Discover how milk travels from happy cows to your refrigerator!
Hello, food explorer! đ The milk you drink goes on an amazing journey before it reaches your glass. Let's follow each step from the farm to your fridge!
Dairy cows are milked 2-3 times a day using clean, modern machines. A cow can produce about 6-8 gallons of milk daily!
Cows eat special diets (grass, hay, grains) and live in comfortable barns with soft bedding. Happy cows make the best milk!
The fresh milk goes into refrigerated tanks on the farm (kept at 39°F/4°C). Special milk trucks with shiny stainless steel tanks collect it every day or two.
The truck driver checks the milk's temperature and quality before pumping it into the truck. It's like a giant thermos on wheels!
At the dairy plant, machines test the milk for quality. Then it's pasteurized (heated to kill germs) and homogenized (mixed so cream doesn't separate).
The milk flows through shiny pipes into different machines that package it into cartons, bottles, or jugs. Everything is kept super clean!
Machines fill containers with exactly the right amount of milk and seal them. The date is printed on each package so we know when it's freshest.
The packaged milk is immediately cooled again and stored in a giant refrigerator at the plant until it's time for delivery.
Refrigerated delivery trucks carry the milk to grocery stores, usually very early in the morning. The trucks have special cooling systems to keep milk cold.
Store workers quickly move the milk to refrigerated shelves. From cow to store can take as little as 2 days!
When you pick milk at the store, check the date to get the freshest one. Put it in your cart last so it stays cold longer.
At home, store milk in the fridge (not the door where it's warmer). An unopened gallon stays fresh for about a week after the "sell by" date!