Rutter's Improves Health, Quality of Dairy Products

YORK, Pa. -- As the nation marks National Dairy Month, Rutter's Dairy is introducing changes to its milk, cream and tea beverages.

Among the changes, the company eliminated high fructose corn syrup from Rutter's chocolate milk. It also replaced corn syrup with all-natural sugar to sweeten Rutter's whole milk and 1-percent chocolate milk products.

Rutter's made the natural sugar switch in several of its beverages, too, including Rutter's Green Tea, Orange Tea and Lemonade. Plus, it launched a new product, Half & Half Tea, which is half lemonade and half iced tea and was created using natural sugar as its sweetener.

In addition, Rutter's added fresh pasteurized Half & Half cream to its product line. The existing Rutter's Half & Half cream is ultra-pasteurized, which allows the cream to be sold for up to 65 days from the date of its production, according to the company.  The new, fresh-pasteurized product has a sell-by date 17 days after its production, the same as Rutter's milk products.

Rutter's debuted these product changes along with changes to the shape and opacity of the containers. The alterations make Rutter's Dairy the first in central Pennsylvania to switch to clear plastic packaging. The new clear quart bottles resemble the old-fashioned glass milk bottle, while providing the lightweight recyclability of plastic.  

Todd Rutter, president of Rutter's Dairy, said giving consumers the ability to see the product they're purchasing is the sole reason for the packaging change. 

"We've been told many times over the years that we have the best chocolate milk in the world. We thought it was time to change our packaging a bit to better show it off to the world," he said.

York-based Rutter's Dairy distributes dairy and iced tea products to six states in the Mid-Atlantic region and is in its third generation of family ownership with Todd Rutter as president. Rutter's Farm Stores is the related convenience store operation.