US Milk also tends to be rather old by the time it reaches consumers, with ~2 weeks being surprisingly common. That has several implications which alter it’s taste.
Of course this varies a lot based on the store and product.
Milk in the US is only a couple days old by the time it's in the grocery store.
Unless most people in Europe are buying direct from the dairies, I can't imagine it's appreciably faster. Even then, I grew up having milk delivered direct from the dairy and definitely don't notice any difference between what I grew up with and what I typically buy in the grocery store.
I would guess most of the flavor difference comes from pasteurization differences, since Ultra High Temperature pasteurization appears to be the norm over there.
In Denmark you can get milk at the grocery store that was inside the cow less than 24 hours ago. Ultra High Temperature pasteurization is not really normal in Denmark, but I think it is in Germany.
I miss UHT and homogenized milk since I moved to Denmark :( I loved being able to buy a six pack of milk bottles back in France and keep it in a closet for weeks, now I can barely drink a carton of milk before it goes bad.
While most milk in Netherland is pateurised and therefore keeps only a few days, there's also sterilised milks which keeps for months. Doesn't taste as good, though.
That really depends on the supply chain, but many stores do occasionally need to throw out old milk so you really need to consider how long the sell by date gives them to work with. Then add 2 days before pasteurization though this can legally be up to 5 days or in theory as little as 24 hours.
Just remember they moved to Ultra High Pasteurization because 2 weeks was simply not long enough.
All the milk that are sold at my grocery store, no matter the size, is ultra-pasteurized. It's not unusual at all, in my experience. They sell common East Coast brands like Organic Valley.
(According to various sources I can find when googling this, there's no difference between ultra-pasteurized and UHT.)
Backing up the other comments, this also isn't true from anything I've seen in Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, or Pennsylvania. Seems like an issue specific to places where the demand for milk far outstrips the regional creamery supply.
Perhaps ultra-pasteurized is common on the East Coast? Its definitely not common for 1 gallon or half gallons in Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Idaho or Michigan (in my experience).
UHT is only for warm shelf milk here in Virginia, and maybe for some of the really expensive organic stuff that's shipped all the way across the country.
> Just remember they moved to Ultra High Pasteurization because 2 weeks was simply not long enough.
That wasn't the idea. It was supposed to sit unrefrigerated on normal shelves. They haven't had great success with the product in the US as people don't trust non-refrigerated milk.
About two days old, after being stored at 39 degrees while constantly circulated. There's no indication that mass-produced milk in Europe is any "fresher", and if it's UHT milk, just forget freshness.
Milk can legally be up to 48 hours old before it it’s picked up from the farm. With ever other day pickups being very common and multiple milking per day some get’s close to that. It can then sit at the factory for another 72 hours before pasteurization though this uncommon. It then varies though Ultra High Temperature (UHT) gives you up to 70 days at this point.
That’s the extreme which would be very unusual, but buying milk that’s ‘only’ 2 week old milk is reasonably common. All it takes is knowing how long the sell by date is after pasteurization and another ~1-2 days to get to that point and you can find how old this stuff is.
>buying milk that’s ‘only’ 2 week old milk is reasonably common
Do you have a citation for this by any chance? I've had a quick Google but no luck. Been interested in average food quality differences in US and EU since the "chlorinated chicken" news in the UK.
Of course this varies a lot based on the store and product.