Student innovation keeps milk safe without refrigeration

No more crying over spoiled milk...not if Zeba Parker has her way!

As a PhD candidate in materials science and engineering (MatSE), Parker has developed Milkshield, a platform technology that preserves milk without refrigeration. Milkshield, which comes in the form of a capsule, is an antimicrobial insert that keeps the milk fresh and reduces spoilage, which Parkar said can revolutionize the dairy industry in third-world countries. 

“Milkshield has the potential to solve a lot of problems,” Parkar said. “There is a substantial amount of unnecessary spoilage of milk, and Milkshield can fix that.”

Parkar, who is from Mumbai, India, grew up watching Indian subsistence farmers lose dairy products to spoilage before they could reach their buyers. Parkar said that 10 percent of milk in India spoils because farmers don’t have access to proper refrigeration and electricity. 

“We knew the solution would have to be one that doesn’t require energy to preserve the milk for these farmers,” Parkar said. “That meant it would have to be a unique solution.” 

Parkar, whose research is specializing in high temperature stable polymers and structural applications for aerospace purposes, observed as some members of her team worked to develop a new material for purifying water. 

Why not use that same technology, Parkar wondered, to kill the bacteria in milk to prevent spoilage? 

So Parkar got to work. She took milk from the dairy farm on campus run by the University’s agricultural department, and began trial-and-error process in the lab that repeatedly had her going back to the drawing board. Within a few months, she had a working prototype. 

Having worked on the product since 2008, Parkar estimates that Milkshield will be available to hit the market in the next few years and as early as 2012. Before that, she will keep running tests to ensure that the quality and safety of the milk doesn’t change, as well as testing for any long-term effects.   

And while Parkar spends a great deal of time working in the lab, a lot of her recent energy has been directed towards the business side of Milkshield, which she says wouldn’t be possible without the assistance of the University of Illinois. 

“It’s been surprising because initially, my idea was not to build a business,” Parkar said. “But interacting with the community here on campus, everyone has been really encouraging and helpful with everything that I’ve needed.” 

Law students at Illinois helped Parkar write her Milkshield patent, while Illinois Launch, a program run by the University’s Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership, is assisting with the company’s business development. Parker was also a finalist in this year's $30,000 Lemelson MIT-Illinois Student Prize competition.

Initially, India will be the target market for Milkshield, but Parkar envisions her product helping subsistence farmers in third-world countries all over the world.

“I love the social aspect of my work, especially since I can help my home country of India,” Parkar said. “It’s very rewarding work.”
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Contact: Zeba Parker, Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

Writer:  Jay Lee, Enginering Communications Office.

If you have any questions about the College of Engineering, or other story ideas, contact Rick Kubetz, editor, Engineering Communications Office, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 217/244-7716.