Milk
 

I feel like having a good rant so here goes.

I am fed up buying milk that seems to go off 10 minutes after its been opened. And have you noticed how milk now comes with a use by date 10 days hence. Since when has milk been able to last that long. No wonder it goes off quickly if its been sat on the shop shelf for a week.

I bought a litre today with a use by date of 26/07/06. Had me Frosties this morning and put the carton in the fridge. Have now just gone to make a cup of coffee and there's little bits of white lump floating all over the top. Smelt the bottle - yeooowwww.

The temperature in the fridge is OK and nothing else goes off as quickly as that.

Its the semi-skimmed stuff and the cartons have a "Dairy Farmers of Britain" trade name.

Here endeth the rant.

Re: Milk
 

Hi,

I am so glad that you have posted about this. I too, am finding the same, though it is with skimmed milk. I buy two cartons and when I open the second one ( after three days) it has gone off. As with yourself, it is only the skimmed milk that goes, everything else is ok ( eg the standard milk).

This never used to happen, i.e. it is certainly only in the last 6 months.


regards

Rob

Re: Milk
 

Don't buy cartons, they don't reseal...

Buy plastic bottles, my milk regularly lasts up to or beyond its sell by date! In fact I had some cornflakes last night with milk from a bottle that 'expired' on Monday...

Re: Milk
 

Point of order, but Dairy Farmers of Britain isn't a tradename - it's the collective term for a huge number of dairys that can supply all over the place. Actually, I'd be interested to hear where you bought it from, as you often find that the seller isn't storing the product properly :)

Having said that, I'm with Cobbydaler on this one - I always but the plastic bottles, purely because you can reseal them.

Re: Milk
 

I've never experienced this. I had milk this morning that expired yesterday and it was fine.

Re: Milk
 

As it stands, I personally don't eat / drink anything that's out of date, but milk should be fine (short term) it it's resealed and stored correctly from distributor to consumer :)

Re: Milk
 

It smelt alright thats usually my test.

What about bread? I usually toast bread thats well past its date as long as its not blue moulded.

Re: Milk
 

We found that the stuff from newsagents was crap and went off straight away and was twice the price of a 4l from iceland that more than copes with an office week of brews and cereal.

Re: Milk
 

The stuff I get from the local Co-op is crap, it never lasts until the end date.

Re: Milk
 

Sorry - I did mean bottles, the plastic ones. Its funny but I don't think of them as bottles because in my mind a bottle is round and plastic milk bottles aren't round, they're oblong or is it rectangular?

And its not just the odd one that goes off quickly, it seems to be about half the ones I buy.

I buy from the corner shop. And sometimes the 24-hour garage across the road which closes at 10pm but that's another story.

Re: Milk
 

co-op ahaha say no more! Buy your milk from a DECENT supermarket, get mine from sainsburys and it never goes off, small places like co-op, newsagents etc don't store them correctly, hence why its going off quick.

Re: Milk
 

A while ago sent a mate to the corner shop for some milk, he come back with a bottle of cheese. We used to have a milkman deliver but he got sacked cuz he was constantly not delivering and while we were paying daily for 4 pints we were allways getting 2l's only except the odd occasion. Blue top allways lasts from tescos, the green top has a sneaky way of going of indiscreetly cause its not real milk.

Re: Milk
 

Milk doesn't last too long in this house, we must go through about 18 pints of semi-skimmed a week, so havn't experienced any going off for years. Bread, on the other hand, seems to start moving before we've opened it!

Re: Milk
 

I buy 6pints from Asda of semi skinned and one week later as long as I always put in the fridge it is fine.

Re: Milk
 

Milk is for baby cows......and even they stop drinking it after a point. imo it's sh*t that we aren't meant to consume. We don't really need it and it's importance has been overstated for decades by parties with vested interests in it's continuing mass consumption.
...................but I am a little biased:D

Re: Milk
 

Ideal to add mass for weightlifting though, especialy in this heat when you cant be bothered to eat much.

Re: Milk
 

All milk sold by retailers in the UK must be pasteurised, which as a minimum heats the milk to 72°C for at least 15 seconds. This is designed to destroy nasty bacteria, like Salmonella, and reduce the number of less harmful bugs, which would make the milk 'go off'.

Provided the milk is cooled quickly to less than 5°C & stored at that temperature , it 'should' last at least 10 days.

The pasteurisation process is highly automated, and is designed so that any milk which hasn't achieved the correct temperature, is re-processed, by being sent back via an automatic 'diverter valve'. The process also employs a manual enzyme check to verify the process, on a regular basis.

What I mean to say is, that it is extremely unlikely any UK produced milk is compromised in any way during initial processing .However, subsequent storage & handling are vital to maintain the shelf life - there are still bacteria present, which will multiply if they get warm enough, & anything over 5°C is sufficient for this to happen.

So, if a particular retail outlet consistently sells milk that spoils before the 'sell by' date, then it is likely they are failing to store it properly, and you should avoid buying any from there.

One moan here - why don't fridges have thermometers, or thermostats that have °C on them, not meaningless numbers, I bet many people have inadvertently been running their fridges nearer 10°C than 5°C, during the recent heatwave....

<edit> to acknowledge there are other legal methods for increasing shelf life of milk, but pasteurisation is still the most common. :)

Re: Milk
 

never had a problem, generally its fine 3-4 days after its use by date

Re: Milk
 

Try Cravendale Purfiltre (or Tesco's cheaper copy). Lasts ages and tastes just like the real thing.

Re: Milk
 

We use Lidl cartons that DO reseal......

---------- Post added at 19:43 ---------- Previous post was at 19:40 ----------

It's an odd thing, but the thermostat in a fridge or freezer isn't a thermostat really, so marking in celsius would be pointless. Location and external temperature can make a fridge on the same numerical setting internal temperature vary widely IMHO

Re: Milk
 

Thinking about it, you are right, otherwise you wouldn't have to turn it up when the weather gets hotter - but they could fit a thermometer in the fridge, as standard, couldn't they? :)

/gets back from putting thermometer in fridge - will check it later ...

Re: Milk
 

I've gone back to the milkman...Well he came back to me..This one says they start the round at midnight not 5 in the morning so I WILL get my milk before 8 in the morning and they deliver the plactic containers instead of the glass bottles about twice a week.

actually it's a good time to start as our local post office is closing and they are the nearest supplier of milk at present.This means the elderly around me would have been stuck with having to walk even further to get supplied.Now they won't.:tu:

Re: Milk
 

What? You hang a few pints off each end of the bar? :D

Re: Milk
 

is it Dairy Crest?? Theyve just restarted in our area

Re: Milk
 

The Use By Date is the date that it lasts til IF it remains sealed, of course, as soon as you let air in it will start to go off, hence why it goes off before the date. You'll probably find the bottle/carton says something like "Once Opened, Consume within 3 days"

Re: Milk
 

I wish the milk in our house would last long enough to go off, we go through gallons of the stuff!

Re: Milk
 

My fridge has LED's (in Celcus) on the top that you set and it keeps the fridge at that temprature - it is possible.

Edit - not that I'm bothered, I drink soya or rice milk - keeps forever.

A bonus is no cows are harmed in the production of it - not a link for those that want to keep drinknig milk, especially the milk replacement section. Yuck.

Re: Milk
 

I'm not sure about that, Zeph, the main spoilage bacteria that is in milk can multiply without oxygen, for a while :)

Those 'warnings' are increasingly designed to avoid litigation, rather than provide real information, in my opinion ;)

---------- Post added at 22:10 ---------- Previous post was at 22:07 ----------

true - but not standard ;)

- my fridge is running at +4°C :angel:

Re: Milk
 

Too true!! Well said!!

Re: Milk
 

Yep I somewhat agree with that Home

Re: Milk
 

When I am not in the UK i miss fresh milk a lot. France for example seems to have long life milk more than fresh milk and I hate the taste.

The milk we get here is always fine but then we go though it out in a couple of days