News
Meet Andrew, an expert behind NZMP's Recombined Reference
Andrew Legg, Senior Research Technologist, Dairy Foods Applications, Fonterra Research and Development Centre
24 Apr 2024
2 min
NZMP’s Recombined Reference is a complete manual on what you need to know about recombining traditional dairy applications including cheese, beverages and cultured. Recombination is a process whereby milk that has been dried into a powder is reconstituted to return it to liquid form.
As the global dairy ingredients and solutions brand of Fonterra, NZMP™ has created this reference for our customers and other parties in the dairy industry. Backed by one of the largest dairy exporters in the world, the Recombined Reference is a cumulation of expert knowledge containing what you need to know about recombining for specific applications.
Fonterra’s Senior Research Technologist Andrew Legg is responsible for developing new cheese applications and ingredients, and helping customers understand how to use those ingredients. Andrew joined Fonterra 20 years ago after completing a four-year food technology degree at Massey University in New Zealand. As a graduate, Andrew completed the Fonterra graduate technical programme, which is a Master’s in Dairy Science and Technology. Being as passionate about cheese as he is, Andrew also spent a year in the UK making artisan cheeses before returning back to work for Fonterra.
What Andrew believes is most important about the Recombined Reference is that it encompasses all the information about recombining specific applications in an easy to use reference with everything in one place. The information is broken down into sections for each product making it an accessible, hands-on time saver.
The Recombined Reference helps standardise the language within the industry to avoid any misunderstandings and brings together a whole lot of knowledge gained throughout many years from various experts. Andrew has spent time collating that information and translating it into easy-to-follow guides for the Recombined Reference. He sees the Recombined Reference as institutional knowledge; a collective history on the various processes of recombining and a wealth of information.
"It has nicely broken down the knowledge you need in many product-specific areas. And then there's a whole bunch of other general information that you need to know for any kind of recombining process."
Andrew Legg, Senior Research Technologist, Fonterra
Andrew believes there is a real art to making recombined cheese that performs well in taste, texture and nutrition. The manual serves as a consistent reference for manufacturing, particularly for markets not overly familiar with cheese. The Recombined Reference is a tool for these markets to tap into NZMP’s expertise and knowledge of performance in dairy.
