The Most Miraculous—And Overlooked—Type of Milk | The Atlantic

It’s shelf-stable milk, a miracle of food science—and a product that Americans just can’t learn to love.

The Most Miraculous—And Overlooked—Type of Milk
Shelf-stable milk is a miracle of food science that Americans just won’t drink.
By Ellen Cushing

Illustration by Margeaux Walter
October 11, 2024, 9:30 AM ET

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The Wegmans in Brooklyn’s Navy Yard is—sorry to be dramatic—paradise on Earth: 74,000 square feet of high ceilings and long aisles, stocked with nearly everything a person could conceivably want to eat or drink. It has tamarind and rambutan and malanga; pink pineapples and purplish, fresh-packed venison; a special cheese that is softly dusted with dried flowers and herbs collected in the German Alps. 

The milk options alone include beverages made from soy, almonds, oats, cashews, flaxseeds, bananas, pistachios, and hazelnuts, in addition, of course, to the lactational secretions of the American cow, all displayed prominently in well-stocked, brightly lit display cases.
One of the world’s most consumed, most convenient, and least wasteful types of dairy, in contrast, occupies a space about the size of a beach cooler, on the bottom shelf in an unglamorous and highly miss=able corner of aisle six. It’s shelf-stable milk, a miracle of food science—and a product that Americans just can’t learn to love.

Business Research Insights

Extended Shelf-Life (ESL) Milk Market Size | Growth, 2031

Shelf-stable milk is, as you might imagine, milk that does not need refrigeration and can thus be stocked on shelves. It gets this way by being blasted to 280–302 degrees Fahrenheit for one to five seconds in a process that is hotter and faster—and much more effective at killing bacteria—than other types of pasteurization. It’s then poured into special packaging that is sterile and airtight, where it can last for months on end. . ." 

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