Are milk companies leaving out the consumer here? There’s a date on top of my milk carton that means absolutely squat to me, when I’d really love to know whether or not it’s smart to drink the milk. They’re willing to sell it to me on this date, so I’m certain it’s going to last some period of time, but how long is that mystery period?
In my experience, it’s about two or three days, but it varies from carton to carton. I’m also hypersensitive to the smell of bad milk (it’s my weird secret superpower), so milk that smells bad to me is drinkable for most people for another day or so.
Translate ‘sell date’ to ‘freshest if used by’. After that, you kinda have to go by your nose. Once opened, the contents are exposed to more rapid bacteria growth.
The milk in my fridge has a “Best Before” date on it. It is common in the U.K. for fresh foods to have “Display until” and a seperate “Use By” date on them.
My experience is similar to Chefguy’s. I buy one gallon jugs of milk that I stretch over two weeks, and typically the sell by date is towards the end of the second week. I’m always careful to buy the latest date I can find. Most all the time the milk will not go noticably bad until after the advertised date, but I have had occasions where its happened before. When this does happen, I’ve figured the blame is all on me, likely having not properly recapped it after pouring over each morning’s corn flakes. As a general rule, even if I have milk left, I pour out the contents after 16 or 17 days and start on the next jug even if it still passes the smell test.