80th anniversary of the Society for Dairy Technology

This year, 2023, marks the 80th anniversary of the Society of Dairy Technology (SDT). A Virtual Issue of the SDT's journal, the International Journal of Dairy Technology, to mark the 70th anniversary of the Society was written by the then Acting Editor Dr John Toomey. The Virtual Issue, including an Editorial along with 15 exemplary articles, chosen by the Society's Publication Committee, was published as part of the celebrations of the occasion. Readers are encouraged to read how the SDT has changed and adapted over the 70 years. This editorial gives an overview of major developments within the Society over the past 10 years, changes in the journal and presents 10 highly cited articles that indicate the enhanced scientific publishing impact of the Society's premier publication over the past decade. The original objective of the Society that originated during WW2 was to ‘Facilitate contact and discussion between representatives of all sections of our many-sided society’; this has been updated to: ‘Our purpose is to advance professional development and recognition through knowledge transfer and networking’ to reflect the modern age. The start of the decade was marked by a major recession with rises in unemployment, debt and home repossessions. The withdrawal of the UK from the European Union (Brexit) created major challenges for exporters and markedly increased costs for food companies. The COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine that occurred towards the end of the decade created major increases in energy and food costs, political instability and significant issues in obtaining employees. These developments created major challenges for professional societies to retain let alone increase membership and support members. The SDT has worked hard to support members through these crises and recognised the importance of maintaining communications with members. Particular effort was given to developing Online methods of communication, supporting section Chairpersons to support members in the main dairy regions, organising regular Conferences/Symposia to support the professional development of members and others in the industry and providing critical networking opportunities. The SDT is aware of a skills shortage in dairy technology in the UK and Ireland and has placed particular emphasis on supporting members and their companies in developing their knowledge and skills in dairy technology. A major initiative has been the Online SDT Training Academy. The academy currently offers a suite of five Dairy Technology E-Learning modules, namely Milk Production, Dairy Chemistry, Milk Processing, Milk Products and Dairy Microbiology. Successful completion of a module is recognised by the award of a digital certificate. Further modules are underdevelopment. As a supporting member of AEDIL (Association of European Dairy Industry Learning), the SDT is currently involved in the Southern Ireland Centre for Vocational Excellence (COVE) with the Erasmus+4-year project designed to tackle the national skills shortage in the dairy sector through innovative training methods, collaborative industry–research–training initiatives and programmes to develop existing staff, and attract future generations of dairy professionals into the dairy industry. The SDT now offers dairy technology trainers a service whereby they can submit their courses to the Society for approval and endorsement. An Online forum has been developed to enable members with technical queries to obtain support to help them in their roles in the industry. Members can download at no additional cost the SDT's Technical Series of Dairy E-Books. There are currently 14 in the series, including the Technology of Cheesemaking, Membrane Processing and Biofilms in the Dairy Industry. The Society promotes partnerships to develop an enhanced understanding of dairy technology and to support national and international initiatives that have the potential to aid the development of the industry. The SDT has joined the Nordic Dairy Group (NMR), a group of nine organisations manufacturing dairy products or supporting the dairy industry in Scandinavia to enable the organisation of the three yearly Nordic Dairy Congress. Three regular Conferences/Symposia are now provided per annum to support the professional development of members and others in the industry and to provide important networking opportunities for staff. The IJDT has seen many changes since its inception as the Journal of the Society of Dairy Technology in 1947. For the last 20 years, the IJDT has been published both Online and in print copy. In common with other journals, demand for the print version has been reducing, and following consultation, the journal moved fully Online in February 2021. The decade has seen concerted action by the Editor, Associate Editors, the Editorial Board, the SDT Publications Committee and our publishers Wiley to publicise the Journal and to raise the quality of the articles published. The Editorial Board has been strengthened and now has 24 distinguished academics from major global dairy centres. The Members of the Editorial Board have been very supportive in directing quality submissions to the journal and providing advice to the Editor and Associate Editors. Guidance for new authors on how to publish in the Journal has been provided and has been used extensively. The remit of the journal has been expanded to cover the full dairy supply chain including the influence of production practices on milk quality and the sustainability of milk production through to the marketing and distribution of milk and dairy products. These actions have resulted in a major increase in critical quality indicators, including Impact Factor (IF) and CiteScore. The IF exceeded 4 for the first time in June 2021. The current IF (June 2022) is 4.286 giving the Journal a Q1 rating, 47 of 144 of all journals rated by Clarivate in Food Science and Technology. The June 2021 CiteScore was 6.6. This had increased to 7.7 in January 2023. In conclusion, the unprecedented developments described above indicate that the SDT continues to vigorously pursue ‘Our purpose is to advance professional development and recognition through knowledge transfer and networking’.