in l.a.

Lots of people have been commenting on the quicker spoilage of some brands of cholov yisroel. I live in a warm climate where this is a particularly big problem, and my husband and I did some first-hand investigation with the stores and the dairy itself (which we toured…lots of fun to meet the cows whose milk your family drinks!) a couple of years ago.

Here’s the story…the Jewish owned stores in many areas have significantly less warehouse space than a “brand-name” chain grocery store. Plus, they have less warehouse staff. When the milk arrives at its destination, it is often sitting unrefrigerated for a while before it gets loaded into a fridge…much longer than products are out of refrigeration in a chain store. It only takes a few minutes exposed to high heat to accelerate spoilage (this factoid I checked with the FDA or something back when we were researching). This heat exposure, can BTW be the result of heat exposure AFTER YOU ALREADY BOUGHT IT. Never walk or bus home in the heat of the (summer) day with your milk. It won’t stay cold. Don’t leave the milk on the table for the whole hour at breakfast time and expect it to stay cold.

Our family experimented a lot on how to deal with this issue after we got all the info. and have had lots of success. Here’s what I’d recommend:

1. if the weather is really cold, don’t worry…as long as the date on the package is good and the store’s fridge is cold. It is particularly smart (at least one person already mentioned this) to grab from the back of the case.

2. buy the day of the delivery, and, if possible, as close to delivery as possible.

3. if there is a store that has better warehouse space, and/or you find is more likely to sell a “fresh-tasting” product, stick to that store for milk and yogurt, even if you shop elsewhere for other goods.

It can be challenging to keep chalav yisroel, but it is worth it!