Re-Pasteurize Milk

...more frequently.

You can get milk in quart size, sealed cartons with a screw cap that's good for about 45 days.

Yeah right next to the pre cooked and packed room temperature bacon.. it's just not right.

(I've bought that milk, but not the bacon)

Sometimes when milk is getting old I'll put it on the stove to heat.. then ad a spoon of vinegar. Strain the resulting mush through some cheesecloth.

In a few days I'll throw out the strange sour cheese like ball I nibbled at. Not great, but it makes me feel like it didn't go to waste.. more of an old milk turned science project than anything.

Try it! You'll think it's strange too.

Could you turn it into yogurt?

...or cheese?

Actually, were one to leave it alone, it might do that by itself...

You definitely should follow Lyn's advice and buy smaller containers of milk to match your nominal rate of consumption. How much milk is left in that container?

If the remaining milk in a container is spoiling on the posted sell-by shelf date then you might actually have a problem with your refrigerator. I just recently replaced the door gaskets on my French door refrigerator and the items kept in the door shelves (milk) are considerably colder than they use to be.

I think the answer is "yes" but it is probably not worthwhile or appropriate at a SE scale.

Over the years there have been several times that I have been told that most chocolate milk in the stores is slightly expired white milk that has been re-pasteurized and chocolate added to mask the slightly "not fresh" flavor. Don't know if it is true but it sounds reasonable.

(I think the dates are "sell by". By that time the milk is usually old enough it doesn't taste fresh so for milk "sell by" and "use by" are pretty much the same. I keep my refrigerator as cold as I can without things getting crunchy. There have been times I have consumed milk 4 or 5 days past the "sell by" date with no ill effects and only a slight "not quite fresh" taste to deal with.)

My problem is the consumption is not regular, sometimes I go on a cereal binge and the milk goes quickly, and sometimes I go on a toast binge, and no milk is consumed, and sometimes I go on a ,,well you get the idea...but I buy milk, 1/2, gal every month and 1/2 gal of chocolate milk, because sometimes I go on a hot chocolate binge...anyway sometimes the milk remains unopened or barely used, so it's not the size of the container that would make a difference, but the time that the milk remained drinkable...I hate to waste anything, so I want to prolong the life of the milk....It seems simple enough, I mean they just heat it to kill the bacteria that make the milk go bad....so theoretically it should work....Did the chocolate milk last night....have a half gal of 2% unopened that was bought at the same time...

Half gal took about 7 min in 1250 watt inverter microwave

put in ice bath in sink in sealed bowl, let cool, strained back into rinsed container...

Buy the chocolate powder stuff, then you only need to buy the white milk.

The chocolate milk from the store is much better than the dry powder mixed at home...and easier....and faster....and I might add, just buying the white milk doesn't solve the problem...

SE this post reminds me of my predicament where we go through milk or not. I recently froze a half a gallon of milk (with room for expansion) and defrosted it a few weeks later. It was awesome. I hate buying a half gallon at nearly the price of a gallon.

I've heard that makes the milk gritty...the fat separates it seems...

https://www.stilltasty.com/questions/index/92/page:2

I didn't hear that..

So it didn't happen.. maybe next time.

...besides,, it requires planning...It says it doesn't effect the taste, just the texture.... besides I would have to keep freezing it...

It was an another experiment.

Planning for a day I may live far from a store.. and cow.

Or another use for a freezer chest.

Pasteurization is not sterilization. Pasteurization reduces but does not eliminate the bacteria. Refrigeration does not stop bacterial grow (aka decay), it just slows it down. If you want a container of milk that won't start spoiling until you open the container then buy a sterilized product like Parmalat.

Too expensive....

It's cheaper than a milk cow.

Smells better too!

I'm sorry that the universe refuses to obey your whims.

(I was thinking of adding a rude meme, but I rejected that thought as being too rude.)

Well the re-pasteurization only takes a few minutes...so I can live with that....

Buy a cow, have the cow drink the milk, when it comes out again it will good as new.

If I bought a cow, I'd need a farm, and a farmer....

They don't have urban cows in Florida?

Yes they do, but they are human type....haha

I only make light of this because I pay $1.29 a gallon at Kroger. Like you, I only have milk on cereal, very inconsistently, buy my son drinks about 7 gallons a week, If I did have to dump a half a gallon, it wouldn't bother me much.

It's not the money....It's the inconvenience and aversion to waste...I was raised poor...It's a quirk, I know...Even though I'm quite comfortable now, throwing out food was always considered a sin in my family... and I can certainly hop in the car and go get more milk, Publix is only a few blocks away...In any case I haven't heard of anybody trying this re-pasteurizing to prolong the life of milk and I'm curious to see if it works, probably more than anything....I might just keep doing it to see how long it works...any guesses?

Until you get sick and end up in the ER is my guess.

There is no gain without sacrifice....

Powdered milk - Wikipedia

Yuk!

It goes great with liquid cereal.

If there were a milk shortage then I could provide some empathy. Instead I think you maybe part of the problem.

Something is wrong in that article.

That was funny!

This is not:

From the Fox News article, "Zimmerman hopes to restore the North American Free Trade (NAFTA) agreement to help restore stability in the dairy industry. And bring whole milk back into schools across the U.S."

School nutrition programs have all been "gutted" in the last 18 months.

NAFTA, or some form of it was reincarnated today, much to the glee of some.

NAFTA has nothing to do with whole milk banned from schools by the Obama administration...This law was passed to fight obesity in children supposedly....

https://marino.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/marino-introduces-legislation-bring-whole-milk-back-schools

..."Meanwhile, schoolchildren continue to be served only fat-free and lowfat milk, and this means a huge lost opportunity to serve children the best tasting best nutrition available while improving the loss of milk markets and value affecting dairy farmers across the nation.

In fact, by at least one estimate, the move by the Obama administration to reduce flavored milk from lowfat (1%) to fat-free, alone, resulted in lost sales of 288 million cartons of milk since 2014 — not to mention milk on the school lunch tray ending up in the trash. "...

https://agmoos.com/2018/05/04/rep-marino-introduces-whole-milk-act/

So, obesity is not a problem. OK.

The reference to NAFTA was from the Fox piece.

My comment was that some form of it was reborn.

School nutrition programs do not require whole milk.

So you're saying giving kids milk to drink is responsible for obesity? Well that's odd because when I was going to school we had milk, and chocolate milk, and ice cream, and I don't remember seeing any obese kids....and school nutrition programs don't require whole milk, since 2012, when they were revised...Trying to force people to do something never works...in fact it usually has the opposite effect....more clueless do-gooders screwing everything up....WE do things that sound good during discussions at social events, but have no foundation in reality...Government mandates can't replace good parenting...and parents working full time jobs can't practice good parenting full time as well...

And I drank whole milk that I had milked from the cow the day before. And ate lots of meat and potatoes. I also worked on the farm rode a bike miles every day, played ball, went hiking, swam, has PE every day and worked all weekend cutting wood in the winter, putting up hay in the summer, and working in the fields. In short I got PLENTY OF EXERCISE which kids of today DO NOT!

Don't blame the government for fat kids and adults. It's their lifestyle and diet!

You're getting political on me!

I don't blame anybody for obesity, it's just the way society is evolving...but I don't see any reason to punish anybody by dictating what they can consume under penalty of law....just seems unnecessarily harsh and oppressive...and I might add, unlikely to accomplish any stated goal of reducing obesity...

"I don't blame anybody for obesity." You should. Children don't get fat without parental assistance.

And to suggest that some kid is going to bet busted for drinking whole milk is, well, no comment.

Harsh and aggressive actions are taking place every day, but at our southern border, not in public school cafeterias!

Tell that to the dairy industry...

From 2006...

https://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/02/nyregion/in-new-york-schools-whole-milk-is-cast-from-the-menu.html

"City education officials, including the schools system's head chef, say the decision to eliminate whole milk is part of a larger effort to improve nutrition for the city's nearly 1.1 million public schoolchildren."

""There is a huge amount of obesity in the school," said Jacqueline Kelderhouse, a nurse practitioner at a health clinic inside Public School 28 in the Bronx, "

"But children today are fat, or at least too many of them are, and to cut the risks of obesity, diabetes and other health problems, New York City -- the nation's largest school district -- has decided to cut whole milk from the menu."

So, health officials of local school systems, in order to curb obesity, made this decision.

Penalty of law? Where?

..."

• Limits milk served to nonfat flavored milk or 1 percent white milk^[12]"..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy,_Hunger-Free_Kids_Act_of_2010

The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act provides meals to children that normally could not afford those nutritious food items. Research suggests that rural children are more likely to be overweight or obese when compared to urban children, the diets of rural children are less nutritious and their families have less access to healthy food, leading into the next reason of benefiting children facing obesity.^[21] It also allows schools to have more resources that they may not have had before.^[21] A study in Virginia and Massachusetts concluded that children in schools were eating significantly healthier meals when their parents or guardians were not choosing their food, but the school was.^[17]

So you're saying living on a farm is bad for your health?

..."A YouTube video, produced by Wallace High School students drew national attention and over 1.5 million views.

The video complained of its students being "hungry" and not fed well enough to participate in their extracurricular activities or sports due to reduced portion sizes relative to those prior to the new law.^[15]

In response to viewing the video, nutrition specialists explained that before the new standards were implemented, some schools may have been serving a lot of protein to keep their customers happy, "but none of us need as much protein as a lot of us eat". The experts also explained that eating 850 calories at lunch is enough for most high schoolers.^[16]

Along with the viral video, other students are reaching out on other forms of social media by using the hashtag 'ThanksMichelleObama'.

Sam Kass, the executive director of Let's Move! and senior policy adviser for Nutrition shared "We've seen the photos being tweeted, but we don't dictate the food that schools serve-school districts do."^[17] A study done by Harvard School of Public Health discovered that about 60 percent of vegetables and roughly 40 percent of fresh fruit are thrown away due to no interest.^[17] Overall, the amount of food students did not eat but threw away instead increased by 56 percent.^[18] One of the biggest points of criticism for Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act is meal participation, and the participations has not increased, but decreased.^[19]

The program has declined by nearly 4 percent and some schools have lost revenue due to the decline in participation, therefore, many are choosing to opt out of the program as a whole.^[18] "...

I think that study you cited is flawed....You can lead a horse to water, but....

https://twitter.com/hashtag/thanksmichelleobama

And you know what they say about playing chess with pigeons, P 911!

Admin note: Content redacted

Your life experience sounds similar to mine! Quite poor as a kid, now pretty flush (at least by comparison) but I don't spend money I don't need to, fix most things and hate waste, especially food.

In the case of milk, I use it on cereal even if it has turned (I rather like the taste). It's no good in tea, coffee or custard as it curdles.

My guess is it would cost about as much to boil or freeze milk as buying some more. But interested to see how your experiment goes.

Well this recipe probably not only preserves the milk but also may encourage you to want to drink it quicker.

Like you, I was raised poor or in a poor neighborhood. Personally I would buy sterilized milk as I suspect the costs to re-pasteurize the milk would be higher than the cost of the sterilized milk

I was raised on raw milk as well many of my relatives, we put silver coin in the milk to keep it longer mostly since refrigeration was not as powerful as now. Also in those days coins had silver in them yet we were told not to put coins in our mouth for fear of germs. Now days I use colloidal silver in the nano particle range.

Raw milk is great... but with a say,... 4.3 butterfat test...a high test, after a thunderstorm, the milk In your refrigerator can get somewhat rancid taste.

no one is quite sure why, they think it may be because of the Ozone created in the air after a thunderstorm that turns the make somewhat sour.

Never heard the ozone theory many places use ozone to purify water at municipal level and just about every bottle of water I ever had under ingreedients mentioned only SPRING WATER / OZONE. I run my ozone generator for 10-20 minutes several times a week as an air purifier but Burton my cat and I leave the area for a bit.

They’re not quite sure why?,... that is still only a hypothesis. And only for raw milk... I think maybe the homoigenizing or even pastuerization may help it to keep from going rancid.

for us on the farm, a light thunder storm never really noticed, but about 2-3 time, we noticed, and one when our butterfat tests were 4.3, 4.4???, where it actually curdled... that was taken from the bulk tank that morning...

only then did I believe that...

Keep us posted on your progress.

Don't forget to factor in the cost of the power used to renew your milk.

Well it costs about $.01 to reheat the milk...so not really a factor

Build one of these.

Well I already have one of these...

...so I don't need one of those....

The use-by date is either mandated by legislation or the "best" guess of the dairy that processed it. The actual date that the milk will no longer be safe for human consumption may or may not match this use-by date. In my experience, milk is usually quite usable after the use-by date. Just take a whiff before you use it and you should be able to smell if it has gone bad or not.

I have had other dairy products (still sealed) stuck at the back of my fridge (where I have somehow forgotten they were there) well past the use-by date and have found them to be eatable.

I am still alive and have had no ill side effects.

If you add 1-2 oz of your milk to some hot water even coffee and stir and it curdles then it is starting to turn this does not mean pathogens but fermentation usually. It can be used for a sour milk recipe within reason.

Pasteurized milk when sour really has a noxious smell compared to raw milk, always do a sniff test or the hot water test to avoid the gulp and spew system of testing milk for freshness. (I am not associated with any bovine group)

What about odd-toed ungulates? Is there an association there?

No,... milk, starts breaking down soon after pasteurization.

the standard of pastureization is HTST being High Temperature/Shore Time, ie heat to high temperature with the time being 16 seconds. Done in a holding tube that’s continuously flows.

Temperature is taken on the inlet of the holding tube, and on the outlet, if the outlet drops below, the 160 degrees, it’s diverts back to the balance tank for repastuerization.

doing so, even under a controlled process, the sugars in the milk are changing state... a Millard effect... and once you turn brown, you’ll never turn back... so to speak.

there are other types for pastuerization to take place such as ultra high temperature, but then the time during pastuerization is reduced because the milk fats are high sensitive.

What wa tried back in the 90’s was flash pastuerization where the temperature would be heated extremely high in an instant (flash) where I does not affect the fat. The shelf life would be 6 months. The draw back is the stream of milk entering the flash chamber, it was not a guarantee of heating the core of the milk stream consistently.

also back in the 90’ Flow international a making of high pressure water jets for cutting Mateo, teamed up with orange juice processors of using high pressure pastueration.
Initial tests showed promise, but later found out, high pressure didn’t totally kill the pathogens, and the pathogens soon repopulated.

but the short answer is no, milk is too sensitive, that to repasturize it is not feasible

Milk is not only heat sensitive, but pasteurized milk is inverse dependent on time/heat.

normally it’s High Temperture/Short Time. ie, milk would be heated to 161 degrees and ran through a holding tube for 16 seconds.

I suggest for a longer shelf lift to go with ultra pastuerization, it uses a night temperature and even shorter hold time.

this has a longer shelf life.

now there’s also flash pastuerization, where it would be unrefridgerated shelf stable for months. BUT, because of the speed of it flash pastuerization, there is a chance not all would be pasteurized, especially the core of the stream, even if it’s at turbulent flow because of the time.

i already posted here… lol