February 7, 2008
NYC's Milk Expiration Date Mystery
After looking at the nitrogen tanks that live on city sidewalks, a reader asked us to look into another city mystery. She wanted to know "Why is the expiration date on milk different for New York City? Does it really take that many more days for the milk to get here?" The NY Times looked into this in another shelf-life (1982), and reported:
New York City is the only place in the state and one of relatively few in the country that has its own dating system for fluid milk, which may legally be sold only up to 96 hours after 6 A.M. on the day after pasteurization. The rule is the same for whole, skim or low-fat fortified milk.More recently, NYCnosh looked into the milk mystery and theorized that "if you purchase your dairy products from a 24-hour corner store or major chain grocery (places where someone is always around to accept delivery shipments) and bring it home right away, you are likely to have avoided any extended period of non-refrigeration and might want to use the later date as your guide."According to Charles Reisberg, Assistant Commissioner of the Department of Health, the four-day period should allow the consumer three additional days during which the milk will remain in good condition. ''We know that at seven days after pasteurization there is a lessening in quality, even with milk properly refrigerated at 45 degrees,'' he said.
Outside the city limits the processer determines the expiration date.
This message board points to a statement made by John Gadd, a spokesman for the city's Department of Health, who says that milk shipped to New York is more likely to stand unrefrigerated for brief periods. "It's one of those uniquely New York sorts of things. In other parts of the country, the expiration date is often 11 or 12 days after the date of pasteurization, but our experience and research have shown that here, 9 days is a reasonable threshold." Henry Beyer, a spokesman for New York State Dairy Foods, disagrees! He says that refrigeration and processing practices have improved since the nine-day expiration date was introduced.
Who knew milk could be so controversial! We're just happy if we can find a carton that isn't expired at the bodega.
Photo via NYCnosh.
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Well, it's warm when it comes out of the cow! Hmm...
Whatever Henry Beyer - I've seen milk in crates sitting on the sidewalk for 10-15 minutes in the sun. Yechh. That's why I drink soymilk now - it's MUCH better. (Right)
Has anyone noticed Organic milk has a later date? Much longer.
Why is that?
Has anyone noticed Organic milk has a later date? Much longer.
Why is that?
Besides, it's a sell-by date, so you can always use the smell test to see if it's still OK after the shorter NYC period.
Of course, I always check my milk, even if the date says it's still good - thanks to an unfortunate incident in high school when I swallowed a huge gulp of "fresh" milk (that had just been purchased), only to discover that it had turned. I still retch when I think about it.
I have long suspected that milk is illegally transported in unrefrigerated trucks. I have never had milk stay fresh for longer than 4 days when purchased from 2 different local Key Foods, and milk practically enters my apartment sour when I foolishly buy it from a bodega.
It is worse in DC, though. I just got used to black coffee. That city's like Alien Nation.
Most organic milk is ultrapasteurized. That's why it lasts longer.
FrankMartin, I noticed that too. So I went a-googling and learned that most organic milk is pasteurized at ultra high temperatures, which involves superheating and cooling milk at extreme speeds, and that extends the product's shelf life from 17 to 45 days. The reason more organic milks are UHT pasteurized might be because the farms are (were?) smaller and farther afield, so they process the milk so that the shelf life is longer, which allows for longer travel time to market. Other bits & pieces I read posit that it may also be the type of carton used (the more waxy the paper, or if it's in glass bottles) the less milk-paper contact there is, so the less contamination occurs. And, if you can find milk in those tetra paks (the asceptic boxes) that stuff lasts forever and is shelf-stable without refrigeration for those very reasons.
I wouldn't buy any of that white-colored water in supermarkets if I had any choice. Most New Yorkers don't remember what real milk tastes like. Ronnybrook is pretty good. You haven't lived until you've licked that milkfat off the underside of the cap. Patrick Farm is supposed to be even better, but it tastes a little strange to me.
why does milk rot my teeth more than soda?
Just look around your supermarket, and you'll see all sorts of perishables just waiting around unrefrigerated, waiting to be put on the shelves. It's only common sense that they're not going to be fresh past the expiry date, and will probably not be good much before.
"You haven't lived until you've licked that milkfat off the underside of the cap."
Nasty.
Despite the "extended" shelf life of organic milk, I think it stinks after a couple weeks so I generally get rid of it if I haven't used it all. Maybe I'm just paranoid.
Joclyn wrote: I have long suspected that milk is illegally transported in unrefrigerated trucks.
Absolutely. Funny you should mention it. Just yesterday when walking across 51st street past Rock Ctr, I pass a plain old fiberglass cube truck delivering cases of milk and dairy to the restaurants and bodegas there.
Milk is pretty nasty. As I understand it, it was orignally formulated for baby cows. ;-0
A little in my coffee is all I can stand. It'd take someone holding me at gunpoint for me to drink a glass.
I disagree, with the previous poster, I love milk. I drink a couple of glasses a day! Though I've never had truly fresh milk. Not even as a baby. I was a formula kid!