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Scientists Find Chemical-Free Way To Extend Milk's Shelf Life For Up To 3 Weeks (digitaltrends.com)
An anonymous reader writes from a report via Digital Trends: Researchers at Purdue University and the University of Tennessee have found a non-chemical way to extend regular milk's shelf life to around 2-3 weeks, and without affecting the nutrients or flavor. The technology they've developed involves increasing the temperature of milk by just 10 degrees for less than a second, which is well below the 70-degree Celsius threshold needed for pasteurization. That quick heat blast is still able to eliminate more than 99 percent of the bacteria left from pasteurization. "The developed technology uses low temperature, short time (LTST) in a process that disperses milk in the form of droplets with low heat/pressure variation over a short treatment time in conjunction with pasteurization," Bruce Applegate, Purdue's associate professor in the Department of Food Science, explained to Digital Trends. "The resultant product was subjected to a taste panel and participants had equal or greater preference for the LTST pasteurized milk compared to normally pasteurized milk. The shelf was determined to be a minimum of two weeks longer than the standard shelf life from pasteurization alone." As for whether or not this method will make its way to store shelves, it won't in the near future. "Currently an Ohio-based milk processor is using this technology and distributing the milk," Applegate says. "The unit is approved for processing milk in Ohio and distribution nationwide. The product is currently being distributed, however it has not been labeled as extended shelf life milk. Once the commercial application is validated the milk will be labelled with the extended shelf life." Scientists from Duke University believe there may be a large source of hydrogen gas under the ocean, caused by rocks forming from fast-spreading tectonic plates.
Unpasteurised milk is way better but most people cant handle this stuff now-days.
What does hydrogen found under tectonic plates have to do with milk pasteurization? Is this some kind of reading proficiency test?
Jeez .. are you just adding links to the end to stories just for the hell of it? WTF does the hydrogen one have to do with milk in the first place?
It's doing shit like this that pisses off regulars and drives people away. Just check out how people felt about the last lot of overlords.
The only conclusion I can come to is that you are Timmmmah in disguise (albeit a bad one). So quit making a fool of your self and just leave well enough alone.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
"Scientists from Duke University believe there may be a large source of hydrogen gas under the ocean, caused by rocks forming from fast-spreading tectonic plates."
This surely helps to preserve milk.
So how long is the shelf life when the milk is mixed with hydrogen? Really, self-leveraging is a form of masturbation. The page hits might look better, but it degrades the site as a whole.
It is even illegal to sell unpasteurized milk in most of EU. Some old delicacies used it and may also no longer be manufactured
I'm pretty sure unpasteurized milk is "manufactured" constantly since that's how it comes out of the cow...
In this day and age? Why don't they use UV or gamma or beta irradiation?
I hope you don't eat lettuce leaves; they're intended to feed the lettuce plant itself via photosynthesis.
There are valid reasons for not eating/drinking milk, I don't think you've given one of them.
What's the drama? we're saving cows which would otherwise be used for slaughter only.
More importantly we find that the less stress cows have the more and better milk they produce so we're actively looking to better the lives of cows.
Is this what nature intended? no. Nature has no feelings other than man-made moral judgements. Humans are part of nature, this is now "natural".
Bottom line, are cows better off providing milk for humans? yes. Are humans better off? yes.
Wait until you confront the fact human breast milk is even better and some human adults produce it for others to drink...but I guess it's not mainstream because as the proverb goes; you don't have to buy a cow for a glass of milk.
And it will cost more too. The farmers can't get rid of the milk now. If it last 2-3 weeks more, then the farmer can't sell you as much milk thus they'll want more price supports because they'll have to cut back not to produce.
I'm for doing everything the opposite. Let the bacteria do the work and convert it to cheese. Then take the cheese that can sit on the shelf for a pretty long time and then reconvert it back to milk as one needs it. I'd think this would be easiest way to extend milks shelf life! So if it takes about 1-2 gallons of milk to make a pound a cheese, the storage space would be optimized too which then reconverts back to 1-2 gallons of milk.
The other way to extend milks life is to convert it to powdered milk. I wonder how long powdered milk would last using this process?
The technology they've developed involves increasing the temperature of milk by just 10 degrees for less than a second, which is well below the 70-degree Celsius threshold needed for pasteurization.
What temperature do they increase the milk from? You can't say an increase of 10 degrees is "well below" an absolute measurement of 70 degrees.
Scientists from Duke University believe there may be a large source of hydrogen gas under the ocean, caused by rocks forming from fast-spreading tectonic plates.
...what?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
In fact we've even evolved to keep the lactase enzyme into adulthood in the majority of the worlds population just because of drinking milk. So get over it cupcake and take your hand wringing animal rights agenda elsewhere.
Remember CJD? that prion disease that destroyed your brain? That was the result of a change of pasteurization of cattle feed to a lower temperature. True, countless folk have used unpasteurized milk for thousands of years, and it's not like we're feeding the milk back into cattle from that state. So common sense/history would say 'safe'.
Well the industry may involve questionable ethics but the fact that the lactase persistence mutation is so prevalent among European descent indicates that there was a time (admittedly thousands of years ago) where adults able to consume the milk of a different species survived better than those that couldn't. If it had made no difference to survivability then the mutation would be less common and most of Europe would be lactose intolerant.
Scientists from Duke University believe there may be a large source of hydrogen gas under the ocean, caused by rocks forming from fast-spreading tectonic plates
Not only am I getting really sick of seeing link backs to stories which are often literally less than a day old, but in this case it is completely irrelevant.
Links back to relevant stories are not bad, but they only make sense when they are related, of really really important significance, or old enough that they aren't in the immediate memory of the readership.
This is journalism 101 type stuff.
And the same animal's flesh, intended for maggots, bacteria, plants, and various carrion animal species, is similarly fed to humans...
Vegetarian Diet Kills Animals Too:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technolo...
Last but not least:
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
I'd certainly like my milk to stay fresh longer, but hauling it down under the ocean, and mixing it with hydrogen sounds far too challenging a process to realistically commercialize.
Wow. It sounds like you need a ridiculously huge shelf somewhere in your dairy facilities, too... Who has room for a two-week long shelf?
That's some interesting logic, there... It won't be on store shelves in the near future, because it's already on store shelves now.
It was EditorDavid who screwed-up big a few days ago:
https://slashdot.org/comments....
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Currently in the UK I can buy regular pasteurized milk which can be homogenized or not and lasts about a week, or "filtered" but still regularly pasteurized milk (e.g. Cravendale) which lasts 2-3 weeks. What's the difference with this new process? I seems to still require the regular pasteurization and adds an extra heating to get the same effect as the "filtering". Note that I use quotes since I don't know what this filtering entails, so the question is whether this new process has any advantage over that filtering, or is the story just to advertise a new (I assume patented) way to achieve the same effect?
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
Is it really something new or noteworthy?
I am not sure about the US but here in Europe ESL milk (PDF) is a pretty standard thing: it has a shelf life of 3-4 weeks and it is of course chemical-free.
Real life is overrated.
The technology they've developed involves increasing the temperature of milk by just 10 degrees for less than a second, which is well below the 70-degree Celsius threshold needed for pasteurization. That quick heat blast is still able to eliminate more than 99 percent of the bacteria left from pasteurization.
So which is it? Do they first pasteurize the milk, then "blast" it with the 10 degrees? Or is the 10 degree thing the only treatment?
without affecting the nutrients or flavor.
As any hobby cheese maker will be able to tell you, pasteurizing diminishes calcium content by around half. If you google for cheese making instructions, almost all will tell you to preferably use unpasteurized milk, and if you have to use pasteurized, you need to add calcium. Calcium is one of the things needed for the fermentation processes. (UHT milk is strictly discouraged as about all calcium is destroyed, and the stuff one can add back is not of the same quality - cheeses with UHT milk usually flop).
Obviously, a lot of other nutrients (minerals, vitamins, probiotics) are diminished. I'm not sure about the chemistry, but I assume it would not be elemental minerals, but some organic compounds being broken down so as not to be utilizable by biological processes (fermentation, digestion) any longer.
Thankfully, in my country one can sell raw (unpasteurized) milk legally, provided samples are tested every few months for some pathogens - this is called "certified raw milk". My provider voluntarily does the tests once a month. I obviously use some of the milk fresh, which seems to last longer in my fridge than the commercial pasteurized milk. Most of it is used for feta-style cheese, one of the easiest cheeses (I know, I know, cows milk does not make "real" feta). I do not need to add any cultures, it uses its natural-occurring cultures for the fermentation step, I only need to add some coagulation enzymes. The cheese also differs light-years in taste from the chalky store-bought stuff made from cow's milk.
And let's not get me started on taste. Just not comparable to the white stuff from the supermarket. The milk also comes unhomogenized, and somehow that cream just does it for one's tastebuds.
Anyhow, as you may deduce, I'm a fan of making milk last for weeks in the traditional (and nutrient-enhancing) way: fermentation. Jogurt and kefir do last about double as long as the fresh milk, and can still be used instead of fresh milk in a lot of applications; cheeses obviously last for some months at least and be default only get better with age. Cream and butter also last a bit longer, and freeze well. Then there is the trip to the supplier every week or two to restock - for the few single days in between where your fresh milk is used up, there REALLY are other diet options, you don't need fresh milk every day.
Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
Well, our teeth as well as our digestive system suggest that we're omnivores, so you needn't toss meat to the maggots and fungi. We're quite capable of eating it, provided it didn't get time to "ripen" too much. We're notoriously bad at eating carrion. A good indicator is the usual human reaction to the smell of Cadaverine (pentamethylenediamine) and Putrescine (tetramethylenediamine), which can best be described as "projectile vomiting", and that's why people who have EVER smelled a "juicy" corpse will NEVER forget that very smell, with some of them having the reaction above just from being reminded of the smell.
Whoopsie, sorry for triggering a few EMTs.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
It annoys the crap out of those who go on a scavenger hunt for gulten free, free range soy milk.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Hydrogenated milk fats could make butter solid enough at room temperature to use it for beating sense into Slashdot editors. History teaches us that this may require large sources of hydrogen gas from under the ocean because a lot of sense needs to go a long way.
Fairlife milk has been on the store shelves for years.. Coca Cola owns it. I was a regular milk consumer - mainly because it was a cheap way to take in more protein. However, I was throwing a lot of milk away since it already seemed to taste bad even before it hit the expiration date. I tried the Fairlife milk and now I won't go back.. It tastes fresher than regular milk even a month after I open it. And, it has a higher protein content. Win Win.. I don't know what 'nutrients' they're throwing out of Fairlife milk.. but protein is protein.
--- We need more Ron Paul!
I've been able to buy it in both EU countries I have lived in. Where is it illegal?
You could have looked it up yourself.
Last line of the summary:
Scientists from Duke University believe there may be a large source of hydrogen gas under the ocean, caused by rocks forming from fast-spreading tectonic plates.
Has exactly WHAT to do with milk preservation?
As for whether or not this method will make its way to store shelves, it won't in the near future ... Currently an Ohio-based milk processor is using this technology and distributing the milk
Um, what the fuck?
And what the fuck is with this sentence at the end:
Scientists from Duke University believe there may be a large source of hydrogen gas under the ocean, caused by rocks forming from fast-spreading tectonic plates.
Can we at least try to edit the submissions before posting them?
raw milk (cream and all) is the best. an alternative to high heat (pasteurization) is 100 years overdue.
The summary says: "As for whether or not this method will make its way to store shelves, it won't in the near future." This indicates that milk treated using this process is not available on store shelves. But then the summary says: "The product is currently being distributed." So I'm curious as to who they are distributing this milk to and what is being done with it?
Or, how about we just sell milk in bag-in-boxes like they do in other countries. They can sit on the shelf for up to 6 months as long as they're not opened. Grocery stores could still refrigerate them so they're cold and ready to go when people get home.
Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
They'll munch on bones of other animals when they find them.
They need all the calcium they can get as they are pumping it out through milk.
Just like the way they'll go for some chicken nuggets if they are low on other nutrients such as phosphorus or iron.
Nature is red in tooth and claw.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Just ultra-pasturize. Whatever that means. I've had a thing of horizons milk in my fridge for a month and it's still as good as new.
The designated hitter rule (already a subject of great consternation) will become much more controversial once the windfarms off Nantucket become fully operational.
A gallon of milk in my fridge lasts several weeks (I only really use it for coffee) so I really don't get how this is a big deal that it needs a 'story'. Guess I'm missing the 'great advance' here.
Besides that, what's with these 'semi-summary' statements after the main summary that have 0 to do with the main summary? What exactly does a pocket of hydrogen gas under the ocean have to do with milk?
Yep, remove all the chemicals from milk, and what's left will keep forever. As long as you can keep air from seeping into the resulting hard vacuum.
Who drinks milk?!?
I haven't drank milk in years...
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
Ultra-pasteurized milk already lasts for three months.
I live in Ohio and our milk tastes lille crap these past two months. It's so bad that this daily drinker hasn't had any milk in a month other to test how bad it still is. Now I hear that perhaps this is the reason? No tasty difference they claim but claims are as believable as a kraut.
There's a surplus of milk already, as dairy consumption is generally on the decline, at least that's what I keep seeing in the news...eg: Ontario dairy farmers dumping skim milk into manure pits and sewer lagoons. Extending the shelf life is the last thing the industry wants - spoilage is helping them at this point..
"the usual human reaction to the smell of Cadaverine (pentamethylenediamine) and Putrescine (tetramethylenediamine),"
Quoting the wiki:
"Basic amines such as putrescine, spermine, spermidine and cadaverine are responsible for the smell and flavor of semen."
What human reaction, you said?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Avantslash: low-bandwidth mobile slashdot.
"admittedly thousands of years ago"
Actually, that is the really surprising thing. By evolutionary standards, that's just a few hundred generations, and yet lactose tolerance has become incredibly common in Europe. That can only happen if the specific mutation conferred a very significant improvement in the survival chances. That is to say, many, many lactose-intolerant people must have died while their lactose-tolerant neighbours did not. Doesn't necessarily mean death due to starvation, milk is also rich in Vitamin D. And that solves a problem in European winters, when sunlight is rare.
Great, you "researched" a half-ass cross between ultra pasteurization and traditional LTST/HTST processes. I work for a large dairy with multiple facilities- unless there is an ROI for energy savings or something (unlikely based on 86% regen in HTST systems) this is not news.
Micro-filtered milk already has that shelf-lifetime.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
The last sentence has nothing to do with the article...
Do you not know how bioavailability works?
While I'm no expert I have a crude idea. Do you? You seem to be conflating bio-availability some other concepts. It's a lot more complex than raw food = good bacteria = healthy person.
Many of those bacteria help us digest stuff we lost the ability to digest after infancy.
You are grossly oversimplifying the process. Bacteria help us digest stuff throughout our life. Remove them and we can barely survive at any age. We aren't born with all the bacteria we need to digest stuff and our gut flora change as we age. Some comes from mom, some comes from the geography and environment around us, some comes from our diet. Antibiotics have a strong effect on our gut flora.
The debate about the health benefits of raw vs pasteurized milk has not yet yielded much in the way of firm conclusions. A few things seem clear. Pasteurizing does unquestionably kill harmful (and helpful) microbes and on balance it seems clear that it has a net benefit in reducing illness and mortality from pathogens. Most studies conducted so far that have found benefits to raw milk have not controlled for the fact that the individuals studied lived on a farm (hard to get raw milk elsewhere) and there are many variables relating to that so it is hard to draw any strong conclusions. There may be benefits but we haven't clearly teased them out yet. The available evidence and studies so far seems to show that any negative impact on nutrition from pasteurization is small to negligible though future studies may revise that conclusion as more data is gathered.
there is such a thing as "good bacteria" but never mind, this process will kill it all. sterilizing away most of the nutritional benefit.
Most studies to date have concluded that pasteurization has minimal to negligible effect on the nutritional content of milk. Most of the nutritional value on milk has nothing whatsoever to do with any microbes in the product. The majority of the nutritional value comes from protein, fat, carbohydrates, minerals and vitamins which are largely unaffected by pasteurization. The largest impact seems to be on taste. Any impact on the gut fauna from pasteurization appears to be small and more than offset by the reduction in illness from various pathogens killed in the process.
I always wondered why they don't have pigs milk on the shelves
We have been extending milk's shelf life for a very long time.
If you put fresh bought milk in the freezer for 20-25 minutes (then put it in the normal ice box of course) when it's first brought home then it will last up to 7-10 days longer. Try it. I have been using this method for several years now. It works well.
"Chemical freeway" was how I first read that title...
My brain manages to register all the letters correctly and still mess up. Nice job brain, fooled me again.
You might want to take into account what amounts are in the play here.
But hey, be my guest, if you feel like eating carrion, I won't keep you from doing it. Personally, I find the smell repugnant.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
In California raw milk is legal but hard to find at a retail level. So I purchase it directly from a farm and it is delivered UPS. To mitigate the shipping charges I order a fairly large amount and have them ship it frozen in quart or 2-quart bottles. When I get it all but one goes directly into my freezer where it will keep fine for months. As needed I move bottles from the freezer to the refrigerator where it thaws in about 20 hours. The effect of freezing on the enzymes, nutrients, and bioactive components are minimal.
I will take that any day over this horrific machining process being proposed.
Another victory for the perverted industry where one mammal's breast milk (intended for infants of its own kind) is fed to adults of a different species.
and just think about eggs.
i suppose next we'll be frying rooster sperm for breakfast.
not that chewing on muscle tissue of a deceased (or not) animal is less yucky
Actually the debate has some very firm conclusions with several deaths (mostly child deaths) directly linked to drinking raw milk. There was one in January here in the UK and in December 2014, one deaths and 4 serious injuries were caused by children consuming raw milk in Australia.
Presuming what you are claiming is factual (I won't dispute it here), one death in an entire country is insufficient to constitute strong evidence one way or the other. In the US alone there are 3000 deaths and 128,000 hospitalizations for food borne illnesses every year. You'll find more than a few of those come from dairy products that have been pasteurized. One child dying per year is a tragedy but it's not enough by itself to draw any firm conclusions for or against raw milk. I think the evidence thus far tends to indicate that any benefits from raw milk are minor in comparison to the problem of food-borne pathogens but the benefits of raw milk do not appear to be fully understood at this time. For myself I'll stick with pasteurized milk until there is strong evidence against it.
The debate is out about homogenisation, but the debate over pasteurisation is very clear cut.
If you will bother to read what I wrote, you'll not that I agree that pasteurization has a clear net benefit nor did I even hint that we should stop doing it. Whatever benefits raw milk has are poorly understood at present and the risks seem to significantly outweigh the known benefits. That's what evidence based policies are all about.
Personally I dont mind letting adult nutters have their dangerous milk, my problem is when they try to force their bad life choices onto others, especially kids who couldn't know any better.
I'm guessing you don't have any children of your own because there is absolutely no way that you can have kids and not force some of your own bad life choices on them. You (hopefully) won't mean to but it cannot be helped. We all make mistakes and bad choices in our life and our kids just have to live with them to varying degrees. One just hopes that you can avoid forcing the really bad ones on them like religion, lack of vaccines, etc.