Milk

[Salu]

A couple of thoughts about milk.

I bought a carton of milk on Monday (25th OCt) hoping it would last me the best part of the week which it normally does (cups of tea during the day at work).

I noticed that when I got back to my office, it had a use by date of today (27th Oct). I bought if from a different place to my normal place and thought it obviously didn't sell as much milk as my usual place....

When I used it I had the ominous floaters rise to the top...yuck.

It got me thinking though. Is it just that I should pay as much for a product that lasts two days as the same that lasts 10 days? Shouldn't it decrease every day? Probably difficult to enforce I know but should shelf life be taken into consideration when we purchase?

Also it feels like milk lasts much longer these days.....?

Am I right? If so, what the hell are they doing to it to make it last longer......maybe it isn't as healthy as it used to be? Obviously pasturisation and homoginisation has had dramatic effects on milk over the years, but what else are they doing? Removing enzymes? adding E numbers??

Hmmmmm

[Graham F]

did your mum not tell you to always check the dates

always take your product from the back of the shelf

[gazzae]

Don't know about it lasting longer, but maybe one reason would be new technology decreasing the time it takes to get the milk from the cow to the shelf.

[Nugget]

Originally Posted by Scooby

did your mum not tell you to always check the dates

I thought he was buying milk, not dates

[ian@huth]

Originally Posted by gary_580

always take your product from the back of the shelf

That's OK as long as the shelf stacker knows about stock rotation and does it properly. If they just fill the gaps at the front of the shelf the products at the back may already be out of date.

[orangebird]

Milk... the devils drink...

I thought you would have known about this, Salu, the legal pasteurisation process is 71.7°C for 15 seconds, designed to eliminate pathogenic bacteria.

It was found, however, that Myobacterium avium paratuberculosis (MAP), the organism supposedly responsible for Crohn's disease, was surviving this process. Subsequently, mainly due to pressure from retailers, the milk producers have been pasteurising at 71.7°C for 25 seconds. Hence it will 'last' longer than it 'used' to.

- this does depend on being stored & handled, correctly (kept cool <5°C), which was probably why yours had 'floaters' with 2 days shelf life left. (not hazardous to health, by the way, but a sure sign of lactic acid increase & an indicator the milk is 'on the turn' )

[Steve H]

Originally Posted by ianathuth

That's OK as long as the shelf stacker knows about stock rotation and does it properly. If they just fill the gaps at the front of the shelf the products at the back may already be out of date.

Any half decent supermarket/shop will defiently have the old produce on the front, and the new at the back. If they caught one of the monkeys who stacked the shelves putting it any old way he/she would probably be dismissed.

[Paul]

Originally Posted by Steve H

Any half decent supermarket/shop will defiently have the old produce on the front, and the new at the back. If they caught one of the monkeys who stacked the shelves putting it any old way he/she would probably be dismissed.

Now I thought calling people in the support trades "Monkey" was a no no ?
Unless of course your local supermarkets are taking staff from zoos

[Chris]

If you don't get around to using up an entire carton of milk, I can recommend Cravendale Purefiltre ... I think the way it works is they filter the pasteursed milk through something so fine that it actually sifts out many of the bacteria that manage to survive the pasteurisation. The result is the milk takes longer to go off in your fridge.

[Steve H]

Originally Posted by Paul

Now I thought calling people in the support trades "Monkey" was a no no ?
Unless of course your local supermarkets are taking staff from zoos

Half the staff we've got at M&S may as well be from the Zoo

Originally Posted by Chris T

If you don't get around to using up an entire carton of milk, I can recommend Cravendale Purefiltre ... I think the way it works is they filter the pasteursed milk through something so fine that it actually sifts out many of the bacteria that manage to survive the pasteurisation. The result is the milk takes longer to go off in your fridge.

This milk is not pasteurised at all, it relies 'purely' (sorry) on the filtration process to remove the bacteria.

I havn't tried it myself, but anyone who finds pasteurised milk to have a slight 'caramel' flavour, should like it. (Round here they still sell 'sterilised' milk in crown capped bottles - I find the flavour of this absolutely vile and can't stand even UHT milk in tea)

[Mr_love_monkey]

Getting in before Nugget does....

What's the fastest milk in the world?
Past-your-eyes... boom boom...

Anyway, small local shops are notorious for the close to sell by date milk, and bread (mouldy bread..errghhh)... and I think they only get away with it because people only shop there out of need, i.e. if it wasn't a tea emergency they'd go to a supermarket and get some with a good use by date...

The answer is to get some of that soya milk, it tastes disgusting anyway, and going off might actually improve the flavour...

[Nugget]

Originally Posted by Mr_love_monkey

Getting in before Nugget does....

What's the fastest milk in the world?
Past-your-eyes... boom boom...

Surely that would be the tallest milk in the world

What's the emptiest?
Whole

I'll be off