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The Time Frame for Preventing the Milk from Spoiling

Rakshitha Kotha^{* *}Correspondence: Rakshitha Kotha, Department of Biochemistry, Osmania University, Hyderabad, Telangana, India, Tel: +32-466-90-05-61, Email:

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Editorial

The temperatures inside a refrigerator can vary over time and from location to location. Your fridge, like your oven, can have hot and cold areas. This has an impact on the quality and shelf life of your food. Because it's the warmest position in your fridge, the refrigerator door is the worst place for temperature swings. Consider this: Every time you open the fridge door, you're pulling all of the foods inside into the hottest area in your house. Warmer temperatures and frequent temperature changes can cause food to spoil, especially milk and cream. Milk is high in protein, vitamins, and minerals, and is the first food consumed by mammals after birth. However, it does not last long. This is due to the fact that raw milk is likewise high in bacteria. The length of time it keeps fresh is determined by how it is handled. Most store milk has been pasteurized and can be kept in the fridge for up to a week if unopened. Unopened milk that has been heated to temperatures exceeding 135°C (275°F) can last up to six months at room temperature. However, milk that has been heated to such high temperatures does not taste very nice.

Here is typically how different sorts of milk last

• If unopened, pasteurised milk can be kept at room temperature for up to four hours. It will keep for five to seven days if kept below 4°C (40°F).

• After passing through a fine filter to remove sour bacteria, unopened filtered milk can be stored for up to 45 days at temperatures as high as 7°C (45°F).

• Milk that has been heated to an Ultra-high Temperature (UHT). UHT milk can survive six months at room temperature if heated to at least 135°C (275°F) for two to four seconds and stored in proper packaging. It should be refrigerated and treated as fresh milk once opened.

• Three months for frozen milk.

• One year at room temperature for evaporated/condensed milk.

• Dried milk can be stored for up to a year in powdered form.

A recently developed low-temperature, short-time variation to the pasteurisation process that exposes milk to more heat while under low pressure. They sprayed ordinary pasteurised milk through nozzles at a controlled pressure using specialised equipment. They then heated the minuscule droplets to just below 72o C (161o F) for 0.02 seconds. The bacteria were eliminated 99 percent of the time, but the taste and nutrients were retained. On a scientific scale, pasteurisation alone kills bacteria by a factor of five, but the extra step increases it to seven or eight. What does survive is at such a low level that it takes a long time for it to increase to the point where it causes harm. For up to 57 days, there were no evidence of the milk spoiling (i.e. bacterial development), which is five weeks longer than conventional pasteurised milk. This innovative procedure has the potential to not only extend the shelf life of fresh milk, but also to let it to be transported further, potentially expanding farmer markets.

Cow's milk should be consumed within seven days of opening to ensure maximum freshness and quality. It's important to stick to the use-by date till it's opened. If you're cutting it close to seven days and have concerns, take a sniff of the milk before drinking it to see if it's still safe to consume