LOGAN, Utah (ABC 4 News) – As part of the ABC News challenge, ABC4 is featuring Utah companies keeping jobs and money in America. If we each spend just $64 this Holiday season on American made products, we can create 200,000 new jobs.
Many Utah companies are taking their success and using it to help others. Gossner Foods in Logan is doing their part to help out our troops in Afghanistan by sending over American food.
Kelly Luthi told ABC 4 about the milk Gossner packages to sell, “The milk is shelf stable, basically it doesn't require refrigeration when its sold.”
That might sound bizarre, but it’s true! Boxes of milk do not need to be in the fridge and they last more than a year.
So, how do they do it?
Luthi said, “We heat it up to a temperature about 100 degrees greater than the temperature for pasteurization and then we put it in a special packaging that keeps all the air and bacteria from getting in."
Gossner doesn’t just package milk; they have been producing hundreds of products in the Cache valley since 1966.
It starts with about a million pounds of milk into their Logan facility and leaves packaged as milk or cheese.
It doesn’t just start in their plant, instead at one of the 150 dairy farms sending their milk to Gossner.
David Larsen manages the cheese plant; he told ABC4 the dairy farms are key to his company’s success. Larsen said, “It starts at the dairy farm who works hard every day in difficult circumstances to produce top quality milk for us - we wouldn't be here without them.”
The Logan plant produces 80,000 pounds of cheese a day. Now while that is impressive, it is what the company gives back that is really cool.
Right now they are working on getting their milk to our troops.
Luthi said, “We try to get our troops in other parts of the world, milk from the us.”
A few boxes are already in Afghanistan and another huge shipment is on its way. They should arrive in January.
Gossner is helping not just Americans around the world, but of course right here in Utah.
Larsen said, “It’s important to support our local economy and support our neighbors and friends.”
You might be eating Gossner cheese and not even know it! They package under hundreds of private labels, so chances are if you’re eating Swiss cheese it probably came from Logan.
