Throwing your milk away when it smells funny? You could be chucking it out days before it’s actually due for the bin, if you’re relying on your nose.
While it’s common to do the ‘sniff test’ to judge if food or drink is still all good to consume, Shivi Ramoutar said you could be smelling the wrong bad smell if sniffing immediately from the bottle.
The This Morning chef recommends pouring your milk or yoghurt into a cup and waiting a few seconds instead, before sniffing it again.
“[With milk and yoghurts] sometimes, it will smell off, but if you pour it [out], it’s fine,” Shivi shared.
“When you open a bottle and it still smells a bit off, I’d pour it out before you smell it because in a cup it may not [smell].
“It could be just the bottle that smells off at the top.”
The chef adds that this doesn’t necessarily apply to un-homogenised milk, which may have lumps in it, so it’s best to check the best before date on this.
The sell by date on milk refers to the last date a retailer is encouraged to sell the product.
This does not necessarily mean the milk will go bad immediately after that date.
If stored properly in a refrigerator at or below 40°F (4°C), milk is generally safe to consume for about 5-7 days past the sell by date, although this can vary depending on storage conditions and the type of milk.
In 2022, supermarket Morrisons scrapped use by dates on 90 per cent of their own branded milk to encourage buyers to do a sniff test instead.
This method came into place to help reduce food and drink waste in the home.
On their website, they added: “Milk is the third most wasted food and drink product in the UK, after potatoes and bread, with around 490 million pints wasted every year.
“And milk has the largest carbon footprint of these products because its production is so resource-intensive.
“One litre of milk can account for up to a whopping 4.5kg of CO2!”
Shivi Ramoutar, TV Chef and Cookbook author. Follow her at @ShiviRamoutar.
