There IS use crying over spilt milk

I have been buying milk from various large supermarkets for a long time. I usually buy half pint of semi skimmed or whole milk, mostly for my coffee. Quite often I’ve used it up to the expiration date and on a few occasions even a day after. The milk was good so I didn’t want to throw it away.

The past year or so, I find that the milk often expires way before the expiry date. Quite often two or three days after I open it and way before the expiry date. One time I didn’t open it until two days after I bought it, and a few days before the expiry date, and would you believe…it was bad! I asked for a refund. I have poured so much milk down the drain as it’s not good. Such a waste.

I don’t know what changed the last year. Has anyone else noticed the same? It is not my fridge, that’s for sure. And it is not from one supermarket but many.

If it’s off before the use by date and before you open it then, if it’s not your fridge, then it probably means it was sitting out for too long sometime before you bought it.

Since you’re buying half pint bottles it will take less time out of the fridge for those little bottles to go bad than it would do for larger bottles which will stay cooler longer because of the overall volume.

I can’t say I’ve noticed the same, but I buy bigger bottles. I find that it lasts a good few days past the expiry date if I haven’t used it all before …

I live up high on a Welsh mountain and the shops are a drive from my house. When we first came here I was always running out of milk or it was going off…so in desperation I stocked up with UHT milk…hated the tangy flavour it had…UNTIL…someone told me that if you buy the UHT SKIMMED milk (and it must be the SKIMMED) it has no tang to it at all…and it is cheaper.
I have now been using it for about 15 years. I buy 10 a week and I never run out of milk and it never goes off.
Visitors to the house have all confirmed that there is no funny taste to their tea or coffee.
I even converted two local businesses/offices to try it, so now they stock up and don’t have to keep calling in for fresh milk…
Because of where we live I have a grocery delivery and they bring the 10 cartons to my door…and no worries over Christmas about running out…I will stock up with 20 next week…
The date on this week’s cartons says to use by May 2015…!!

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I buy 4 pint bottles from Tesco and have never had one go off - mind you we are usually finishing it before the use by date.

But this is happening the past year. Not before. That’s why I’m so surprised and wondering if something has changed.

I have started buying Carnation’s condensed milk and Coffe-mate. My coffee tastes fine (better with Carnation) and this way I always have some form of milk and coffee. If I buy fresh, it’s because I need to use it and finish it fast. It would be nice, though, to have fresh milk without worries.

I wonder if it is because the cows are inside now and maybe because they are eating more silage or other feedstuffs that the milk is tainted?

I only found out recently that you can freeze milk!

I was thinking along those lines…something in the process might have changed. With farmers, supermarkets, storage…

I used to buy the UHT Semi Skimmed which I found OK, but now I drink Green tea and can’t stand the taste of normal tea. I still bought the smallest carton of milk possible just in case people came round for tea, but found I was throwing away more than I was actually using. So I now have reverted to the little pots of milk like what you get in cafe’s so I’m not throwing any away any more.

We use very little milk in our household - black coffee drinkers, but I do take a tiny splash of milk in tea, so I always used to be throwing away most of a pint bottle. The last couple of years I’ve been using filtered milk - brilliant! I can buy a litre bottle and it lasts me at least 3 weeks. It’s not UHT - apparently it’s pasteurised in the usual way for fresh milk, then very finely filtered which removes much of the bacteria that causes milk to sour. Tesco sells their own brand of it which is called Pure - it’s about £1 a litre, and similar is produced under the brand Cravendale. It’s really worth a try!

I haven’t had this problem
We tend to buy 4 pinters of semi skimmed and 2 pinters of whole milk. Could be from Aldi, Morrisons or Sainsbury…depending where we went shopping.

This is something I’ve never had an issue with. We use a crazy amount of milk, at least 20 pints a week and I buy them all in at once. I’m thinking it may be an issue with your fridge settings, milk is processed in a different way these days which makes it last longer. I hope you can figure out what the cause is

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We probably use more than 20 pints a week, I buy from Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Tesco’s and Lidl and have never had the milk go off.

I add lemon juice to it to make it go off to make paneer - which I then freeze .

I can’t imagine how this is to do with my fridge when nothing has changed and all food I keep, including cheese, yogurt and milk in the past, have been absolutely fine. And I keep the milk in the back, not close to the door. This is very strange…

When the cows used to go out to grass in the summer, we could taste a sweetness in the milk and also my husband said if they gave turnips to cows you could taste it in their milk. So it could be something like that. maybe you should find out the supplier from the shop and send them a note. But milk is kept for much longer now and maybe hasn’t been stored correctly before you get it.

We get through about 12 pints of milk a week - I have three children! - and have our milk delivered by the milkman. I have never known it to go off, even when we’ve been away for the weekend and have come back to half a bottle in the fridge I’d forgotten about it has still been perfectly fine. I love getting it in the glass bottles too :smile:

I would return it to the store if it goes off before the stated date and its been kept in fridge at the correct tempeture.

I don’t use milk much expect in baking and the a tablespoon in scrambled eggs.
DH buys it just for his coffee and often he asks me to sniff it to see if it’s off and most of the time the smell says it’s on the turn and I pour it down the sink.

He has semi skimmed.

While adopted daughter drinks gallons of full fat milk and it goes off very quickly and stinks to high heaven.
I find a must people use milk that already starting to turn than they realize due to not bothering to smell the milk first it should never have that slight sour taint to it. Once it does it no no longer fresh and this is why so many adults have problems with milk allergies they drink milk that is already going off.

My husband and I drink unsweetened almond milk on our cereals and use it in cooking: we have our tea and coffee black. For guests we buy the 500ml cartons of UHT milk, but I have been looking out for the individual portions as there would be less waste. Can’t seem to find them anywhere!

We have our milk delivered by a milkman the traditional way and we did start having this problem, so much so that we stopped deliveries until an alternative firm started in our area, have had no problems with them.

What I have found over the last couple of years is that all milk, whether from the supermarket or milkman, tastes different at different times of the year and can taste a little ‘off’ at times even when supposedly perfectly fresh. My youngest is particularly sensitive to this change in taste and I end up buying skimmed milk for him during the summer.

ETA I really hate the taste of UHT milk, or not so much the taste as the coating it seems to leave in your mouth. Would rather have my tea/coffee black than use it!

Whatever kind of milk you buy, try to buy British. Our dairy farmers need help…