Briefs: cheese factory scrapped, ice cream bottled

UK cheese factory plan scrapped ​​Plans to construct a £70m (€93m) cheese factory in the UK have failed after the Dutch entrepreneur behind the initiative pulled out of the scheme, citing difficulties within the debt market, local press reports have said. Ronald Akkerman, who set up the West Lakes Dairy Park (WLDP) to operate the site in the English county of Cumbria, told local newspaper News&Star that there was insufficient funding made available to go ahead with the construction. The milk purchase agreements with hundred of Cumberland farmers to supply the site has since been sold onto Meadow Foods. The report added the Meadow Foods stressed it would not be opening a new plant of its own, though would be offering the farmers the agreed rate for their milk. Bottled ice cream float cracked ​​A US beverage manufacturer claims it is about to shake up the 110 year old ice cream float, by recreating beverage in a ready-to-drink bottled format, to be sold at retail level. Cadbury Schweppes American Beverages' owned Sunkist, in conjunction with A&W restaurants, claims it will be rolling out the product throughout the US to tap growing interest in innovative convenience beverages. An ice cream float - or soda as it is also known - is made from combining ice cream with a fizzy beverage. "For years, beverage makers have tried to crack the code and develop an indulgent drink that tastes like a homemade float,"​ said a product spokesperson. Arla strengthens chocolate milk presence ​​Arla has purchased the remaining 50 per cent of shares in chocolate milk producer Cocio Chokolademælk for an undisclosed fee, the company announced yesterday. Through the acquisition, Arla will take full control of the company's 50 strong workforce and production facility at Esbjerg, which already produces the company's brands such as Matilde Café, Pucko and Café Met. Cocio Chokolademælk mainly produces milk from the Danish market, though also exports products to Germany, the UK and other European markets as well as to the United States. The move is expected to strengthen the Scandinavia-based company's presence in flavoured milk production, which is expected to grow by five to six per cent a year, according to Arla Foods "As sole owners of the business, we will have a stronger position for co-coordinating our operations within the existing flavoured milk categories, which are areas on which we want to focus more strategically,"​ stated Arla Foods' vice chief executive officer Povl Krogsgaard. Art-terly Butterly​​ We are increasingly seeing butter extended into new realms for nutrition and functionality, though one farmer in the US may have found a much more artistic use for product. Jim Victor has unveiled a butter sculpture, consisting of 1,000 pounds of the product, at 92nd Pennsylvania Farm Show that kicked off last week. The sculpture, which details the rigours of dairy workers in the State, will remain on display at the show before being converted into bio diesel at the Pennsylvania State University to fuel tractors used in dairy farming, the show's organisers said.