Cravendale milk issues anyone? (über boring thread!)

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

I tend to buy Cravendale as it lasts longer and we use bugger all milk.

I always give the milk the sniff test before I use and can always smell if milk is fresh, mature or off.

Sometimes the milk curdles when put into hot drinks (although smelling fine)

This morning DP opened a bottle and it was all the texture of a thick soup, despite smelling completely fresh.

Does Cravendale not smell when it goes off, or does it have some weird property that causes it to do this?

Tis a pain as doesn't happen with every bottle (actually pretty rarely), but Cravendale is expensive, and if we buy normal milk we have to chuck slightly used bottles all the time as it goes off.

Help/theories very welcome :)

I only ever buy cravendale. I picked up a bottle because I couldn't get any other semi-skimmed. That was about 18 months ago, really preferred it in tea & haven't had any problems at all with it.

We always buy Cravendale - never had any issues with it.

never had that problem with it. I'd email cravendale and ask them. :)

My parents were commenting yesterday that 2 bottles of Cravendale (one skimmed and one semi) both dated 15/08/2012 went off Monday/Tuesday time (I can't recall).

What was the date on your bottle?

12th August.

Did theirs smell off oldboots

I have emailed Cravendale and will see what they say. I'm a bit concerned that no-one else has experienced this though, must be weird.

I had this with some normal milk. Properly freaked me out. I complained to Sainsburys who refunded my money, couldn't explain it though. Has never happened again. Weird though, I agree. Ours didn't smell off either and the BB date was a few days off.

See, I'm wondering if it is some sort of protein clumping thing or something, any scientists on?

Flippin' eck. Google have spidered this thread already - that was fast :-O

spidered the thread OOOoooo what does that mean.

It means that a google bot has come onto mumsnet, looked at this thread, and listed it on google

In the old days you had to submit things to search engines, and it used to take days for things to be listed.

Is that a software program bot-thingy then, or an actual google person doing the legwork? that's a stupid question isn't it

You do realise this gives you a hooge responsibility for following up on the thread with the reply from Cravendale?!

Could the milk have been partially frozen? Not sure if this would give a thick soupy effect, but could explain why it smelt fresh?

That should have said still smelt fresh

It wasn't partially frozen at the time no although that is sort of what it looked like, milky slush, but properly mixed, not watery around the edges.

A bit of googling suggested that pasteurisation kills of the smell making bacteria but not the lump making bacteria.

I am unconvinced by this theory.

Hmmm does sound like it could be protein clumping.

Also, is true, some bacteria do not smell but can still cause organoleptic spoilage (unpleasant changes to appearance / texture). usually both types of bacteria reside in the food together, hence why the off-smell is usually a good guide to whether any bacteria is present, but with the purifying system Cravendale uses, that may not still hold true. The bacteria which can spoil the appearance etc could be more prevalent than the odorous ones, in this case.

The way they get the milk to last longer is to process it through a very fine filter which captures the bacteria, the filters need very careful maintenance to keep their efficacy though, and can go below optimum performance easily, so maybe every now and again, this happens.

This is why the milk is more expensive as it is a pricey process to do. As a huge brand whose product depends on it, you would expect them to be pretty hot on that aspect, but no company is perfect all the time.

Was the milk still in date when it happened or were you winging it and checking the smell?

The milk was use by the 12th so in theory should have been fine.

Maybe the cold supply chain was broken somewhere between factory and retailer and the milk got a little too warm for a short time which allowed this to happen despite being in date.

The effect on the milk is almost certainly bacteria caused.

The thing is though, I know what lumpy gone off milk looks like because I am a slattern and this didn't look like that. It was perfectly smooth and even textured. Just very thick.

I once bought a couple of bottles of cravendale and discovered after getting an upset stomach that it was 2 months past its sellby. It wasn't smelly or clumpy but was clearly off.

I stopped buying Cravendale because Arla were going to cut the amount they gave to farmers and they don't pay enough as it is. I only buy Co-op milk now.

Listens.
Hears hooves.
Runs.

DH here. I work in a retail establishment and we were twice asked to withdraw nearly all Cravendale late in July and then again early August. Eventually it was only one size (500ml) affected and we were never told why but we had to return it - probably to prove to our suppliers that if we were claiming a refund that we physically had it instead of wasting it off and trying to claim more than we had. Still have not been told why although I do know that the packaging for 500ml and 1 litre varieties we received changed recently. Food being what it is nobody wants a scare story but this is what I know.

My friend had Cravendale milk which was within date and came out in lumps and yesterday he opened a new one which had an October date and the same thing happened. It smelled horrible, so he will return to Tesco.

Know nothing about this milk but if you don't use much and have to keep a carton too long then freeze the milk in portions you will use. I always have litre cartons in freezer but sometimes put some into smaller empty cream bottles so I can thaw smaller amounts if needed. I only buy milk maybe once a month and just keep frozen.