Weeds, heat and pure cultures - On the differential success of new technologies in the Danish and American creamery industries in the 1890s

Danish creameries introduced with government support pasteurization of cream during the 1890s which necessitated use of starter cultures to replace the heat-killed indigenous cream micro-flora. The Danish creameries exported the majority of their butter to the UK market that preferred a rather bland flavor. The US creameries did not implement pasteurization of cream successfully at that time. The primary reason for this outcome was that butter made from pasteurized cream lacked flavor components preferred by the American market. The US creameries experimented, however, with starter cultures to improve butter flavor, though without adopting the current best practice as they used unpasteurized cream. This study shows that differences in consumer preferences for butter flavor had a deciding impact on the introduction of new technologies to the creamery industry. This result anticipate current debates on introduction and diffusion of new technologies in the food industry.