I have always been curious about the actual make-up of long life milk. As a kid in the UK, I remember the milkman delivering bottles of regular or cream milk to your door daily which would be placed in the fridge and then guzzled down after a hard day at school. It's lifespan was short. However, long life milk seems to be immortal. So my question is: is long life milk really milk in the true sense of the word, or is it a milky substance that has milk essence added to it to make us believe that we are guzzling the real thing? In other words, has the chemical composition of milk been so radically altered that to actually call it milk is a misnomer? And if it's not milk, then what is it? Thanks. Oh, and if the answer could be in layman's term, that would be great. Cheers. Adrian.

Why do you think milk has a longer life span now? If you don't refrigerate it, it will go bad as fast as it did when I was a kid (when cavemen roamed the earth).

It has been explained by the industry that long life milk has been pasteurized at a higher temperature. I've also heard of 'irradiated milk' but it's only UV light (check here: Is long-life milk REALLY not available in the US Community Forums - p1 - Food.com).
In all cases it is indeed all milk, not a something flavoured with milk.

Hope this helps.

Ah, I just looked up "long life milk" and see what you mean Googling would have gotten you this from Wikipedia --

Ultra-high temperature processing, (less often) ultra-heat treatment (both abbreviated UHT), or ultra-pasteurization is the sterilization of food by heating it for an extremely short period, around 1–2 seconds, at a temperature exceeding 135°C (275°F), which is the temperature required to kill spores in milk.

So, no chemicals, just a short blast of heat preserves the milk. It won't kill you.

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Originally Posted by Wondergirl

Ah, I just looked up "long life milk" and see what you mean Googling would have gotten you this from Wikipedia --

Ultra-high temperature processing, (less often) ultra-heat treatment (both abbreviated UHT), or ultra-pasteurization is the sterilization of food by heating it for an extremely short period, around 1–2 seconds, at a temperature exceeding 135°C (275°F), which is the temperature required to kill spores in milk.

So, no chemicals, just a short blast of heat preserves the milk. It won't kill you.

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Thanks. Very helpful. But this does then lead to another question: if all you have to do is 'zap' milk for 1-2 seconds and it stays fresh for much, much longer, can't the same principle be applied to many others liquids which seem to resort to copious amounts of sugar to preserve them? I would much rather have a totally natural long life fruit juice than these bogus ones on offer. Just a thought. Cheers.

Pasteurization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If they use the same type of bacteria, and if that is the reason they go bad, yes.it could be used with other foods that react the same.

Also the cream has been separated out of today's milk, more cream was left in the milk of days gone by.