Tesco Value UHT Skimmed Milk > Reviews (7)

Although I tend to use semi- skimmed milk on a daily basis, I often find (courtesy of the kids) the empty milk carton in the fridge with no back up.
Most of the time this isn't a problem ,but first thing in the morning in the mad school rush going to the shop for more is not an option,so what's a girl supposed to do?
Enter, tescos U.H.T(Ultra heat treated) skimmed milk!!!

Perusing the shelves of my local Tesco store I noticed the familiar "value" packaging (white with blue stripes) in the long life milk department.Having kept the occasional pint carton of long life semi-skimmed milk in the cupboards for emergencies and having found that they were often tainted in flavor and too small to service the whole family for breakfast I decided to try the value skimmed 1 liter carton.

Looking at the carton I observed a good sell by date of at least 1 year, the price was very reasonable so I bought a carton.

Getting round to trying it out didn't take too long and i found within a month I needed to call on my "emergency supplies".
When it came to opening it I found it fairly easy to open due to perforations at the opening point, something other brands didn't often have.
Upon pouring I observed the familiar translucent tone to the milk usually apparent with skimmed milk, often making it appear "watery". The consistency/colour didn't seem any more or less prevalent than fresh or cartoned skimmed milks I have used. The notable exception was that being skimmed it didn't not have the heavy tainted/processed flavor that semi - skimmed seems to and although thinner than fuller fat milks it still had a notable milk taste.
So far so good and the cereals didn't go instantly soggy when the milk was added, something I had found tended to happen with fresh skimmed milk.

Upon placing the carton in the fridge for later use I did however notice the shelf life once opened was a mere three days.Fresh milk usually has a shelf life of five to ten days so if you don't use much milk each day you would have to be careful not to leave it hanging around after the three days especially as it is harder to tell that skimmed milk is "turning" (going off) than milk with higher fat contents. I have to take particular notice of such facts as I have a very poor sense of smell and that is usually the first tell tale sign that milks been hanging around too long.

On the nutritional front (for those who need to know)

500 ml provides ; Energy 725kj/170 kcal
Protein 16.5g
Corbohydrate 25g
Fat 0.5g

I also noted that the packaging gives no hint as to it having been made from recycled material, being cardboard I think that responsible outlets should now be trying to use recycled packaging.

My overall verdict is that as an emergency back up it is great.Handy practice and very reasonably priced.
As a daily product it is less attractive due to short usage time and the fact that it is skimmed.Health specialists recommend that you do not rely on skimmed milk as a source of nutrition for children and semi-skimmed or preferably standard (non fat reduced) milk is used as part of the staple diet.

This product is available from Tescos stores or from www.tesco.com (online shopping).

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