Milk and it's expiration dates. Options

[*My Cinderella.*]

So, I've found it very odd how milk comes with 2 expiration dates. For those of you who have it, you know how they give you 2 expiration dates? (one for NYC and one for other.) If you live in NYC which one do you follow?

As for me...I always follow the general one. I never understood the NYC one. If you lived 30 seconds away from NYC, would you follow the NYC expiration date or the other one?

[freeflow]

Really? I thought it only had one. I don't have milk right now so I can't check. That is odd though, if I lived 30 seconds away I'd just use the NYC one.

[breakingdawn]

We have often wondered why dairy products get two expiration dates here: one for New York City, and one for the rest of the world. Often, the in-city date is a full two or three days earlier than the out-of-city date, which is a pretty significant discrepancy in the life of a quart of half-and-half. Does milk spoil faster in the five boroughs than it does elsewhere?

Yes and no. Thanks to a recent Ask Metafilter post, we found that the ever-reliable Florence Fabricant actually tackled this question in the New York Times way back in 1982. It turns out that NYC has its own rules and dairy dating systems, rules that require shops to stop selling fluid dairy products four days (96 hours) after 6:00 a.m. on the day they were pasteurized, instead of a more common 6-10 day window used in other places. Dairies that sell within the city as well as to other nearby locations double-mark their products–hence the baffling date stamps. The rationale behind the short sale span is simple: sometimes dairy products are left out on the sidewalk in front of stores or are left unrefrigerated in grocery delivery trucks for significant periods of time.

Here’s our take: if you purchase your dairy products from a 24-hour corner store or major chain grocery (places where someone is always around to accept delivery shipments) and bring it home right away, you are likely to have avoided any extended period of non-refrigeration and might want to use the later date as your guide. If, on the other hand, you choose to have your dairy products delivered to your door (as many New Yorkers do), you should probably pay attention to the earlier date. But keep in mind that those dates are the sell-by dates and not the consume-by dates; as Flo Fab writes, you can usually still drink your milk for a few days to a few weeks after the expiration date, as long as it is kept cold and sealed. But if it stinks, pitch it.

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[secretwish]

I use to have 2 milk expiration dates on my milk carton or whatever. But now I have the half-gallon ones & they have one date only.
I'd use the general date though.

[*Kathleen*]

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Haha. That helps - "Yes and no." Hrm. That's odd.. I didn't even know that milk had two expiration dates! Well.. I really just drink milk until.. it starts to smell funny.

[*WHIMSICAL 0NE*]

We only have one date. Milk's usually good a few days past the expiration date though. The reason it usually goes bad is the bacteria in the milk. It's kind of gross to think about it, because you can taste when milk is older verses when it's fresh... and to think that taste is the pooh of the bacteria.

[SimplicityGirl]

We only have one here in Vancouver...so I just follow that.

[synthase]

wowo I've never really noticed teh NYC one
but I follow the general one

[tokyo-rose]

It's not that there are two expiration dates. One is the sell-by date that the supermarket has to sell the product by and the other is the date you should finish it by.

I follow the second, actual expiration date. Like Dee said, milk (and generally everything else) is a good a little past that date though.

[*StanleyThePanda*]

Haha. That helps - "Yes and no."

Hahaha I know right? I was like WTF?

That is so strange. I never drink milk though (I'll throw up, idk why), So I never really noticed.

[tokyo-rose]

That is so strange. I never drink milk though (I'll throw up, idk why), So I never really noticed.

Lactose intolerance?

[*WHIMSICAL 0NE*]

That is so strange. I never drink milk though (I'll throw up, idk why), So I never really noticed.

That's weird... I usually don't drink milk or eat yogurt because I get really bad stomach aches, but I don't throw up. Maybe you should go to the doctor about that.

[*StanleyThePanda*]

^ Maybe I should. I dont really care enough to get it checked out though. >.<

Lactose intolerance?

Not exactly. I can drink milk if its Organic, skim, etc, or has something in it (I can drink chocolate milk). Just not Whole, 1%, or 2%. It's pretty weird.

[tokyo-rose]

Not exactly. I can drink milk if its Organic, skim, etc, or has something in it (I can drink chocolate milk). Just not Whole, 1%, or 2%. It's pretty weird.

One of my friends is like that too, except with chocolate: she can't eat chocolate, but she can drink hot chocolate and chocolate milk.

[*WHIMSICAL 0NE*]

Gosh ya weirdos. Haha, just kidding!

I don't really have a taste for milk, so I'm glad that something that I don't like doesnt agree with me... rather than it be something I love. I was raised on whole milk, and a lot of people don't like whole milk.