Bottled milk 'use by' dates...

[Danllan]

Things being a bit busy at the moment we've not been shopping at the usual time. I needed some milk this morning and opened a new four pint bottle of Calon Wen organic whole milk, dated for use by June 13th. It is perfect, it's been in a fairly cold fridge, but it's four days over and I can't detect any problem.

What do people who know about milk think is the real number of days you can keep milk for after the given 'use by' date?

 

[yellow belly]

Pasteurised in a cold fridge over a week past if it is unopened

Milk now very clean out of the cow

 

[Exfarmer]

How cold you run your fridge makes a big difference, even 1 degree.

 

[Widgetone]

In my experience, the shelf life of milk is entirely random - we've had milk on/off 3/4 days either side of use by date.

 

[Still Farming]

Some milk keeps much longer than others. farm gate direct local stuff here use to be gone off days before sell and use by dates?
Blamed fridges etc.
Different probes, stick and laser proved different .

 

[Beowulf]

The performance of the refrigerator has a lot to do with it in my experience, by which I mean its ability to hold a constant temperature.

The two fridges in our kitchen are both fairly new, and very good at keeping fresh food well past the date stamps. The much older fridge/freezer I keep in the workshop is quite frankly past its best, with the temperature varying on a cycle by several degrees - that struggles to keep a pint of milk fresh for more than a day or two before it starts to smell a bit iffy.

 

[neilo]

When I was at college I used to have a small caravan fridge in my room (contrary to college regs of course), just big enough for alcohol and milk. When I took milk back from the bulk tank at home, it would last all week. If I hadn’t gone home and had to buy some pasteurised stuff from a shop, it would be going off after 3-4 days.

Incidentally, milk dipped at night from the college’s dairy would last all week too.....

 

[upnortheast]

TEMPERATURE, TEMPERATURE, TEMPERATURE
Why don`t domestic fridge makers put a temp display on their units.
Most people have no idea what their fridge runs at. Typical reply " The green light is on so its working "
Another typical reply " Well I put it back in the fridge every night ".
Milk should be stored at less than 4 degrees C & returned to the fridge straight away
Milk in our cold store is fine after 17 days 2 degrees
We date it 11 days after bottling

Got a snotty call from a shop one day." Your milk is going off before its date"
Was there within 30 minutes with our calibrated thermometer. Fridge was bunged up with dust 14 degrees FFS.
I could write a book ..............................

 

[Stuart J]

Why does Cravendale last so long?

 

[TheTallGuy]

Currently using milk dated 13/6 here. As above, keeping it at a low temperature (below 5 degrees) makes a big difference, as does the length of time the bottle is open - 4 pints only lasts a couple of days here so not normally a problem.

 

[db9go]

Why does Cravendale last so long?

When we went round the new Arla plant they said it went though more filters so it gave it a longer life

 

[Dead Rabbits]

Realize that expiration dates are just made up. Usually someone at the manufacturer puts samples in a refrigerator and taste tests to see when it goes off then backs the date up a few days just to be safe.

Pasteurized milk sours but clean raw milk doesn’t interestingly, it clabbers. I’ve drank raw milk at two weeks and it was fine.

UHT milk is increasingly popular over here. Not sure how long that stuff will last, it’s shelf stable at room temperature...

 

[upnortheast]

When we went round the new Arla plant they said it went though more filters so it gave it a longer life

Not your standard on farm filters though. Ceramic micro filters are used
Some bed time reading about it here
https://www.cdr.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/PDFs/RF_2016/07_Culhane_new.pdf

 

[Kidds]

I thawed some milk out of the freezer last week, it was off!

And it was Cravendale.

 

[Tomr10]

I find it goes bitty before it smells these days

 

[Boohoo]

As others have said it all depends on how it is stored, but the consumer can only do so much. If the retailer doesn't refrigerate it on delivery and doesn't rotate stock correctly the milk could be off before its use by date.

 

[wr.]

Milk doesn't get a chance to go off in our house. We are like a bunch of calves easily using a gallon a day. I always say that a bag of spuds and milk are the cheapest food on the planet.

 

[upnortheast]

As others have said it all depends on how it is stored, but the consumer can only do so much. If the retailer doesn't refrigerate it on delivery

Very true
Don`t get me started on doorstep delivery men using open pickups on hot sunny days

 

[betweenthelines]

There are no rules about Best Before or Use By dates on milk, it's entirely up to the processors. When I worked on the "dark side" of Dairying, we used to delivery into shops with 8 days life, but for Plymouth, 7 days was acceptable. In the run up to Christmas we used to "update" to avoid problems with "short dated" milk after the holiday. When we got a bit more professional, we did taste tests and up to 16 days after bottling was fine. But of course, this was with us controlling the "chill chain" It's not unknown for shops, including T***o to leave milk unrefridgerated in their yards, when they are busy. But of course they denied this ever happened-even when we showed them the pictures. Most consumer complaints about milk going off "in date" are related to poor refridgeration at home or "did the shopping, picked the kids up from school, visited granny for tea, took the shopping out of the car when we got home" situations.

IMO poor food hygiene at home poisons more people than any mass murderer.

 

[Tomr10]

Very true
Don`t get me started on doorstep delivery men using open pickups on hot sunny days

I have considered going back to having a milk man