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.

Comments

Re:remember CJD?

[IRGlover]

Don't know where you are, but in the UK (home of "Mad Cow Disease") we were told that it was the result of using cheap cattle feed that included ground-up sheep infected with Scrapie. This induced BSE in the cows, which resulted in CJD when people ate a significant amount of the infected beef. It may be that the pasteurisation of the cattle feed was changed and so the Scrapie was not killed off, but I would say that a bigger issue is feeding ground up animals to herbivorous livestock in the first place!

Re:FFS Beau skip adding the additional links

[arth1]

Indeed. It's pathetic. I wonder why the new owners keep the useless "editors" around? They could easily be replaced by a script that scrapes a few articles from two days ago reddit while they wait for the next paid-for shilling article.

I remember when all for one welcomed the new insectoid overlords. manishshshshs promised a lot of changes, and said he listened. Well, reality probably struck, because exactly none of the changes to the better have occurred.

I didn't think it would be possible, but current day slashdot is in slightly worse condition than at the end of the DICE era.

Is slashdot up for sale yet?

Raw milk faddist here

[codeButcher]

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.

Re:Raw milk faddist here

[jabuzz]

I am going to have to call you out on that. But heat treating milk whether it is for pasteurization or UHT, cannot and I repeat CANNOT diminish the calcium in the milk.

If it did that would be revolutionary low temperature nuclear reactions that defied all known laws of physics and would most likely kill anyone in the vicinity with lethal doses of radiation. This is the sort of crap that Fleischmann and Pons where spouting and more recently Andrea Rossi.

Whatever heat treatment does to milk and I am not going to be so stupid as to claim it has not effect, it most emphatically DOES NOT diminish the calcium content of the milk as to do so would require by definition nuclear reactions which only morons would claim could occur.

Re:Humans have been doing it for 1000s of years

[necro81]

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

I don't know - I've had some vegan cupcakes that were indistinguishable from conventional.

You are correct that a segment of humans have evolved to take advantage of the milk production of other animals. That's been pretty beneficial to us as a species. But the traditional, pastoral production of milk that coincided with that evolution bears almost no resemblance to the industrialized production of milk in the modern world. There are plenty of legitimate problems about industrial dairy - and not just for the cows! - that are worth discussing out in the open. It doesn't have to be either 1) you don't give a shit about how the milk is produced orwhat's in it so long as it is plentiful and cheap, or 2) you're a dreadlocked vegan stridently and smugly preaching about the evil wrought by humans.

I, for one, welcome this development. So much food is wasted in industrialized societies - it is sickening. Past-date milk is one of the worst examples. If milk has a longer shelf life, then the entire industry can operate more efficiently, which ought to 1) reduce prices for consumers and 2) reduce pressure on producers to treat their livestock so shittily in the quest to produce more cheaply