![]() ![]() Many in the health movement have been involved in a long-term boycott against this company. Horizon remains the leading seller of "organic" milk products, and has been under fire for years for its less-than-organic practices. It is incredible that Horizon can so shamelessly get away with using the term "organic", after destroying the milk's chemical make-up, so that it becomes excessively harmful with long-term use. We detailed the toxicity factors of homogenized milk in our heart disease article, and we recommend that you continue reading about the specifics there. If you must choose between Horizon's "organic" milk and smoking, then definitely choose smoking. In the long term, you would be healthier as a smoker than anyone who drinks this stuff several times a day. Shamefully, all of the milk products distributed under the umbrella of Horizon "organic" are just mislabeled heart disease delivery systems. Some milk companies use the terms "cream line" and "cream top" to emphasize their healthier products. ![]() It was nothing more than intuition which led me to call Horizon's headquarters, at which point they confirmed that all of their milk is homogenized, despite the deceptive labeling. To the contrary, there are actually no mandatory labeling requirements concerning homogenization. There was no mention of homogenization on the labels, which I had always assumed was a requirement. We recently noticed the presence of Horizon brand, ultra-pasteurized, "organic" milk, during a visit to our local Walmart store. We routinely purchase milk that is pasteurized, but not homogenized. * Correction (6/6/08): This sentence originally said "milk is heated to 145 degrees F (63 degrees C) for at least 30 seconds." (The error occurred during editing by the staff of and is not the fault of the expert. But if it's the long shelf life you're after, I would recommend you buy nonorganic UHT milk and avoid being charged double. ![]() There are, of course, lots of reasons people buy organic milk. UHT also destroys some of the milk’s vitamin content-not a significant amount-and affects some proteins, making it unusable for cheese. A lot of Americans find this offensive-just as they are leery of buying nonrefrigerated milk. UHT sweetens the flavor of milk by burning some of its sugars (caramelization). One reason is that UHT-treated milk tastes different. So why isn’t all milk produced using UHT? The process is used for the room-temperature Parmalat milk found outside the refrigerator case and for most milk sold in Europe. Milk that undergoes UHT doesn’t need to be refrigerated and can sit on the shelf for up to six months. Ahead of that, however, was up to six days of processing and shipping, so total shelf life after pasteurization is probably up to two weeks. Retailers typically give pasteurized milk an expiration date of four to six days. UHT, on the other hand, kills everything. The different temperatures hint at why UHT-treated milk lasts longer: Pasteurization doesn’t kill all bacteria in the milk, just enough so that you don't get a disease with your milk mustache. There are two types of pasteurization: "low temperature, long time," in which milk is heated to 145 degrees F (63 degrees C) for at least 30 minutes*, or the more common "high temperature, short time," in which milk is heated to roughly 160 degrees F (71 degrees C) for at least 15 seconds. The process that gives the milk a longer shelf life is called ultrahigh temperature (UHT) processing or treatment, in which milk is heated to 280 degrees Fahrenheit (138 degrees Celsius) for two to four seconds, killing any bacteria in it.Ĭompare that to pasteurization, the standard preservation process. According to the Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance, the milk needs to stay fresh longer because organic products often have to travel farther to reach store shelves since it is not produced throughout the country. Organic milk lasts longer because producers use a different process to preserve it. All "organic" means is that the farm the milk comes from does not use antibiotics to fight infections in cows or hormones to stimulate more milk production. So what is it about organic milk that makes it stay fresh so long?Īctually, it turns out that it has nothing to do with the milk being organic. ![]() If you’ve ever shopped for milk, you’ve no doubt noticed what our questioner has: While regular milk expires within about a week or sooner, organic milk lasts much longer-as long as a month. ![]()
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