How Does One Determine The Useful Life Of Nutmilks?

[tex]

Hi All,

Noting that all commercial nut milks are dated, just what does that date mean? How does one determine whether a nut milk is actually unfit to use. Will it spoil? Change taste? Change odor? Change color?

I sometimes drag out the use of such products, or don't use them for a while, and I wonder if they really should be discarded, or if that date is arbitrary. I just had some cereal with Silk Almond Milk, (which expired yesterday), and I couldn't tell that it was "expired". (Maybe I'll be able to tell later tonight. LOL ). I've thrown away leftover amounts in "expired" containers many times, but is it really necessary? Or is it a good idea, because it can be spoiled, even though it appears to be OK?

Any thoughts?

Tex

[sarkin]

Tex,

If an unopened container is one day expired, I assume the manufacturer has been super-cautious, and their ability to figure it out is in weeks/months, not days. So I would imbibe.

In products where they say 'use within n days after opening' - I assume the same... but my window of "it's OK" is a lot stricter than my husband's (pre-MC, even). I will bring him around to my way of thinking, via hunger strike if necessary - luckily the chicken stock he likes to use (which also works for me) now comes in small sized tetrapacks. I need a chest freezer full of stock I made myself (which I would date, with a Sharpie... bringing me to exactly this dilemma you raise in some months' time). My nut-milk freezing experiment is imminent, but it will be a while before I have good hints. (Partly because the nut-milk ice cream experiment is likely to reduce the sample size...)

I think, quite honestly, that no one knows exactly what will happen. Because it depends on so many things. Of course, "it depends" is almost always the right answer... only topped by "I don't know." But this may be a rare advantage of living in litigious times... manufacturers for sure do NOT want you concluding that their product has gone off and made you ill, so their guesses include eventualities such as - you stored it in your car trunk in the blazing sun for months. (Don't do that, probably.)

It takes some experience to distinguish 'changing color, this could kill me' - from 'changing color - no big deal.' Changing odor/taste - if I'm not intentionally looking for fermentation-ish effects, I'm thinking Not Good. But that could just be my limited imagination.

If it expired yesterday - and the storage conditions aren't weird/extreme - I am all for it.

Bon appetit,

Sara

[tex]

Sara,

But this particular half-gallon has been open for at least 3 or 4 weeks - maybe longer.

I'll tell you about some tests I did, back when I used to use cow's milk. These were done with Borden's milk, and I have never found any other brand that's sold around here, that would come anywhere close - in fact, most brands won't quite make it to the printed expiration date, most of the time.

One day, during the hottest part of the summer, I got sidetracked, while unloading groceries from my vehicle, and a day and a half later, I discovered that I had forgotten the milk, and it had been without refrigeration all that time, (daytime highs were near 100 degrees F). I assumed that it was ruined, and I put it in an old refrigerator in a tool shed, where I keep soft drinks, Gatorade, etc., intending to give it to the cats, later. I forgot about it, and a couple of weeks later, I noticed it, and wondered why it wasn't all puffed up like a toad frog, the way it should have been, so I opened it. It was fine. It lasted for another week.

So I did some tests, to see how long it would last under normal conditions. One, I opened 15 days after the expiration date, and began using it. It lasted for another week, (7 days), before developing a faint sour odor. Note that the milk wasn't really sour yet, because I could shake it up, and the odor would disappear, so the odor was only on the surface, but I terminated the trial, anyway, since it's days were obviously limited at that point. IOW, it lasted for a total of 22 days after the expiration date.

One, I opened 10 days after the expiration date, and it too, lasted for a week, while I used it, before developing a faint sour odor. This one lasted for a total of 17 days after the expiration date.

I tried one more, but I forgot to record the date that I opened it. It lasted for 22 days after the expiration date.

I thought that was rather interesting.

Tex

[Gloria]

Tex,

I've noticed that the nut/rice milks in a carton last longer than the homemade ones. I've mentioned before that my homemade almond milk lasts for a week and then starts to turn sour. Silk Almond milk lasts much longer, presumably because it has been heated to a high temperature during the processing and sealing of the carton. I've thrown out cartons because I can't tell if they've gone bad. I suspect they're still good. I don't want to risk getting sick, so I pitch them.

Gloria

[TooManyHats]

Oh, Tex, that milk experiment is just NASTY!

[tex]

Gloria,

OK, that answers my question - they eventually do sour. I've never noticed an odor, or off-taste, with any of them, so that's why I was wondering. Yes, I usually throw them out when they hit the expiration date, but I tried that one yesterday, just out of curiosity. After that, I "retired" it. LOL.

Thanks.


Arlene,

Speaking of "nasty", when I was in college, one of my classmates had a reputation for chug-a-lugging drinks. One day he grabbed a carton of milk, (I can't remember if it was a pint or a quart, but it was a substantial amount, not a half-pint). He opened it, and quickly downed it. Just as he finished it, his eyes got big, he threw it down, said a few bad words, and began to vomit it back up. It was sour, obviously, and not just a little sour - it was really sour. We all thought that was hilarious, but he was as mad as a wet hen, and he didn't see any humor in it at all.

Tex