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?
Yes, Bruce, you are quite right, of course. - I should have typed “other” before “European countries”