Milk in bags ... Are Canadians weird, or are Americans the weirdos?

[ipsedixit]

How come milk is sold in bags in Canada, but not in the U.S.?

[monku]

Good question.
I asked that a few months ago in a post and now I forgot what I was told.

[monku]

False alarm...Canadiens were talking about a "Milk Calendar" and I was wondering what that was all about.
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/748443

I imagine milk in bags has to do with packaging convenience and weight. Someone is missing out on money to made in packaging milk in Canada.

[ipsedixit]

I think the official industry response is that bags are cheaper and keep the milk fresher than plastic jugs or cartons.

If that's true, why not adopt it everywhere?

[monku]

I'm sure Canadiens think we're weird for putting our milk in jugs and containers.
(all I know was I felt stupid asking what a milk calendar was)

Growing up there was something about drinking milk from a cold glass bottle or wax carton. I think if you tried to drink it straight out of the bag it would be quite messy.

[Sooeygun]

Messy to drink out of the bag? Not at all. It's not like you are holding the bag directly in your hands. It's in a jug and you cut a hole in the corner of the bag. I drank from the bag many times when I lived with my parents. Now, 3 litres of milk is too much to buy at once, so we only have cartons.

The bags are great to re-use for freezing stuff. They are heavier than a freezer bag.

[im_nomad]

Probably the possibility of loss, more likely that plastic bags will burst in transit than cartons or what not.

I rarely see anyone buying these where I am in Canada btw. Most people I see are going with the cartons or the larger plastic jugs.

I just wish they'd sell milk in glass here.

[LJS]

By here, do you mean Maritimes? like Halifax?I only ask because I am pretty sure I have seen you post on that Board. If so, they do...I think it must be either Planet Organic or Pete's because I see glass bottles in my daughter's house and those are her only retailers except for HFX Market.

[im_nomad]

I'm in Nova Scotia, but not Halifax. I don't remember seeing glass milk bottles at Pete's though although I haven't been there lately.

[LJS]

Must be Planet Organic.

[free sample addict aka Tracy L]

We're the weirdos. I am always in awe of alternative packaging in other countries. I was amazed at the array of vacume sealed boxes of milk in Mexico. I know a lot of parents who'd love to buy milk once a month rather than weekly like others buy soy milk.

[monku]

We've had that kind of milk in the US for at least 15 years.

[ipsedixit]

Shelf-stable milk.

Borden is just one example in the U.S. (pic below)

[monku]

Called UHT (ultra high temperature processing) milk introduced by Parmalat in the US in 1993.
Look for it on your grocers shelves not the refrigerated section.

[free sample addict aka Tracy L]

Yes, I know it is here in the US, but very hard to find where I live, at any rate I don't drink milk. Mexico had a lot of different brands in different sizes. No comparison to the US offerings.

[monku]

It's hard to find because that UHT never became a staple or popular here in the US since we have more access to fresh milk.

[buttertart]

It's in every grocery store I've been in in the NYC area. I use it because I don't drink milk at home and I need it for baking.

[Motosport]

It can be found in the baking aisle of most supermarkets next to the canned condendsed milk.

[Sal Vanilla]

People who do long cruises on sailboats use it. It is not my favorite, but it beats no milk or IMO - soy milk. Next time we do a longer cruise I am going to try almond milk. Also shelf stable.

[sunshine842]

people in hurricane and tornado and blizzard country keep it on hand, too -- for the same reason.

[ospreycove]

sunshine, yup, we replace our "Hurricane stash" every year. We are thakful that we have not had to use it since "Opel" in '95 when we lived in the Panhandle, Seaside.

[sunshine842]

2004. Nuf said.

Actually it's a riot -- I now live in Europe, where UHT milk is more common than fresh -- but it comes in plastic bottles, rather than tetrapaks. I do keep it on hand for cooking -- and because I discovered by accident that my Nespresso makes better foam with the UHT milk than with fresh.

[maxinecs]

I live in Canada and I haven't seen milk in bags for years.

[Sooeygun]

I'm curious to know where in Canada you live. I'm in Toronto, and every grocery store has it in bags.

[ms. clicquot]

Yesterday I even saw bagged milk at a Toronto Shopper's Drug Mart, of all places.

When I was a kid in the Maritimes, my mom always bought milk in bags. She would freeze it and thaw as needed.

[toutefrite]

We don't have it here in BC either. I actually miss it. Don't ask me why.

[Zydecopapa]

Have not seen it in Alberta for years!

[livetocook]

Ditto. I'm in Alberta and haven't seen milk in bags since '86. Had some friends whose parents bought it back then. We never did. It was always in the carton.

[chefathome]

Me, neither. Nor in Saskatchewan. Always just cartons or plastic jugs.

I've seen milk in bags in many European countries, though. Pretty common.

[sunshine842]

not in France.

[im_nomad]

They still sell it here where I am (I think - not a big milk buyer), but as I said above, I rarely see anyone buying it, or in their fridges. I remember having it as a child, there was a special jug for it, you'd cut the corner off etc.

EDIT: checked a local dairy http://www.scotsburn.com/Milk.htm
(4 litre milk in bags)

[Blush]

We still get it in bags in London, Ontario.

[LJS]

Got it here in Maritimes.

[buckthorne]

I know we can't be the only area buying milk that way in the U.S.. It seems to pour just fine out of the bag in their dedicated, white plastic pitchers, though when you are in a hurry, it seems like you can never find the scissors to snip the bag open to pour. Nothing else cuts quite right.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwik_Trip

[tastesgoodwhatisit]

We had a special cutter that was designed specifically for milk bags that you could stick on the fridge with a magnet.

The nice thing about milk bags is that you get the economy of large quantities, but it keeps fresh better than a big jug. And, as others have said, milk bags make great freezer bags - we never bought special bags for the freezer when I was a kid.

Mind you, you should never go into a grocery store in the US and ask if they carry 4L bags of Homo milk.....

[TuteTibiImperes]

I had no idea Canadians purchased milk like that. I remember when I was in elementary school our school lunches suddenly switched from milk in cartons to milk in single serve bags, which we all had fun with for a while after we discovered what happens when you pierce the bag with the straw while squeezing the contents.

BTW - Doing a Google Image Search for 'Canadian Milk Bags' produces results that are far more PG than I would have guessed.

[sunshine842]

the Kwik-Trip chain of convenience stores in the upper Midwest has an in-house dairy (and a good one!) -- and they package ALL their milk in bags.

[kmcarr]

Ditto for the Quality Dairy convenience store chain in the mid-Michigan area.

[Mayor of Melonville]

To put this in historical perspective, the milk served in our military chowhall circa 1965 was in big...BAGS. The bags were inside rectangular cardboard boxes with a plastic tube that could be fitted into the chowhall milk dispensers.

[occula]

Lol, I was just going to say that when I was a kid in the 70s/80s, my mom, who worked for the military, would bring home big multi-gallon bags of milk ... which she stole from the mess hall supply, no foolin'. We'd keep it in the fridge with a fork twisted around the spout to crimp it.

I always thought that must be how milk is dispensed in restaurant supply, too.

[lynnlato]

As a kid in the 70's, we used to somtimes get bagged milk from a local farmer in PA. I thought it was strange yet interesting and really good ( the novelty I'm sure played into that). I just assumed it had to do with it being a small dairy farm operation.

[cleobeach]

I remember relatives getting bagged milk too. The bags fit into a rectangular plastic pitcher.

[lynnlato]

Yep, exactly. Although we didn't have one of those pitchers, which were designed specifically for bagged milk, so we just clipped off a corner and poured it into a traditional pitcher.

[Maximilien]

I don't know maybe an anatomical (mildly funny) reason, milk come from bags and not cartons. :-)

maybe it was more economical to buy from bags instead of cartons.

A fun fact (anecdotal) is that we (me and my family) never bought bags but cartons and we bought butter, and all the people who we knew bought milk in bags bought margarine instead of butter..

[im_nomad]

I don't know the answer to your question, but upon thinking of it, I'm surprised that there hasn't been a market for the larger commercial-type plastic milk bag, as used in cafeterias etc, but perhaps a bit smaller (like boxed wine).

I know families who go through a 2 liter of milk every day or so. I think a 5 litre box / bag combo would be useful for a lot of people if they updated the packaging a little.

[mamachef]

I realize there's a difference between industrial-sized restaurant service supply, but in many restaurants I've worked in in the States, milk for the (pull-arm) machine was delivered in huge bags that were placed in the machine, upright, snipped at the corner, and connected to the tube that led to the outside of the machine. Only place I've seen it in bags here, though; other shelf-stable milk is sold in cartons on the non-refrigerated shelf.

[salsailsa]

Milk is not sold in bags everywhere in Canada. It is sold in bags and cartons in Ontario. In Manitoba, it is sold in cartons and 4L jugs. I can not speak for the other provinces as I have only lived in Manitoba and Ontario.

[westaust]

In Quebec milk is also available in bags, 1 and 2 liters cartons are also available, but no 4L plastic jugs

[howlin]

alberta here.i havent seen bags in a while.i usually get cartons.

[Dan G]

It's about the only thing I miss about Ontario - I moved to Alberta in 1999 and still wish I could get bagged milk. That and cheaper cereal and pizza...

[foodie_guru]

I live in the GTA area in Ontario and most milk in the grocery stores are 4 litre bags and 1 and 2 litre cartons, from the refrigerator section. No jugs. The jugs are reserved for the corner convenience store such is Mac's Milk (ironically). There are also shelf-stable "cartons" of milk in the grocery aisle. The bags are quite durable, and the milk lasts a long time. And, don't quote me on this, but I remember years ago when the jugs were the norm in Ontario, that people used to put gasoline and other things in the jugs and then return them for their deposit. Eech! I thought that had something to do with the switch to bags (cost of recycling) as well as a little more environmentally friendly. Glass bottles are 1 litre sizes and usually available in the Organic section.
(and to stay on topic of the original post - I am American-born living in Ontario - so I guess both are weird ;o)

[Naco]

Canada: It's Slightly Different.

[mamachef]

Eh? : )

[buttertart]

That it is. Milk has been sold in bags in Ontario since what, the '80s? My mom used to freeze it so she could always have some on hand. V convenient and less wasteful packaging.

[Sooeygun]

This article has the history of bagged milk.
http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/a...

[stilldontknow]

"Milk in bags ... Are Canadians weird, or are Americans the weirdos? "

These options are not mutually exclusive. :-)

[bagelman01]

Ips---
I never saw this in Canada, but most of my time there is in Montreal and Nova Scotia,
BUT This was the standard packaging when I lived in ISRAEL the summer of 1974. The bags would be delivered to our house in the back of an unrefrigerated pickup truck. I saw this arrive and refused to drink milk. My aunt (with whom I was staying) would take all but 2 bags and put them in the refrigerator, 2 bags would be left in the pantry to sour. Israel was a land of limited resources. Trees were not harvested to make cardboard cartons and glass was expensive. Lastly, appliances were smaller Euro-sized, not like the gigantic North America variety and space in the fridge was limited.

[Motosport]

Americans seem to think that everything American is normal and anything otherwise is odd.
Having a monster refrigerator in the kitchen and maybe another in the basement next to the freezer chest is not the norm for most of the world.
In most places you will find milk in smaller containers that does not have to be refrigerated until the container is opened. It has a very long shelf life. It's "super" pasteurized, I think??
I've seen small containers in my local supermarket by Parmalat. We don't use much milk in our home so I keep a couple of these in the pantry for the odd times we need real milk. It has a shelf life of about a year.

[Akitist]

I respectfully suggest that it's human nature to think that the way one's own group does things is normal and that anything else is odd.

[Wahooty]

When I moved to Canada, my father had to explain the milk bag phenomenon to me. The concept of buying a milk pitcher was one of the few truly foreign aspects of moving across the border. Dad (who worked an entire career for USDA as a dairy economist) said it was a concept that "never caught on" in the States. In fact, I think it was the rare concept that never caught on ANYWHERE but Canada...Europeans, Mexicans, etc. didn't go for it either. Since your ~gallon of milk is portioned into three smaller bags, and the unopened bags are stored in a larger opaque bag, the milk lasts longer than our jugs. This is more cost-effective for singles or couples, who take longer to go through 4L of milk. However...Americans like the familiar plastic jug, and Europeans have their own ways of distributing milk with a longer shelf-life. Changing format is a hard sell, and..well...it didn't.

[tracylee]

When I lived in Ecuador in the late 80s, it was either a liter bag off the shelf at a large market or dipped out of a bucket from a guy who went door to door selling that day's milk. I opted for the bag.

[RealMenJulienne]

I've not been to Canada, but in China milk comes in smaller plastic or foil-lined pouches. One pouch is usually enough to pour a tall glass and they do not need to be refrigerated. It seems a more sensible option than buying a gallon jug which needs to be refrigerated and even then spoils quickly.

[livetocook]

When I was in Seoul they had the foil lined pouches too.

[mpjmph]

When I was in highschool (mid-late 1990's) the cafeteria switched from 8 oz. cartons of milk to 8 oz. bags. At that point in my school lunch career I was bringing in my own can of soda and buying Domino's pizza buy the slice, so I never had milk from a bag, but it was strange to see others stabbing clear plastic bags with a straw. The bags didn't stick around long - they were difficult to drink from without pouring into a cup, so no practical for school cafeterias.

Random sort of on topic thought - one of my most enduring memories from 6th grade history/geography is watching a film on Siberia and seeing a woman carry milk as a giant frozen slab - no need for a bag!

[mamachef]

If I was ONLY answering the question, not the actual post, re: who is stranger? I would quote a poem by some unknown random person:
"Everyone is strange but thee and me,
And sometimes I wonder, about thee."
: )
That's what I love about bein' a human bein. We are all different, wonderful, strange, eccentric, magical and wacky in our own ways, and forums like this give us a chance to learn about each other.

[BobB]

I don't know when they started in Canada, but I was buying milk in bags in the early 1970s in Germany.

[buffalobobcat]

We had school milk in bags. They got rid of th cartons. For orang juice too...you simply poked a straw right through the middle of it....although we would blow them up like ballons and pop them afterwards

[SonyBob]

I don't live in Canada but it seems to me that if cows have been carrying the stuff around in bags for millions of years, there must be something to it!
Bob

[sunshine842]

heeheehee

[prima]

How come cheese is sold in cans in the U.S, but not in Canada?

Who's calling whom weird now? Ha ha.

[sunshine842]

that's not cheese, actually, that's "pasteurised processed cheese food".

Bleh.

[mamachef]

Haha, pasteurized processed cheese food. I once heard a comedian say, "that must be what the cheese EATS."

[prima]

Ha ha ha...

[tracylee]

Cougar Gold is sold in a can and it's definitely a real cheese. And yummy, too!

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