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It is used, particularly with spices and fresh fruit, but sporadically for all kinds of food. As for why it's not universal: There are some concerns about rad
by retrac 4y ago
It is used, particularly with spices and fresh fruit, but sporadically for all kinds of food. As for why it's not universal:
There are some concerns about radiochemical effects, mostly regarding nutritional degradation, with extremely high doses such as might be used to sterilize raw meat for storage at room temperature.
While I can't source this now that I'm looking for it, I vaguely recall reading a survey about food irradiation acceptance; about half the respondents thought that irradiating food made it radioactive. There's much public apprehension, and confusion, with anything involving the word radation.
Similarly with public acceptance, one of the biggest reasons to use it would be to reduce the need for refrigeration. But consumer preference and familiarity makes it difficult to accept things like dairy that isn't refrigerated. UHT milk is available in my country but almost unknown. Even the UHT milk is sold refrigerated! I've suggested it to others before, such as for lack of refrigeration when camping. The reaction was ew, is that safe? Doesn't it need to be refrigerated? Hard to overcome that.
- classichasclass 4y agoAs a heavy milk drinker (I'll put away about three gallons of nonfat a week), my issue with UHT is the odd caramel taste it picks up from the heat treatment. On the other hand, my wife, who consumes way less dairy and hardly drinks milk as a beverage at all, has no problem with UHT milk pretty much anywhere I'd prefer fresh. It's been awhile since I looked at the state of irradiated milk, though I had an irradiated camp stew once and that wasn't bad.
- _aavaa_ 4y agoBrown cows for chocolate milk, and glow-in-the-dark cows for irradiate milk... But heavy is an understatement, you must be drinking milk like eastern europeans eat bread, a few pieces with every course.
- fbdab103 4y agoI am so intrigued by this. You are putting down ~1.5 liters of milk daily? Straight or as lubrication for some other dish (eg cereal)? Do you slam it all in the morning or spread throughout the day? Edit: Do you think you have a strong stomach vs others? I had a milk-loving friend who developed kidney stones at ~25.
- jsnell 4y ago1.5 liters per day doesn't sound like an absurd amount. The average milk consumption per person in Finland is 1.2 liters per day.
- fbdab103 4y agoI am finding different (though remarkably high to this American) stats on Finnish milk consumption on the order of 100-130 liters/year = 0.3 liters/day, which is still incredible. That's higher than Finnish beer consumption at 72 liters/year.
- maxerickson 4y agoIs that milk products? I like cheese and yogurt and so on and drink 0 milk. Locating the source for a reddit post with high numbers, it does include milk products, other than butter. https://jakubmarian.com/milk-consumption-in-europe-in-liters-per-year-per-capita/ https://jakubmarian.com/milk-consumption-in-europe-in-liters...
- classichasclass 4y agoI just drink it as a beverage. Never stopped since childhood. 8-) I'll eat some challenging things in my wife's opinion, but I don't consider my stomach particularly cast-iron or anything.
- pornel 4y agoIt's funny how subjective this is. I've been raised on UHT milk and to me the "raw" one is worse — less creamy and more sour.
- classichasclass 4y agoYeah, I think she's more accustomed to it as well, whereas I never developed a "taste" for it. I'll drink it, but I'm not fond of it.
- jsnell 4y agoBut doesn't UHT milk actually make the opposite case? I.e. that consumer preferences when it comes to food preservation are actually quite malleable. In a lot of European countries UHT is the norm, in a lot of others it is virtually non-existent. https://i.redd.it/399mldnbafs21.png https://i.redd.it/399mldnbafs21.png
- catherd 4y agoUHT milk hasn't caught on because it tastes only slightly better than reconstituted powdered milk. It is, however, cheap, and hasn't had trouble at all catching on in poor countries.
- unmole 4y agoThat must be why UHT milk is dominant in France.
- ceceron 4y agoIn Europe, UHT has caught on even in "wealthy" countries. In most shops you can buy both kinds, the UHT cheaper and the unprocessed as the more luxurious version. I think you're overstating the taste difference — as a child, I was often drinking really fresh milk (my grandma had cows). Later, most of my teenage life I was drinking UHT, and now I'm drinking the unprocessed refrigerated milk. I agree with you that the unprocessed one is better, but the difference isn't mind-blowing. I even know people that prefer the UHT taste.
- mike_d 4y agoJust wanted to add on that it is usually referred to as "cold pasteurization" to avoid people freaking out over radiation.