Despite being a healthy drink, it will be worthless if it doesn’t reach you hygienically! Yes, that is the story of “Milk” – the most nutritious drink known to us. The journey of milk from the farm to you depends greatly on the packaging you select. You can receive in cans from your local milkman or in pouches or tetra packs from local stores. But to know which type of milk delivery or packaging will suit your needs the best, read this article to the end so that you can buy the best milk for your family.
What if you buy Raw Milk from the Milkman?
First note that raw milk contains harmful bacteria like Campylobacter, Cryptosporidium, E. coli, Listeria, Brucella, and Salmonella. These bacteria hold the assured potential of infecting you with watery diarrhea to bloody stool, with fever, abdominal pain, vomiting, and dehydration.
Due to this reason, “pasteurization” is highly preferred that you can’t get from your local milkman. However, we are not discouraging you from buying local raw milk, but making you aware that if you do so, you have to maintain the following:
- Use a clean utensil to heat the milk to up to 70oC. At home measuring temperature may be a constraint, so just keep in mind that you have to boil the same.
- While boiling you have to keep on stirring it occasionally with a clean instrument for uniform heating.
- Ensure that the boiling stage continues for at least 15 seconds.
- Henceforth, after cooling it so that you can refrigerate it, put it in the refrigerator.
- Consume only when it is super cool or reaches 4oC.
After completing the above steps, the raw milk that you acquire from your milkman is fit for drinking and free from all types of pathogens.
What if you buy Packaged Milk Pouches?
In urban India, pouch or packet milk is a widely consumed category of milk. The process of pasteurization and homogenization makes it safer for consumption, ensuring its popularity. However, there are certain things to ensure before you buy and consume milk in pouches like:
Check the Shelf-life: Milk in pouches has a shelf life of 1-2 days which makes its consumption within a short period a mandate. Buy in regular intervals without any intention to store for long.
Buy it from a Brand: Ensure that the milk pouches you buy come from reliable milk processing plants in India. Normally it needs to be reputed brands. Otherwise, you may receive milk coming from cows that are fed adulterated fodder or have been injected with hormones. This means that the milk you get is not organic and comes in an adulterated category.
Although milk coming in pouches is pasteurized, yet, it is always a healthy choice to boil them before use. This makes the milk free from any type of contamination that might have resulted from the packet due to its exposure to sunlight, if ever.
What if you buy Milk in Tetrapacks?
This is the safest form of commercially available milk for your family. The following points outline its consumption-safe attribute:
Typically, only the brands with good market reputations launch milk in a tetra pack. Therefore, you will get organic milk every time you buy which is not from cows fed with adulterated fodder or injected with hormones.
In general, tetra packs offer 6 layers of protection with materials like polyethylene, paperboard, aluminum foil, and LDPE. These layers protect the milk for a long time and prevent any type of contamination, be it from the environment or from the packet itself.
Furthermore, milk in tetra packs has a shelf life of 9-12 months and can be stored at any condition. This means, that storing it is easy and only refrigeration will work before drinking. You need not boil it.
Now, What to Choose From?
Either raw milk or milk in pouches can be an economical buy, but you will have to invest some time to make it consumption-safe. Furthermore, you need to manage time daily to acquire them from the market as you cannot store them for long.
When you buy milk for your family in tetra packs, it is costlier than its other counterparts. But you can save time as there is no need to boil them before consuming, Additionally, you can make weekly or monthly stocks of the same at your home due to its longer shelf-life, hence, saving your time from daily cowshed or store visits.
It’s all about you and your family – therefore, we believe that our article might have created an impact on you to make you make a wise decision based on your schedule and budget. Keep visiting our blog page to get interesting updates on the milk and dairy industry and products.
