The regular milk at the local grocery store seems to expire in about 10 days or so. The organic milk, however, expires in closer to a month. I would think that with less additives and all the organic would not last as long as the regular milk. Why does the organic last so much longer? Why does the regular milk not last longer?
Hey post # 100 for me! ^
Your so-called organic milk is ultrapastuerized at 140°C, which kills all the bacteria. This increases the shelf life. More in these threads:
Organic Milk Expiration Dates
Does organic milk last longer? Why?
an interesting site that only touches on organic milk but I think is worth a look:
http://www.realmilk.com/what.html
It doesn’t go into how long you can store it though.
sour milk pancakes…sigh
Ah, slime and “pus” what accurate and objective terms to describe milk!
Slime is a subjective descriptive term. Pus refers to a particular substance that occurs when a wound is not healing well; (infection) the dictionary says: “a fluid product of inflammation” or “A generally viscous, yellowish-white fluid formed in infected tissue, consisting of white blood cells, cellular debris, and necrotic tissue”
This is not the case in milk, so I wouldn’t trust that site you got the statement from. The dairy industry has strict controls, and besides, a cow with an infection can’t produce milk very well, if at all.
" expire in about 10 days"
What date you reading? A sell by date perhaps?
Some history is needed here. At the turn of the 20th century, there was a huge and furious battle between two camps: those who thought that by establishing model farms raw milk could be produced under conditions so sanitary that no further processing was necessary and those who thought that pasteurizing milk was the only sure way of providing germ-free milk to the kitchen table.
Model farms did work very well - as long as they were indeed model. Sadly, real world farms didn’t live up to this in quantities sufficient to feed the huge US population. Pasteurization moved slowly through the country, but pretty much won out everywhere by the end of the first World War.
Milk is still required in huge amounts. Most milk gets to processing plants quickly because the demand is always high. Milk gets sold quickly because the demand is high. Using terms like “slime” and “pus” to describe milk is pure propaganda.
As has always been true throughout history, not every farmer maintains the highest of standards. Some milk will require treatment and pasteurization is still the best treatment. UHT pasteurization, as used by most organic milks, guarantees a longer shelf life. This is a simple commercial consequence of the fact that organic milks sell in much lower quantities than “regular” milks and small farms can’t make the instant deliveries required to keep what’s on supermarket shelves always fresh.
Raw milk farms are the equivalent of the old model farms. They are extremely labor intensive because cows will get sick if not constantly tended to.
Raw milk may taste better than processed milk - but higher fat products almost always do. Raw milk may be perfectly healthy - as long as you trust the farmer you buy it from the maintain the highest possible standards at all times.
But do homogenization and pasteurization really cause all the problems that that site describes? The jury is still out. It’s very difficult to pinpoint effects of food because there are such a huge number of cross effects from other foods, other lifestyle decisions, and pure genetics.
If you want raw milk, find the best possible local supply and stick to it. Remember that it will be much higher fat and some people attribute all sorts of medical problems to fat in foods. Again, the jury is still out on that one too.
Hey, that was interesting. Thanks especially to Expano (may I call you that for short?). Why do you know so much about raw milk?
After poking around on line, I found there is a whole world of milk-hating people. Some of them are quite rabid, almost PETA-like! I saw that “blood (or slime) and pus” business in alot of places but was unable to really trace it back to it’s origional source.
Squink, why did you use the phrase “so called”? It seems the organic producers really are doing things differently. Do you doubt their veracity?
I bought the organic milk because I had a coupon and it was a good price. I was thinking the longer expiration dates would be economical for families that don’t use alot of milk (unlike mine).
The world seems so complicated today when even a simple act such as buying milk requires intensive study.
Nah, I just have reservations about calling a liquid heated to 40°C over the natural boiling point of water “organic.” Now if instead they used all natural, high-intensity gamma rays to sterilize the stuff… 