Does the additional volume of product make them more likely to spoil while waiting on the shelves?
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A grocery store employee once told me no soy milk needed to be refrigerated and some of the ones in the refrigerator were shipped to them at room temperature. I’m not sure why he told me that, but I nodded politely and went on with my life. I’ve always been a little curious about that though. So I’m commenting here.
No, but if it does spoil its less waste. This is a similar reason to manufacturing standards set by factories a century ago during wwi [and wwii for that matter] on establishing the average size needed to serve the average customer over a time period that would reduce waste through unpurchased and spoiled goods balanced against production capacity.
The shelf stable products are slightly different. They are processed to last on the shelf without refrigerating.
They can each have different nutritional additives as well. Shelf stable tends to be fortified with vitamin d and calcium whereas the refrigerated products tend to have more b-12.
If milk has been UHT (ultra high temperature) treated and is in a tetrapak (laminated card) carton then it should last 6 months+ unrefrigerated. If it is kept in a translucent plastic (usually PET) carton this may shorten the life. It’s often a marketing trick to keep drinks cold unnecessarily. They appear “fresher” to consumers.
Pasteurised milk has a shelf life of a week or less and needs to be permanently refrigerated.
This is generally true for soya etc milk even if the temperatures for the different levels of heat treatment are slightly different.
For almost all products, this is simply because they sell better in the fridge. Customers associate refrigeration with “fresh” products and milk in particular. Also customers may be more likely to select an alternative product if it’s right there when they go looking for the milk (this second point is just a guess on my part). The ones sold off the shelf still need to be refrigerated after opening.
Note: If you buy something out of the refrigerator, make sure to check the packaging to verify it is also safe to store at room temp before being opened if you plan to do that because this doesn’t apply to ALL products.
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