]Right?
[00:16:13.200]So we're helping them in that interim as they're growing before going to a co-manufacturer.
[00:16:18.480]We've got a food tech startup.
[00:16:21.600]It was kind of started from UNL faculty members.
[00:16:24.620]They were a natural fit to our NIC Innovation campus.
[00:16:27.900]They're producing 100% of their saleable product here in our pilot plant as well.
[00:16:32.280]And we have a nutritional supplement company.
[00:16:34.340]They've built out their own kind of R&D and manufacturing space here in our building right
[00:16:40.400]here on our campus.
[00:16:41.920]So that's pretty exciting as well.
[00:16:42.960]So there's a lot of opportunities.
[00:16:45.460]We can just sit down with you and understand what that looks like for your company and
[00:16:49.280]your needs.
[00:16:50.540]And we can kind of right size that for you.
[00:16:54.920]And then I think this is like my money slide.
[00:16:57.080]I love this because I get to brag on my team and everything that we accomplished over the
[00:17:01.440]last year.
[00:17:02.880]And this isn't even like an all exhaustive list.
[00:17:06.380]These are just some of the quick hits.
[00:17:08.520]But for our dairy store, during the month of November and December.
[00:17:12.720]That's a pretty big month for us because we do holiday gift baskets and boxes and it's
[00:17:18.940]like online sales with cheese and sausage from our meat lab.
[00:17:22.820]So we sold 1,168 gift baskets just this holiday season, right?
[00:17:30.380]So the month of November and December.
[00:17:31.900]So that was over $117,000 in sales for us, which is pretty exciting.
[00:17:37.520]The furthest location, I think this is so fun, the furthest location we shipped, one
[00:17:42.480]of our cheese boxes was Alaska.
[00:17:44.800]So that's pretty cool when you think about like here we are, just little Nebraska, right
[00:17:49.860]in the middle of the US, but we shipped to Alaska.
[00:17:53.160]We also introduced two new cheeses this holiday season.
[00:17:59.520]So we waxed dipped them.
[00:18:02.900]Our other cheeses are packaged in plastic.
[00:18:07.100]We waxed dipped them, which was kind of a first for us, but under the Samaritas label,
[00:18:11.680]it's aged cheddar.
[00:18:12.240]So that was kind of a fun little launch for us, just to add some excitement to our product
[00:18:19.280]offerings.
[00:18:20.500]So within our service center, we did install a new HPP unit for the validation studies
[00:18:27.060]in the BL2 lab.
[00:18:28.860]Grace can talk to you all about that.
[00:18:30.600]And she's got a pretty full schedule of validation tests that she's running, her and her team.
[00:18:37.560]So we're really proud and really excited about having that capability to carry out
[00:18:42.000]those validation studies as that's so important.
[00:18:45.920]Our dairy plant, we are supplying ice cream now to UNL Dining Services.
[00:18:50.560]So that was another unlock of just more distribution, more visibility to our ice cream.
[00:18:56.560]We carried out 56 pilot plant client projects, 52 PD projects.
[00:19:04.420]Just my team toured 53 tours through the halls of our pilot plant throughout the year, which
[00:19:11.320]was over seven years.
[00:19:11.760]Over 700 people, which is pretty awesome to think that many people are walking through.
[00:19:17.040]There's other tours that go through just like this whole class workshop is going to go through,
[00:19:23.080]but the NIC campus and the director of the NIC campus will walk tours through as well.
[00:19:28.100]So that's not the total number of feet that have walked through our building, but it adds
[00:19:33.840]up quite a bit.
[00:19:36.100]We did five formal sensory tests, 13 informal sensory tests.
[00:19:41.520]40 nutritional facts panels from 22 different clients, 6,000 micro tests from 20 different
[00:19:49.060]clients, 75 process review letters for acidified foods, and six workshops with over 60 different
[00:19:56.640]attendees.
[00:19:57.640]So that's kind of the running hit list of like the impact that we've had.
[00:20:01.680]You can just kind of see the breadth of the work that we do here.
[00:20:05.780]And so that really kind of sums up the work we do, I would be more than happy to entertain
[00:20:11.280]any questions that you have, my contact information is up there, a QR code will take you directly
[00:20:16.880]to my business card and you can save that into your contacts if you want to scan the QR code.
[00:20:21.840]But what questions do you have for me?
[00:20:25.120]Or if none, that's all right, we can get you to the pilot plant.
[00:20:29.840]I know you guys are thrilled to put your hairnet on.
[00:20:31.760]I have a very fast question.
[00:20:33.440]The review for a CD5 booth, what is that, like what do you say, what is the impact?
[00:20:41.040]Dr. Jane Stratton does the review for a CD5 booth, so that would entail the thermal process
[00:20:47.900]validation and the letter to ensure that that thermal process, right, with the retort is
[00:20:54.140]achieving the sterility that they're looking for, right, so it kind of gives them that
[00:20:58.040]validation to operate.
[00:21:00.040]Yep, yep, yeah.
[00:21:02.260]Any other thoughts or questions?
[00:21:03.840]How does the process work to request tours of the .
[00:21:08.760]Just reach out to us.
[00:21:09.800]Yeah.
[00:21:10.800]Phone, email, text, anyway, yeah, well, honestly, we love showing our facilities because we
[00:21:18.760]do have such a wide variety, and that's really, I think, some of what we're still unlocking
[00:21:24.660]is how do we get the word out there?
[00:21:27.000]How do we let everyone know that we can help them, right?
[00:21:31.440]We want to be that person that they turn to or that group they turn to as a resource,
[00:21:36.640]so I think we are still finding ways to get information out there.
[00:21:40.560]On social media or through different professional networks, whenever we can give a tour, it's
[00:21:45.440]like planting another seed that we might harvest later, right?
[00:21:49.280]Yeah?
[00:21:50.280]Do you guys offer any workshops or work with any companies on fermentation?
[00:21:58.420]That's a really good question.
[00:22:00.920]Not right now.
[00:22:01.960]We actually did start a fermentation minor within our food science program, so we do
[00:22:07.920]have brewing equipment.
[00:22:08.920]I actually don't have that on my slide.
[00:22:10.320]I'm so glad you asked.
[00:22:12.540]We do have brewing equipment that you'll see in our pilot plan.
[00:22:15.260]It's right next to the HPP equipment.
[00:22:18.660]We've started the fermentation minor, but there is not a workshop for that yet.
[00:22:23.200]But I will take note of that, and maybe we need to ... I think it's a really great point.
[00:22:26.880]We always need to evolve, right?
[00:22:28.660]And so what are some of those new topics that we-
[00:22:30.780]I'm sure it's out there, but I found it's lacking access to those types of programs.
[00:22:37.080]Yeah.
[00:22:38.080]Yeah.
[00:22:39.080]That's great.
[00:22:40.080]Yeah.
[00:22:41.080]Anything else?
[00:22:42.080]Yeah.
[00:22:43.080]If hypothetically one wanted to schedule a trial today on some piece of equipment,
[00:22:48.080]what kind of lead time would they be looking at for getting started?
[00:22:54.080]So it kind of depends, right?
[00:22:56.140]If that equipment is setting idle and we've got staff, we could probably get you in pretty
[00:23:01.140]soon.
[00:23:02.140]I would say a typical lead time would be a month or two, but it just kind of depends,
[00:23:06.840]right?
[00:23:07.840]Like we would...
[00:23:09.120]You could let us know.
[00:23:10.080]What your project scope is.
[00:23:11.780]We could talk through that, kind of talk through timing, understand.
[00:23:16.200]So the extrusion right now, we've got a fair amount of open time on the calendar.
[00:23:21.720]Things like the freeze dryer and the HVP does run more frequently, in fact, daily, weekly.
[00:23:28.260]We can talk through that.
[00:23:29.260]Yeah.
[00:23:30.260]But I would say maybe a month at a minimum.
[00:23:34.180]Yeah.
[00:23:36.720]Anything else?
[00:23:37.720]Yeah.
[00:23:38.720]Tony.
[00:23:39.720]You're a dairy store.
[00:23:40.720]You're selling to the public out of that, right?
[00:23:41.720]Mm-hmm.
[00:23:42.720]Can you launch products out of the food processing center as well, like, to local
[00:23:49.720]stores and things like that?
[00:23:51.240]So I think we're not today, but I think it's something that I would like to unlock.
[00:23:56.280]We've talked about it.
[00:23:57.280]In fact, just Monday, my whole team went offsite for a strategic planning session and we talked
[00:24:03.140]through our objectives and brainstormed different action items to hit our objectives, right?
[00:24:07.480]And that was one of the topics that came up.
[00:24:09.360]How do we get our ice cream or how do we get our cheese into other like grocery store outlets,
[00:24:13.120]right?
[00:24:14.120]I think there's some trickiness because we are a university nonprofit, so we don't want
[00:24:20.060]to take business from industry, right?
[00:24:22.280]Like you all are a very important part of the food industry.
[00:24:26.420]We as a nonprofit don't want to take some of that share away.
[00:24:30.120]However, Nebraska, right, and our consumers here are really supportive of that.
[00:24:35.240]And I think it's just a really great, I don't know.
[00:24:39.000]It's like reminiscent, right, of home, or if you were an alumni of the program.
[00:24:44.760]So that's why we see the ice cream sell really well in our dairy store, because there's just
[00:24:50.180]a lot of like alumni when they travel in, you know, it's nostalgic, right?
[00:24:54.680]They're bringing their family through because they just remember all of those memories being
[00:24:58.060]a student here and things like that.
[00:25:00.340]Now we are launching some new ice cream flavors.
[00:25:03.640]So we do unique special flavors to honor like the university president.
[00:25:08.640]We just launched the heart of gold to honor our president gold.
[00:25:13.520]We launched that in the fall.
[00:25:15.800]We're in the works of launching an FFA ice cream flavor for state FFA convention here
[00:25:21.140]in about two weeks.
[00:25:22.520]So that's very exciting.
[00:25:23.680]We've got like our 4-H clover mint flavor.
[00:25:26.100]So we do honor certain like youth programs and certain kind of special entities.
[00:25:33.160]We've actually, I've started conversation with our athletics department too, which is
[00:25:36.860]very, very exciting.
[00:25:38.280]It's very exciting to get our ice cream into Memorial Stadium, into Devaney.
[00:25:43.140]And we're working with our volleyball team actually.
[00:25:46.420]So we've got a pretty awesome volleyball team.
[00:25:49.040]Like those of you that are local know about our volleyball team.
[00:25:51.340]If you're not local, you might not.
[00:25:53.540]But we're pretty excited to do a brainstorm session with our volleyball team and see them
[00:25:58.460]kind of come together as like a team building activity and create a new ice cream flavor.
[00:26:03.900]So yeah, yeah.
[00:26:06.920]All right.
[00:26:07.920]Anything else?
[00:26:08.920]Okay.
[00:26:09.920]Well, thank you so much for your time.
[00:26:13.160]Let us know if we can be of any support or assistance for you as you are, you know, developing
[00:26:18.920]products and kind of, you know, if you need any support along the way, we are happy to
[00:26:24.140]help.
[00:26:25.140]We're just an email or a phone call or a text message away.
[00:26:28.660]Thank you.

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