Eli5: If the milk of each cow is unique, how come all milk bottles of a brand taste the same?

Question

I remember tasting milk of many cows in my family farm. Each cow had a “signature” taste and part of the experience of drinking milk was enjoying the different tastes. The taste of milk of one single cow depends on many factors: age, diet, health, etc. Then, how do companies standardise the taste of their bottled milk? Best case scenario I can imagine is that producers blends the milk of many cows, but this is definitely no guarantee of a standardised taste. How is this achieved?

In: 462

Answer 1

In a nut shell it’s because of mixing milk from lots of cows plus homogenisation and pasteurisation.

You’ll find some brands of milk taste different, because they might be sourcing from a different region or something but on the whole, one bottle of milk will taste the same as another from the same company.