I am a bit shocked by a discovery I accidentally made today.
I always keep some UHT milk in my cupboard for “emergencies” we call it long life milk. It does have a use by date of about a year I don’t really like the taste because all the pathogens have been killed and sugars destroyed in its process. I don’t like it but it is acceptable to drink when there is nothing else and,until it is opened it keeps for ever, well, a year anyway.
Anyway I was curious about the process, this is when I discovered that all milk from the supermarket and grocers in the UK and Europe is processed this way, it is not fresh milk.
Australian milk has a much shorter shelf life because it is pasteurised by a different process that doesn’t change the taste. It is pasteurised at 72° rather than the 136° in Europe.
I remember @Azz and @Omah complaining about pasteurisation of milk and now (finally) I understand why. No wonder the dairy industry here boasts that we get fresh milk “unlike Europe” I had always assumed it was because European milk was just frozen before it gets to the consumer whereas as two days ago our supermarket milk was in a cow.
It turns out European milk is long life milk, whatever you are used to I suppose. but I was very surprised.
We can buy UHT milk in U.K. but I never do. I can’t bear the taste of it.
I think UHT milk is used in European countries much more than in U.K.
The majority of milk sold in U.K. goes through 3 processes
It is pasteurised using HTST pasteurisation (heated to 72°C for a minimum of 15 seconds) then cooled very quickly, which sounds the same as the method used in Australia.
After pasteurisation, the milk is then “homogenised” (forced through tiny holes at high pressure, to break down the fat globules so it is evenly distributed throughout the milk and the cream doesn’t rise to the top.
Then some of the milk goes through a centrifugal “separation process” to produce skimmed milk and semi-skimmed milk.
The last two steps are relatively modern processes, compared to the pasteurised milk which was left on our doorstep by the milkman in my childhood days.
The only pasteurised milk available then was whole milk and the cream used to rise to the top of bottle.
People would often do a “DIY homogenisation” by shaking the milk bottle vigorously before opening it to distribute the cream more evenly through the milk.
My family didn’t - we used to do our own “separation process” instead - some of us couldn’t stand creamy milk, so we would carefully pour the cream off the top into a jug and be left with a sort of semi-skimmed milk in the bottle - none of us liked the fatty whole milk in our tea but some of my brothers liked to pour the creamy top of the milk over their breakfast cornflakes.
Good post Boot, and very informative. I drink lots of milk and remember the days when it was left on the doorstep by the milkman and all the cream rose to the top. It was delivered by an electric milk cart, but I don’t think they will ever catch on…Wait a minute?
Bruce, the processing of milk is the same as it is here, though shelf-stable milk is not in much demand. In the last decade or so, federal and state laws oppressively restricted the sale of unpasteurized milk until an Amish (fiercely apolitical) man was threatened over the use and sale of his raw milk:
I asked AI as we do drink a lot of milk in France which are not long life and it is what AI told me.
France
Fresh milk: In France, fresh milk is generally pasteurized at low temperature (about 63°C for 30 minutes) or at high temperature (about 72°C for 15 seconds). Fresh milk can also be offered unpasteurized, but this is less common.
UHT milk: Additionally, UHT (ultra-high temperature) milk is very popular in France, allowing it to be stored at room temperature.
United Kingdom
Whole milk: In the United Kingdom, milk is generally pasteurized at high temperature (about 72°C for 15 seconds) for most types of milk sold in supermarkets.
Raw milk: Raw milk is also available but is subject to strict regulations.
These differences in pasteurization methods can affect the taste and texture of the milk.
Well very common “mistake” as UK might be in Europe and Europeans love the Brits but often see their beautiful Island as a different planet away from the rest of Europe.
Yep, that’s the way it works for continents, it is all in the geography.
The funny thing is that in Asia Australians/Kiwis are identified as “Europeans” or in the Middle East all “Europeans” are identified as American (or it was so when I was there in the 1970s)
In the first eight years of my life I was given raw milk and our water was hand pumped from a well in our back yard. I am 87 now and have had very few health problems. It must have been good for my immune system.
Absolutely Scot, progress doesn’t always benefit the people, it might appear to make life easier on the face of it, but at what cost?
Sometimes solving one problem just creates a few more…
Yes, Bruce, you are quite right, of course. - I should have typed “other” before “European countries”
