Do you know organic milk doesn’t go bad as quickly as the regular stuff? Do you know why? I do. I will share.

If you drink enough milk not to care about the expiration dates, you may not have noticed that organic milk expiration dates are sometimes eight weeks or longer than regular milk dates. For someone splitting time between two houses each week, this non-spoilage is really handy and I’ve greatly enjoyed the same half gallon of my un-sour organic milk for the past several weeks. But, why? How?

Well, I wanted to know so I asked a dairy farmer. She had no idea. [I’m being serious here, by the way, which is noteworthy both because in the US today, (1) how many people personally know a farmer let alone a dairy farmer and (2) I guess a regular dairy farmer doesn’t actually have to know much about organic milk processing procedures.] So, when at first you don’t succeed, ask the internet. Google quickly found this handy article in Scientific American.

It turns out, it all goes back to distribution. Since organic milk tends to be shipped further and sits on the shelf longer, it is processed in a way that prolongs the expiration date. To be precise, it undergoes “ultrahigh temperature processing” (UHT) in which the milk is heated to 280 degrees F for 2-4 seconds. This zaps dead all bacteria (that’s a scientific term). Normal milk undergoes pasteurization under lower temps for longer times which kills many bacteria but not all.

Pasteurized milk has a shelf life of about two weeks, but organic can get up to six months of shelf life and — get this — it doesn’t even need to be refrigerated (but who wants to drink warm milk anyways?)

So, now you know. Some say UHT treatment makes milk taste a little sweeter, so it is not preferred by the masses. It strikes me, also, that if all milk was processed by UHT, much less milk would go bad and demand from dairies would go down and that would not be good for the milk industry. If you want the ultra urban organic shopping lowdown check out Well and Good NYC’s post.

As for me, I’m just happy I can easily purchase organic milk in the area that doesn’t go bad before I drink it. It’s udderly great!

image by greschoj