“Consumption of milk per capita has gone down every year over the last 30 years,” says Sylvain Charlebois, director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University. “Actually, it’s gone down by more than 20 per cent since 2015.”
While bagged milk is often cited as a unique Canadianism, it’s actually not sold west of Ontario. Those who prefer it, however, say it’s more cost efficient and some even believe it tastes better.
With all the price gouging happening and shrinkflation, changing consumer habits could spell the end of food.
You could always just eat the rich!
They’re rotten toxic messes, though
So is chemotherapy, but something this malignant merits extreme interventions.
Is it “changing consumer preferences”, or is it the industry seeing an opportunity for shrinkflation.
Clearly it’s the shrinkflation
Personally, I stopped buying milk. My daughter has a dairy allergy but I used to buy almond milk for her and dairy milk for myself, but I’ve switched to just almond milk for both of us to reduce my contribution to the beef industry. I’ll still buy some dairy products like cheese and ice cream, but generally am trying to minimize my demand.
This.
I prefer kegged milk myself
Milk on tap? Sign me up!
Ooohh… With a nitro dispense system, yes please.
Don’t make me try this … Carbonated milk was inexplicably revolting but nitrogen may actually work.
You’d need a creamer nozzle (like used for Guinness Draft) and a very cold line chiller, but it just might work. Kegging the milk would be the hard part, but it could be done.
You don’t take your milk with an IV while you sleep? Weirdo!
So Canadians are giving up on milk and just drinking maple syrup now? Sweet!
I once made the mistake of telling my american coworkers that I buy over a gallon of fresh maple syrup from a local sugar shack each year and I was excited for spring because I was running low… I think I warped their perception of the canadian diet.
The crazy part is, I don’t consume maple syrup that often. But when I do, it’s always way too much.
It makes a good salad dressing when mixed with balsamic vinegar and oil. Also a decent BBQ sauce of Ketchup, Mustard, Soy Sauce, and Maple Syrup
My wife has a mean marinade using maple syrup. I love to use it with chicken thighs I throw on the barbecue for that sweet caramelization.
Nice. It is also good mixed into vodka :)
I have bottles of Sortilège (maple whiskey) and a Tomahawk maple cream (similar to Bailey’s) on the kitchen bar. I don’t even like whiskey usually, but with maple syrup everything becomes good I guess
Hmm, never tried Tomahawk. I will look for that.
Name checks out.
We know in our hearts it’s not true. But we cling to what little magic remains in our minds and hearts and enjoy the fantasy that it is true.
Then if it helps, here are a few things I use it for: crepes, pancakes, French toast, lattes, coffee, maple whipped cream, oatmeal (maple and cream make a mean porridge), I fry eggs in maple syrup and butter, use it in icing, add it to salad dressing, make a glaze from it, sugar/pecan pie tarts, instead of syrup in cocktails, I’ll use it as a topping on ice cream…
It was the primary sweetener in Canada until cane sugar took over, so anything that needs sugar or brown sugar you can substitute maple for.
I usually buy 4L which lasts a year.
I tried explaining this to some Australian friends online and they thought I was trolling.
As an American, I am jealous.
How will our kids get their daily dose of microplastics!!!
Don’t worry, they don’t have to try, it’s likely in well water at this point. Guaranteed most of your store bought food probably has it too.
That’s how you get your daily dose of Vitamin P.
Bottled water? Most mustards and ketchups? Or well, any liquids in a plastic container? They now sell even olive oil in plastic bottles. I avoid them like the plague. We all should.
Are these changing consumer habits mostly being driven by how insanely expensive and low quality milk products are becoming? Canadian cheese and butter are trash and cost an arm and a leg - especially when you get into goat and sheep cheeses that a lot of lactose intolerant west coasters prefer.
Having had the cheese available in America, I have to say better grasses makes better cheese.
I refute your assessment of Canadian cheese, my good man, and I shall be available by the flagpole after recess. It’s a duel.
Oh we’re definitely better than America but we should be able to match up against Europe.
Source on Canadian cheese being better.
Have you ever tried Beacher’s cheese? You should try some good quality cheese before dismissing all American made cheese.
I’ve actually had some splendid American cheese but it’s quite the rarity. Grafton is a solid brand and some of their aged cheddars are amazing.
Why are you getting down voted so much? You are absolutely right. Canadian milk products (including milk) are complete garbage. We can thank our milk cartels for that, plus the really stupid regulations put into place over concerns of germs that basically limits the amount of raw or non-homogenized milk on the market.
How come most of Europe can produce far superior tasting cheeses and also consume fresh milk from milk vending machines, but there’s an inane control on it in North America?
We’re talking about milk here, not milk products.
Is milk somehow not a milk product? I think my point stands for milk products in general - goat milk is insanely expensive in Canada and it’s not significantly more expensive to produce than cow’s milk.
How is the quality of cheese relevant to the sale of bagged milk?
Shit bro getting downvoted by the dairy industry 😂
You guys drink milk out of bags? We use glass, plastic, or cardboard jugs down in the States.
It’s not even all of Canada, just Ontario, Quebec, and the maritimes
In eastern Canada. I’ve never even seen it in western Canada.
Yea, it’s shipped in a rectangular bag. It goes into a milk holder that holds the bag snug, and you snip the corner off so it pours like a spout. The jug that holds it provides the handle and stability for the bag. When the bag is empty, toss it, put the next bag in.
That sounds like a pretty good system once you have the jug, assuming those bags don’t look like jellyfish to sea turtles.
Is the bag held really well by the milk holder? I’d always worry about the bag tipping out of the milk holder, while pouring.
Well enough. The bag of milk forces enough air that it’s basically suction held until the milk’s almost gone.
Yea, I’ve been using it all my life and never once had a bag fall out.
It’s funny we have no issues drinking milk from many animals, but people would be grossed out knowing it’s milk from a human breast, and wouldn’t drink it.
Edit: changed any to many
It’s funny we have no issues drinking milk from any animal
Bruh we definitely have issues drinking milk from other animals.
Have you ever seen anyone drink Dog Milk? Cat Milk? Possum Milk? Pangolin Milk? Motherfuckin… Platypus Milk? They all mammals.
Oh yeah hit me with that shot of platypus milk. 🤤
What I’m wondering is, we have made strides to synthetically make milk with the use of yeast to make the proteins. So theoretically, we could make any milk. Why are we making cows milk this way?
Because we have an entire industry of cows that produce so much milk that they must be milked, or they will get sick and die.
I love bagged milk, but I can’t go through THREE FUCKING BAGS as a family of two.
They’re more eco-friendly than the box or the jug, but I guess that goes against the goal of consuming more raw materials.
More eco-friendly? Where I am we can’t recycle any of the bags whereas the box and jug we can.
It’s worth remembering that being accepted in a blue bag and actually being recycled are two very different things. Much of the plastic we’ve “recycled” over the years just ended up in landfills in China.
Remember the old “Where does it go?” “Away,” PSAs from the late '80s and early '90s? Well, plastic recycling has been that, but at an industrial scale.
To repeat: plastic bagged milk is more eco-friendly than cardboard?
Yes, the plastic is quite thin and requires less power to recycle than the waxed cardboard or thick plastic jugs, if your recycling ends up recycled at all.
If your recycling ends up recycled at all.
Big if
I’ll back you up with a source since I just went down this rabbit hole on another comment https://www.dal.ca/news/2021/11/29/milk-jugs--cartons-or-plastic-bags---which-one-is-best-for-the-e.html
Thank you, good read! I just remember finding out a while ago that it was better than the environment (and it does make sense given how little plastic is used), but couldn’t find the source again.
With this new information, will consumers swing over to milk bags? Bagged milk is sold only in four-litre allotments in Canada, which may be too much for some consumers, leading to unconsumed or spoiled milk. This would wipe out any environmental benefits.
Precisely my concern above hahah, I don’t see why they can’t be sold individually with a little stamp on them stating the brand, the quantity and the percentage. We don’t really drink milk, we only use it for cooking and hot beverages.
In Canada the energy costs are less important than the plastic waste as the majority of our electricity comes from hydro or nuclear.
And the plastic IS waste, “recycled” plastic can only make up a tiny faction of newly manufacture products and most waste is rejected anyway because it’s not “clean” plastic.
Also, the cardboard hasn’t been waxed in years. It’s plastic lined
As a family of 5, we go through it easily in a week.
How is a plastic bag more environmentally friendly than a cardboard carton?
The cost to make and recycle carton cardboard polymers uses more resources than bags. Bags are found to be the most environmentally friendly. https://www.dal.ca/news/2021/11/29/milk-jugs--cartons-or-plastic-bags---which-one-is-best-for-the-e.html
Isn’t milk kinda useless for humans after they stop being toddlers?
Do you eat cereal with water?
Soy milk exist. Almond milk. Rice milk.
Ugh, might as well be water or apple juice then
So would you say you still drink mammal’s milk because your taste buds are a bit underdeveloped? I mean, if you can’t even tell nut and grain milk from apple juice. Sure some good stuff in milk that helps your brain 🧠 huh?
They’re pretty clearly saying that nut milks are watery and taste nothing like dairy milk. Coconut milk would be closer to the creaminess of dairy milk at least, but it’s expensive and might require heating first for those of us with sensitive stomachs. It’d also have to be grown ethically, for those who actually care about human labour and environmental impacts.
I’m sorry that the options in your country are so bad, maybe one day you get some good brands around. If you’re talking about ethics you shouldn’t even be considering dairy. But hey, you’re probably a better gymnast than I am when it comes to environmental impacts :)
Because fuck being an empathetic human and actually connecting with people as equals, right? Keep on winning the entire Internet over with that unimpeachable charm and welcoming approach.
No, cereal with yogurt is the norm where I live, if we decide to have cereal
And yogurt is made from??? … Milk
Bagged milk?
Sounds delightful.
Do you eat cereal
no
Oh ya, totally useless. Humans don’t derive any nutrition from milk. It just teleports through their body.
It’s milk designed for cows, not for hoomans
I’ve yet to see adults drinking milk naturally meant for humans(aka breast milk) the dairy industry really got us good in brain washing
I don’t think any food is naturally meant for us, but that doesn’t stop us from eating it. Humans are pretty good at digesting organic compounds for sustenance.
I got chu fam
Tastes better 🤣🤣🤣🤣 those micro plastics sure kick up the flavor a few notches!!
Don’t worry, those plastic jugs and plastic lined cardboard boxes are fulfilling your daily microplastic requirements just fine.
Nearly ever milk receptacle except for glass will be sealed with plastic. Microplastics are not a bagged milk specific problem.
I’ve always wondered about the bagged milk… Don’t they get broken a lot? I’m genuinely curious
I’m in my 40s and I can only remember one bag breakingon me, but that’s because my dumb ass dropped it.
That’s why you should always use your hands to carry things!
I’m also in my 40s and I can remember a lot of busted milk jugs over the years… Maybe we should be using the bags instead lol
My mom busted a 4L jug on the stairs. The cap popped off. It’s never the same after.
They were the jean stairs weren’t they?
The plastic feels a bit like a heavy duty ziplock bag, or piping bag material, made as a tube (so strong shape, structurally) then flat sealed on both ends. Quite thick so not that easy to puncture by accident. Once in a while there’s one that leaks but they get removed at the grocery store by stockers, mostly. It’s easy to spot, it just looks flat and at worst (if the hole is on the bottom), there’s a liter and some of milk all over in their fridge.
How do you store it once it is opened? How do you pour it?
Stores sell sturdy plastic jugs that the milk bags fit into snugly, so it basically pours like a pitcher. You just snip a small corner off the top of the bag once it’s inserted into The jug. The jug lasts forever, though it does get funky over time with any dribbles of milk that make it between the bag and jug.
This is foreign to me. I’ve never seen anything like that before.
Thanks. Someone else described it, but the picture helps. This is a completely different method for milk distribution than we have where I live.
It happens, but not very often. I used to work dairy in a grocery store, so you’d see it, fairly often, but usually we the workers would catch it (because the bag would be leaking).
I’ve never seen a bag pop, or puncture outside of that.
They’re super tough. Never seen one break.
Bagged milk was available in MB in the late 80s/early 90s, but it disappeared some time after that.
Exactly. I’m not sure what metaphor fits best. If there isn’t one, it’s an odd combination of “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” and “chicken and the egg”.
They can’t claim there’s no demand for it if it isn’t on the shelves in the first place.
Times change, the customer is always right in matters of taste, etc.
This isn’t a Canadian specific thing. Its common in most of the world.
But the problem isnt milk, its animal milk. Soy and oat milk should be fine.
bagged milk is a pretty wild concept to me, but obviously there are a lot of facets of american life that are fucking bonkers to everyone else (and lots of us) so I cant really speak to it
