How can milk stay natural for longer?

Incredible, but true: milk can actually retain its beneficial properties for several months. How does this happen?
Milk heats up to 137-140 degrees Celsius in 2-3 seconds and instantly cools to room temperature, after which it is immediately poured into cardboard packaging under sterile conditions
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Video: How can milk stay natural for longer?

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

What are you used to paying attention to when buying milk? First of all, on the brand, fat content and shelf life. And it is obvious that a package of milk with a six-month shelf life will cause your distrust: how can a product so sensitive to external conditions be fresh for 6 months?

And the manufacturer also claims that he does not add preservatives to milk!

Incredible, but true: milk can actually retain its beneficial properties for several months. How does this happen?

Fresh milk obtained from a healthy cow is completely sterile, and in order to preserve the freshness and benefits of a natural product, it is necessary to thermally secure it in time.

At home, housewives get by with simple boiling, and factories use various processing technologies, from traditional (pasteurization) to advanced (sterilization, ultra-pasteurization). Advanced technologies give us "long-lasting" milk, that is, a product with a long shelf life.

There is a widespread myth that such milk contains almost no vitamins and nutrients. What do the facts say? Sterilized milk (usually presented in glass bottles) undergoes heat treatment - sterilization, that is, it is kept for about 30 minutes at temperatures up to 140 degrees Celsius.

Such a product is completely safe: all harmful microorganisms die in it, however, together with them, sterilization destroys a significant part of the beneficial properties of milk.

UHT milk is subjected to a different temperature treatment - UHT.

Milk heats up to 137-140 degrees Celsius in 2-3 seconds and instantly cools to room temperature, after which it is immediately poured into cardboard packaging under sterile conditions

A few seconds are enough to rid milk of harmful microflora, while retaining all its valuable properties.

How can it be? The effect of ultra-pasteurization is based on the fact that harmful living microorganisms die during rapid heating and cooling before milk proteins and vitamins begin to break down.