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Comment by taneq | Hacker News Reader

I've never seen this link between 'organic' and UHT before. I'd have to check but I think any 'organic' milk is just treated the same as normal milk, and there's a separate non-refrigerated section for UHT milk (which keeps for months without refrigeration).

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Me neither, I was very confused by this article. Where I live UHT is almost thought of as a “real-milk-surrogate” and it’s used e.g. by people going camping (because no fridge is needed). Organic on the other hand is considered higher quality. Maybe in other markets it’s different.

That's why UHT is moved back into the fridge section -- to overcome the marketing bias that shelf stable milk is not "real".

Yes, I see what you mean! How about milk that is organic and UHT at the same time? It seems like they are marketing to two very different consumer segments. I've never seen organic UHT milk here in Australia. Is it common elsewhere?

PS I'm not saying that UHT is necessarily lower quality, I'm talking exclusively about average consumer's perception.

In the US I've never seen it in a non-refrigerated section, so I bet they just refrigerate the UHT milk even if it isn't needed to keep it all in one place and not freak people out.

My favorite is that you can find the same almond milk both in both the refrigerated and normal sections of the same store sometimes. Once food safety becomes ritual, it’s hard to shake.

I think that's because they want to place the product in both the health food and dairy sections. I don't think it's from any desire to refrigerate it.

But the same is true for soda or tea.

Sometimes I just want almond milk to be cold right now. And also, the refrigerated milk section tends to be much easier to find than whatever place the store decides to put non refrigerated milks.

I’d consider it’s not about the safety ritual, but rather that both consumers and producers expect the almond milk to be found close to the milk.

Consumers because they think of it as milk, and thus it should in the same section. Producers because they want that association.

I've seen this milk for years in the US Midwest, usually displayed not refrigerated: https://horizon.com/organic-dairy-products/organic-milk/shel...

You're totally right! I haven't seen those since I was a kid and forgot them.

From what I understand, Ultra-Pasteurized != UHT. It seems to come down to the hermetically-sealed containers, or something

> Though Ultra-Pasteurized milk is processed to be free of spoilage and harmful bacteria, it is not considered sterile because it is not hermetically sealed (i.e. canned), thus, it requires refrigeration. ... 30-90 days ... until opened

My ordinary American supermarket carries a ton of carton organic milk (refrigerated), and I think most of it is U-P.

[1] https://foodsafety.foodscience.cornell.edu/sites/foodsafety....

The thing to keep in mind is that "organic" refers to the production of milk - how animals are grown, what they are fed, whether they are allowed to roam freely etc.

The rest, whether the milk is raw, pasteurised, UHT, or whatever, that's not to do with production anymore, but distribution and storage. So it's perfectly possible for milk to be both produced organically (so "organic") and also Ultra-Heat Treated (so UHT).

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