So in my case I buy Kerry group milk- dawn or golden vale
Amazed that you don't buy the freshest (cow to shelf time) best tasting quality controlled milk in the country.........Lee Strand!
Dear Uncle Ezra,
I hope you can settle a disagreement among my friends and I. My family and I have always tasted the difference between milk (whole,skim,2%, you name it) sold in plastic versus paper. I have searched the internet and googled over the years for different resources but never found anything conclusive. Some sites suggest it is UV, others say it's psychological. I literally just opened a brand new plastic half gallon and a new paper quart and I swear I smell (and taste) the difference.
Cornell milk is some of the best milk I've ever had and we have the Ag school... Can you please settle this debate? Thanks
A nephew
Dear nephew,
Kathryn Boor, Food Science Prof, provided this reply:
You and your family are correct, milk tastes different if it is packaged in cardboard v. plastic. The most commonly used gable-top "cardboard" container is actually a three-layer combination of polyethylene/paperboard/polyethylene. This type of container protects milk from exposure to light, which can very powerfully deteriorate milk quality. The major drawback with this type of container happens after the milk comes in contact with the paperboard part of the container (i.e., after the milk has been opened and then held in the refrigerator for a few to several days. The carton can actually pick up an odor from milk contact, and this odor can be transmitted to the milk.
This type of problem doesn't occur with milk packaged in the typical "plastic" containers, which usually are comprised of high-density polyethylene (HDPE). The container itself will not pick up an aroma from contact of the milk with the opening of the container. HOWEVER, HDPE will not protect milk from exposure to light, either in the dairy case, at home, or from sunlight. Light-oxidized flavor defects can result when milk products are exposed to fluorescent lighting in retail display cases. Light-oxidized flavors are ascribed to two different groups of photodegradation reactions. The reactions of the first group involve proteins and amino acids. Photodecomposition of methionine to methional and other sulfur compounds results in flavors characterized as burnt protein (i.e. burnt feathers or hair), burnt cabbage, cooked cabbage, mushroom, medicinal, or plastic-like. Methional has been shown to appear in skim milk after exposure to direct sunlight for 10 to 15 min. Tryptophan, cysteine, histidine, and tyrosine are also subject to photochemical changes. The second group of reactions involves unsaturated fatty acids. Light can act as an oxidant, especially in the presence of riboflavin, by producing free radicals that can react with unsaturated fatty acids. Upon cleavage of fatty acids, low molecular weight aldehydes and ketones are formed. These also create nasty flavors in milk.
In research conducted in our lab, we have found that trained panelists could detect flavor defects following 15 to 30 minutes of light exposure typical of a dairy case; consumers detected defects between 54 minutes and 2 hours of exposure. As approximately 50% of plastic containers remain in dairy cases for at least eight hours, these results suggest that the majority of milk on the market in light-transmissible containers is vulnerable to development of detectable light-oxidized flavor defects. For more information on this research, please see [broken link removed]. The best containers for milk quality are light-impermeable plastic. If you're going to drink milk quickly (and not store an opened container in the refrigerator for several days), the paperboard containers are preferable to light permeable plastic.
Hope this helps!
Uncle Ezra
So this crowd sell dark lights?!However, since Promolux lamps minimize the emission of damaging visible spectrum and UV wavelengths
One question - why don't they have plastic containers which are not clear if the major problem is light?
Hopefully their milk doesn't contain the same additives as some of their other products!So in my case I buy Kerry group milk- dawn or golden vale.
I guess it means that the "brand" of milk is not as important as the packaging and storage of same?Tesco milk or "brand name dairy" milk better quality?
I guess it means that the "brand" of milk is not as important as the packaging and storage of same?
... more than one brand being "better" than another though....the milk also reflects what the animal eats and so when the feed changes from regular 'munching' the grass in the field to being indoors and fed hay and silage it does come through in the taste.
I guess it means that the "brand" of milk is not as important as the packaging and storage of same?
Does the cost price take into account EU grants that the farmers receive?but Tesco in Britain have driven the price of mile down, by refusing to pay farmers cost price for the milk.
Guys, Try Glenisk Organic.....a little more expensive I agree, but tastes so much better than any of the others.
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