CHICAGO, Ill. — An idea that started 25 years ago at a kitchen table is now bursting on the national scene with an upcoming promotional blitz touting the nutritional benefits of a new milk product that’s drawn attention from many health-conscious consumers and skeptics.

Production of fairlife, often dubbed ‘’Frankenmilk’’ by critics and the brunt of jokes by comedians, is now in full swing. During a Feb. 3 teleconference, company officials revealed fairlife, distributed by Coca-Cola, will be distributed nationwide with retailers ranging from grocery stores to convenience stores already lined up to carry the product following what they claim was a successful trial run in stores.

Steve Jones, CEO of Chicago-based fairlife, LLC, expects availability of the product to be high enough in March to launch a national marketing campaign aimed at furthering the milk’s appearance on shelves.

“We are setting a new standard for milk,” said Jones, who’s long been involved with other new product launchings and modifications.

Part of the emphasis during the presentation that included questions from the media was on dispelling a belief that fairlife is a synthetic, not totally natural, product. “Absolutely, it’s real milk. Real authentic. Right from the farm,” said Jones, who added fairlife is purely the end result of “what happens from grass to glass” with ultra filtering and pasteurization in between.

Much of the milk is drawn from cows at Fair Oaks Farm in Jasper County, in northwestern Indiana.

The farm, which states it uses environmentally friendly practices like converting cow manure into energy to run its large agritourism operation, is owned by Mike and Sue McCloskey.

Mike McCloskey is founder of Select Milk Producers, a cooperative of more than 90 other dairies in the Midwest and Southwest available to help with the product’s milk supply.

He said the process first starts by how cows roaming uninhibited in freestanding barns are raised.

After leaving the cows, the milk is chilled to 34 degrees Fahrenheit and shipped to Michigan to undergo a cold filtering process that doubles the amount of protein and increases calcium by 30 percent over traditional milk. fairlife – billed as creamier and tasty – also comes out lactose-free with half the amount of sugar.

“We’re just increasing what people are looking for and decreasing what you don’t need more of,” said McCloskey. Sue noted no proteins or any other nutrients are added.

“We created an innovative cold filtering process that didn’t in any way change the purity or wholesomeness of milk or the nutrients in milk,” said McCloskey.

In the 1980s, he said he began his transition from becoming a veterinarian to a dairy farmer in southern California, then in about 1990 the family lost its main well that supplied high-quality water for the cows. No other well that would tap into the same aquifer could be found and water from other wells was so hard it did not agree with their cows.

A few months later they came up with the idea of filtering the water from the remaining wells and the cows responded favorably, he said.

Gradually, the idea advanced to filtering milk, with the result being a product the McCloskeys hope catches on with consumers.

Jones said the marketing campaign will include traditional media such as television and radio stations, coupons and free samples in stores, but also rely heavily on social media. Despite sagging traditional milk sales and the cost of fairlife costing about 60 cents a quart more than regular milk, he is optimistic because of the number of consumers nowadays looking for more nutritious, higher-protein foods.

Some traditional milk producers have a dimmer view, saying consumers prefer a milk that’s already natural and nutritious without filterization, and is a product they can trust. The American Dairy Assoc. (ADA) Indiana takes a more welcoming stance, stating fairlife should benefit the dairy industry by offering consumers another option to the growing number of milk products added in recent years.

“We’re happy about innovation in the dairy industry,” said Jenni Browning, communications and wellness director for the ADA branch in Indianapolis.

She would not speculate if sales of regular milk will be hurt by fairlife, but said there could be a gain for the dairy industry overall from consumers who previously did not drink milk, choosing fairlife or some other new milk product.

“Surveys show whether they need it or not, consumers want more protein in products, and if you’re lactose-intolerant, people will be able to enjoy milk more,” said Browning.

(The product fairlife is spelled by its manufacturer with a lower-case “f.” – Ed.)