Our daughter effortlessly weaned herself from breast feeding literally overnight when she was about 11 months old. She hasn’t lost her love of milk, though, guzzling about a gallon of the stuff each week since making the switch to moo juice about 18 months ago.
But as any mother of a milk-loving toddler will tell you, it’s not always easy to indulge our little one’s thirst, especially on-the-go. You can put milk in a container and throw it in the diaper bag, but you have to make sure its stored in some sort of insulated thingy, and even that only keeps it cool for so long. And at home, keeping a gallon of whole milk or 2 percent milk for her and a supply of skim milk for mommy and daddy can take up a lot of room in the fridge.
For both of those reasons, I was very happy when I recently discovered shelf safe milk.
Shelf safe milk is real milk – just like the stuff you’d buy in the refrigerated dairy section of your grocery store – that requires no refrigeration until it’s opened. It contains no additives or preservatives, and includes all of the protein and nine essential nutrients as regular milk, because it is regular milk. Actually, it’s better than regular milk – it’s milk unleashed!
HOW IT’S MADE
Where does shelf safe milk come from? If you guessed “magic cows” you’d be wrong, but I’ll give you partial credit for your sense of humor. It actually comes regular cows, but instead of undergoing the traditional pasteurization process (heated to around 160 degrees for 10-20 seconds), shelf safe milk is ultra pasteurized (heated to around 280 degrees for three seconds). The ultra pasteurized milk is then immediately placed in special “tetra pak” containers that keep out air and light. The result? Milk that doesn’t require refrigeration and can sit on the shelf in your pantry for up to six months.
The result is also milk that can be enjoyed anytime, anywhere. Lunchboxes, diaper bags, purses. Just chill it when you need it, and you’re good to go. (A tip for moms of school-aged kids:Freeze a single-serving package of shelf safe milk the night before and drop it in a lunch box the next morning.)
As for where to buy it, you can get shelf safe milk at just about any grocery store. You’ll probably find it on a shelf, away from the refrigerated milk. For more info about tracking it down, check out this website.
The funny thing is, as revolutionary as shelf safe milk might sound, it’s actually been around since the 1960s. A majority of the milk consumed in Europe and South America is shelf safe milk, and it’s also popular in countries where chilled distribution isn’t always available. So why has America been slow to embrace this “new” dairy breakthrough? That’s a good question, but one thing’s for sure: This American momma is ready to embrace it, and never let go!
For more information about shelf safe milk, visit MilkUnleashed.com or follow along on Facebook and Twitter.
This blog post is part of a paid SocialMoms and Milk Unleashed blogging program. The opinions and ideas expressed here are my own. To read more posts on this topic, click here.
We always had this milk when living in Central Europe. They don’t keep the eggs in the fridge either. It seemed odd but we all lived, my kids grew up on this and our brains still seem to be intact (most days). Thanks for doing the research I was never motivated to figure out!
Thanks for sharing this, we are always going through milk and can’t seem to drink it fast enough at times. I’m going to look in to this.
You know, we always have shelf milk on hand – it is nutritious and needed in our home… thanks for the post!!!
I love shelf safe milk! If I don’t have some on hand my kids resort to less healthy products.
ive never seen this before…thanks for sharing!
I just learned about shelf safe milk and love the idea! I think it would be great when we travel!
This is the first time I am seeing this. Thank you for sharing.
I tried some of this recently and it was really really good. 🙂
Dawn
comes in handy for traveling and lunch boxes.
Interesting! I had no idea this existed, we don’t use milk much outside of recipes and the occasional bowl of cereal where almond milk won’t suffice, but I know so many people who need to hear about this!
I had some coupons for shelf stable milk the other day and couldn’t bring myself to buy it because I wasn’t sure about it. Not anymore! Thank you so much 🙂
I keep a 3 pack of shelf stable milk in my pantry, it comes in really handy for those mornings when we find there is only like 3 dribbles of milk left in the fridge.
I have always been unsure of this type of milk. That’s for doing the background work and providing such great info!
I lived in Egypt for 3 years and it is where I first was introduced to shelf-stable milk. It wasn’t until I returned to the states that I did my homework and came to find out that that milk on the shelf is anything but real! As you pointed out in your review, the thing that allows for shelf-stable milk to sit for such long periods of time without refrigeration is it being ultra-pasteurized. Regular pasteurization alone renders the majority of the naturally-occurring good bacteria, enzymes and nutrients inactive. But when you bump the heat up even more for the ultra-pasteurization process…what you have is not real milk, it’s DEAD milk! No to mention that after they obliterate all the naturally occurring nutrients with the ultra-pasteurization process, they then add back synthetic ingredients to compensate for what they killed off. Please everyone do your homework and research, especially if your family are big milk drinkers. Here are some helpful link:
http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2008/01/raw-milk-benefits-1-in-raw-milk-series.html
http://www.westonaprice.org/modern-foods/ultra-pasteurized-milk
http://realmilk.com/
Sorry, I do mean to cause any trouble and I usually don’t even comment on blog posts, but keeping ourselves and our families healthy and providing them with nutrient dense food is important and I couldn’t read this and not inform everyone about the truth.
great to know about this. My daughter drinks milk a lot.
I must have been living under a rock because this is the first I have ever heard of this. So many times we run out of milk and have to make a quick trip to the store. How convenient to be able to stock up on it.
Very interesting! I have not heard of this brand yet
I haven’t seen this before. Very interesting concept. I guess it would be useful to keep some of this around for recipes.
We love having shelved milk! This is great information!
that is great! I havent heard of this but want it! It would be soooo great to able to stock up on weeks of milk for drinking and baking especially!
I seriously didnt know this existed. Thanks for writting this!
I’m SUCH a fan of this type of milk. Great to keep in the diaper day bag for my toddler too!
It definitely makes life more convenient! And I’m so happy to have discovered it!