At the place I work the milk is shipped and stored in room temperature. What does this mean for the dairy industry?
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a lot of processed milk has added preservatives allowing it to be stored at room temperature, give it a longer shelf life and make it easier to transport. There are probably more reasons but those are just the ones I know.
Milk is almost always pasteurized, a process killing most bacteria, but retaining most taste. Room temperature storable milk is ultra heat treated (UHT) diminishing taste with the benefit of being essentially sterile. The difference is the temperature, which is way higher with UHT.
[Ultra high temperature proceed milk is pasteurized at a higher temperature than normal.](https://www.organicvalley.coop/blog/difference-between-pasteurized-and-ultra-pasteurized-milk/#:~:text=HTST%20pasteurization%20heats%20the%20milk,is%2099.9%25%20free%20of%20bacteria.)
Regular milk goes to about 160 Fahrenheit for about 20 seconds, while UHT does to about 280 for shorter time, about 2 seconds.
The difference is while regular pasteurization kills harmful bacteria and most others, UHT kills all bacteria.
UHT milk can have different flavors since the higher temp can do some things to the milk, it ends up tasting(subjectively) a bit creamier and kind of “cooked” vs normal pasteurized milk.
Likely why it shows up more in flavored milks for the American market who is not used to the different taste, and why it also is generally displayed in refrigeration even though it technically doesn’t need to.
>What does this mean for the dairy industry?
Pretty much nothing. It’s been around since the 60s and is relatively common in other areas like Europe. In many places it’s the norm opposed to the outlier. It’s possibly more common world wide than regular pasteurized milk.
Before it was nice since it vastly extended the shelf life from 2 weeks to 6-ish months and transitioned to different packing. Milk can be distributed easier, cheaper to stock since it is shelf stable, profitable when there is still low demand but worth having around.
Milk can be made shelf stable by pasteurizing it at a higher than normal temperatures this is called ultra high temperature pasteurization or UHT pasteurization. In normal pasteurization milk is heated to 161 degrees for 15 seconds which kills any bacteria in the milk. With UHT it’s heated up to 280 for about two seconds. This creates an aseptic environment, this along with sterile packaging great extends the shelf life as bacteria cant not grow. Nesquick uses ultra pasturized milk, creating a shelf stable product that does not require refrigeration, until the package is opened, hence the “refrigerate after opening” label.
In Germany at least, almost all milk can be stored for months at room temperature. You have to go to a special section of the supermarket to find the “fresh milk” which spoils within days. So I’m guessing that where you live the opposite is true?
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