“We know we can always call CDR to talk cheese.”
Troubleshooting, Product Development, Education And More
With more than 200 combined years of experience, CDR’s Cheese Industry and Applications Staff work to build a sustainable competitive advantage for the domestic cheese industry through leadership in innovative strategic research, technology, product development, outreach, and continuing education.
From Cheddar to Sweet Swiss, Queso Fresco to Juustoleipa, bloomy to surface ripened cheeses, CDR’s licensed cheesemakers and dairy researchers serve as a technical resource in the development, troubleshooting, and utilization of cheese products.
Services
Our staff provides a wide array of services to the cheese industry. It may be as simple as providing an expert opinion to a routine question, or it may involve the need to carry out cheesemaking trials. Our staff interact with our partners on a daily basis to determine their goals and objectives when we set-up, design, and carry out cheese trials. Contracted trials may involve testing ingredients, developing new cheeses, optimizing flavor and performance in existing cheeses, or simply finding answers to your questions. We also provide troubleshooting assistance for U.S. companies who are looking for expert assistance in regards to their product defects or shortcomings.
Sensory and Functionality
Our staff may be able to assist you in other areas. We have a full application kitchen with cooking options similar to restaurants large and small. This allows us to evaluate a how cheese tastes and functions in various food applications. Additionally, we have analysts who can conduct compositional, chemical, microbiological and functional testing. In addition to basic compositional, chemical and microbiological testing we offer functionality testing through our applications kitchen as well as cheese grading, screening and descriptive analysis through our sensory program. Whether you are looking to optimize flavor and performance or simply find an answer to a burning question, the CDR cheese group is available to help.

Success Story: Hoard's Dairyman Farm Creamery
What do you get when you take the knowledge and skill of Wisconsin cheesemakers and the Center for Dairy Research (CDR) and combine it with high-quality Guernsey milk from Hoard’s Dairyman Farm? The answer is some really great, unique cheese.
Read MoreCDR Cheese Pilot Plant Equipment
The CDR offers a fully equipped, pilot-scale cheese processing plant as well as access to experienced staff to assist in the planning and coordination of your projects and research.
Located on the UW-Madison campus in Babcock Hall, the CDR cheese pilot plant is housed within a UW Grade A Dairy Plant with connections to the Food Science Department allowing for collaboration and shared resources. The Babcock Hall Dairy plant can also provide CDR coordinated projects with materials such as pasteurized milk, cream, skim milk or whey and/or larger scale equipment and tanks. The cheese pilot plant has the capability to conduct a wide range of dairy related research trials including cream cheese, butter and more.