Milk WELL past its use-by date...help!

[monkeysavingexpertdotcom]

Just noticed that the semi-skimmed milk that DCs (5 and 9) and DH drank yesterday - about a pint in all - had a use-by date of 14th September. I wouldn't normally drink milk more than a day past the use-by date. They said it tasted fine.
Really, really worried. Noone feels ill. Will they be ok? Couldn't find anything on the web really.

um, tis pretty obvious when milk has gone off

They'll be fine - they will have spat it out if it had been sour. We didn't used to have use by dates and just went on what food looked and smelt like...I still do go on that with most things.

Why so worried, are you vomit phobic?

Yes, and what Cybil said - it certainly won't kill them!

8 days out of date though? how could that not taste off, it would smell sour as soon as you poured it, unless it was that weird stuff

still, won't do any harm

thanks, feel a bit more reassured now.
I know, you'd expect it to smell but I smelt it this morning and it didn't smell off. I think semi-skimmed can be a bit like that.

I'm not emetophobic but I do have quite a severe anxiety disorder, so I'm normally very vigilant about dates on food. I've no idea what it was still doing in the fridge, although DH and DDs normally drink full-fat and I don't drink much milk, so it doesn't get used often. I'm not worried about them being sick, more that they might get listeria or something!

Just because it was past it's use by date, doesn't actually mean it's off - food doesn't know what the little numbers written on it's packaging means!

I think listeria is not about off food, but an actual bacteria that is on food already. Why don't you look it up somewhere?

Thanks Flamingo, did that, couldn't find anything much.

Don't know how reputable this is. I would say that if listeria were a real risk, there'd be more about it.

Milk is pasteurised so Listeria (or anything else) wouldn't be a risk (unless contaminated post-pasteurisation), although Listeria sp. does prefers cold temperatures for optimum growth

If milk's off, you can tell. It lasted longer than the farmer expected it to, that's all!

They would've noticed if it was badly off, if they were drinking it or putting it on cereal it would be lumpy and would taste and smell awful. If it was put into hot drinks it would curdle. If nobody noticed anything, I'm sure it was fine.

I find that milk generally only starts to spoil after it's been opened, perhaps if it was sat sealed in your fridge for a week before being used that is why it's been slow to go bad.

Thank you all, have decided to stop worrying.