Study: Bright LED dairy cases speed off-flavors in skim milk
Taste-testing panels noted that LED light impairs fresh flavor properties more than fluorescent.
As grocery stores save energy by changing their dairy cases from fluorescent to LED lighting, researchers at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., found that milk – particularly skim or fat-free milk – becomes more susceptible to off-flavors from LED light than from standard fluorescent.
Light-emitting diode (LED) lighting was always assumed to be less damaging to milk due to its lower power consumption, says Robin Dando, assistant professor of food science and a co-author on the research. That assumption seems to be wrong.