UHT milk and use by dates

Hi Geo

Long life milk is fine past the use by provided it is kept in ideal conditions 5 to 18 C. If the cartons have any bulging and the carton is taught then the milk has bacteria growing in side.

Basic rule is it tastes fine then it should be ok. If it is turning it will tast sweeter than normal. UHT milk means untra high temp treated killing all bacteria what they for get is it goes into a none sterile carton.

You will find it will sour within a day if it is realy past it's use by (that sounds like me)

give it a go if we dont hear from you then we know my advise was as off as the milk.

TM2CW

Trevor

Are you sure it is a used by date or best before date (I cant remember) nevertheless uht milk is sterilized and sealed while prob not quite as good as canning it is the same principle and canned foods have been consumed after 100 years. Bacteria are like any other living thing and must produce waste products which will usually show up as gas or spiolage. I do not believe that a product that can go unrefridgerated for 3 or 6 months will then suddenly go off after another 3 or 6 months Unless there is a packaging malfunction which wil render the product obviosly off

If they are getting near use by date, i put them in the freezer; good to use as an icebrick if nothing else.

Sorry kids, no milk no icy-poles either. If that milk had an use-by date for the month october, how long have you been away??? When I buy my UHT-milk it has normally an other 5-6 months to go before the best use-by date

Just as an aside, Dairy Framers are now making the long-life milk in really nice plastic bottles. We find the tetrapaks self-destruct on the corrugated roads.

These new plastic bottles look solid, have a nice foil seal on the top and you don't have to decant them into a decor container to make them survive the rough stuff.

Hi
Have to declare my bias upfront-- 30 years in dairy manufacture.
If UHT spoils through bacteria it will normally happen early in life, and the results will be spectacular-- expansion followed by explosion..... If your UHT container starts to expand get it underground quick.
Age deterioration is another thing altogether. You will start to see fat separation (the old fat layer on a bottle of milk) or protein breakdown--signs of this are little lumps in the coffee/tea or a "bitty" mouth feel.
Normally, UHT will go long past its best before or use by, but the original post seems to indicate a trip around the country, maybe with temperature fluctuations etc so err on the side of caution.
UHT in plastic bottles will not last as long as cartons as they cannot get the barrier properties in a bottle that they can in a carton. Having said that the bottle is a bit more environmentally friendlier than the carton, which has a metal foil layer.
From October to now I would say that there should be no worries but if concerned take the advice of an earlier post and freeze it for cooking/custard etc later.
Rusty

We use powdered milk and have no issues

The kids are discerning little blighters of course......... but I'm with Willem - if you could get them back onto UHT flavour levels, powdered milk is the go - we take tank water with us where possible, run it through a filter jug and then make up our milk via quality powder. You can't pick it from UHT and you can of course adjust the fat levels with dilution rates. Reasonable quality water that we pick up on the way and then filter makes good milk too.

Did a little test on the flavour of uht milk the kids hated it.
Put the same milk into 2lt plastic ordinary milk container the have never commented.

All the best
Eric