Great Value Milk

Just because there are standards doesn't mean everybody's product has the same level of microbes, bacteria, and pathogens. Also just because the product has been pasteurized doesn't mean it tastes good just because the nasties have been wiped out. Also, my jibe was supposed to be humorous. I find the idea of drinking milk preposterous. Cheese and other dairy products are the good stuff.

All milk is most certainly not the same. Milk from free-range cows can't be compared to milk from zero-grazed cows that never see the light of day and just stand there producing milk. And just because it's labeled fee-range doesn't ensure it really is because the USDA has defined "free-range" only for chickens and no other animals. However, I do see which producers have their cows actually roaming the hills and grazing most of the day versus those that keep them in factory farms. The majority of dairy cows is zero-grazed in the US.
there is science to support your argument, differences in feed DO change the flavour of the milk


some small producers even change the feed to alter the taste of their milk


this being said most bulk sales of milk go from the farm into a HUGE tank and are mixed with other loads prior to pasteurization

small flavour tastes are diminished by dilution with other milk in the vat, the 'flavour" of any milk is a combination of all the raw milk sources delivered to the plant


no that is not me in the picture, lol
 
there is science to support your argument, differences in feed DO change the flavour of the milk


some small producers even change the feed to alter the taste of their milk


this being said most bulk sales of milk go from the farm into a HUGE tank and are mixed with other loads prior to pasteurization

small flavour tastes are diminished by dilution with other milk in the vat, the 'flavour" of any milk is a combination of all the raw milk sources delivered to the plant


no that is not me in the picture, lol
Yes, sure, "most". Not all. That was exactly my point. Discount supermarket milk is most certainly in the "most" category. I won't touch it.
 
In this area, Great Value milk comes from Prairie Farms Dairy... who is a huge supplier in the Midwest.

Look at the numbers on the milk jug. Those will give you clues as to which dairy/supplier that it came from.

Yep, near me all the milk is from either Prairie Farms or Dean Foods both of which have plants in town. Aldi, Schnucks, Dierbergs, and WalMart all get their milk from the same plant in my community.

I suspect if you blind tested folks, they couldn't reliably tell you which glass came from which plant or if it was PF or Dean's name brand product.
I have gone to Fairlife, as I like the idea of 1/2 the lactose in my milk. But it sure is spendy.
 
Weird dairy situation while living with my SIL at the moment. Wife isn't lactose intolerant but prefers the taste of Krogers $3.39 a 1/2 gallon lactose free milk, chocolate almond milk and expensive eggs. SIL and her kid drink Great Value milk and that is my SIL coffee creamer, which sucks BTW-I only like black coffee.

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No great value eggs ?
 
Did we not have this discussion a year ago?

 
Go to various grocery stores, gas stations, convenience stores, etc and find other "brands" of milk with the same plant code 06-253 and let your wife taste them. Something tells me she'll say there's a difference.... 😂
 
I know milk suppliers vary by region, but my wife says the taste of Great Value (Walmart) milk is "vastly inferior" to any other store brand. As a result, she refuses to drink it.

Unfortunately, I cannot fully verify her complaint - to me it tastes "similar" to other brands. Does anyone else find Great Value milk to be "inferior" to other options?
The fridge in the mud room is so cold that it makes Great Value into great milk 🐄
 
All I can tolerate, but good. ;)
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I know milk suppliers vary by region, but my wife says the taste of Great Value (Walmart) milk is "vastly inferior" to any other store brand. As a result, she refuses to drink it.

Unfortunately, I cannot fully verify her complaint - to me it tastes "similar" to other brands. Does anyone else find Great Value milk to be "inferior" to other options?
I used to work for Hiland dairy (Prairie Farms) for almost 5 years. It’s the exact same milk as the “name brand” milk with a different sticker, and cap. We even had Braums (southern Midwest company also competition) deliver raw milk.
They even made Aldi’s milk.
At one time I think I was putting on 27 different labels to make the stores happy.
 
I know milk suppliers vary by region, but my wife says the taste of Great Value (Walmart) milk is "vastly inferior" to any other store brand. As a result, she refuses to drink it.

Unfortunately, I cannot fully verify her complaint - to me it tastes "similar" to other brands. Does anyone else find Great Value milk to be "inferior" to other options?
Great Value distilled water is the best tasting water out there.

Your post was about milk.. we purchase Great Value 2% milk exclusively.

There are a few reasons for this.

One, no gimmicky gallons where you can't see through them to see any chunks or level.

Two, milk is generally milk and if you've ever seen milk before it is processed into what it is, you wouldn't drink milk.

Three... The "taste" well, sure, every brand will taste a little different. Probably the more expensive ones will taste "creamier." Same with eggs, outside of white vs brown eggs, it is still an EGG and will taste like an EGG.. Milk, well, yeah, just like the water, there will be some taste difference, and that is opinion and subjective. I think the distilled is the most pure you can get and it was 88 cents a gallon for a LONG time now over a dollar because reasons, still, when 20oz bottles of nonsense cost 2 bucks a pop... no sir. Got 8 gallons yesterday.

Plus, I drink chocolate milk on the rare occasion I do drink milk (no thanks on cow puss with sugar, only once in a blue. I'm not a kid anymore) so the perceived taste difference, real or imagined, really means nigh.

Walmart and Amazon. Walmart and Amazon. 95% of the time.

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In my line of work we do contract manufacturing sometimes. I went to a factory in Taiwan, the owner has its own brand and it also contract manufacturing for other brands using their factory, workers, equipment, etc. The contract manufacturing get their parts from different sources (customer buy then deliver to the factory) and they are responsible for their own loss. They all came out of the same plant.

In food you definitely will see differences in taste if you buy from different sources. People in one area may have the same plant regardless of which brand of milk they buy, but in other area they may have a dedicated plant for a certain brand or they use a dedicated farm for the brand of milk. If YOU can tell the difference in a blind test then it means there is a difference despite other people telling you not. That's the only meaningful way to YOU.

Maybe they are the same in PA but different in CA, maybe it is the handling, maybe Walmart has its own dairy farm, maybe they contract a farm to have a unique lot for WM to cut some corner on the feed, maybe they pay the lowest and get the cheaper lower "grade" of milk that the name brand "rejects" from the batch, who knows. Maybe the better brand tells the farm they will reject certain feed or certain grade, maybe the farm just raise each batch of milk based on what the customers tell them ahead of time (common in chicken farm).

I could tell the difference between Lucerne and Value Corner from Safeway, but I can't tell between Lucerne and Trader Joe. Maybe they are different maybe they are the same, I just pay for something I can tell the difference and ignore what others say.

Maybe you can do a blind test to your wife and see if she can tell the difference.


p.s. I can tell a huge difference in eggs. We eat like 3 hard boil eggs a day and I only hard boil Trader Joe's or Costco eggs. Safeway and Target eggs would turn weird sometimes, like it was watery pocket and rubbery, probably because they mishandled it by accidentally froze them, or wrong humidity. Costco rarely has this problem and TJ never ever did. If I'm buying from Safeway / Target those would be only used for scramble eggs or baking.
 
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I'm a big fat free milk drinker and been all my life.I can tell for a fact there is a difference between each gallon of Great Value fat free milk.I purchase it three gallons each trip to the store.One gallon will taste fine,the next one tastes like pine cleaner,and the next tastes like it was made from powdered milk.And get a gallon that reminds you of dirty mop water.Just go to the next store and pay more per gallon but It's been that way since Walmart came to our town fifteen years ago.
 
First I am forty years out of date. I worked at a regional grocery store in Nebraska while going to college. We had name brands of milk, Meadow Gold, Fairmont and Robert's. We had a house brand, Food Club. It was bottled by Robert's Dairy. It came on the same truck as Robert's. I don't believe there is an actual "Great Value". One thing that still amuses me to this day was the store I worked at was in Lincoln, Nebraska, the Robert's Dairy was in Omaha. They took I-80 from Omaha to Lincoln, maybe 50-60 minutes. We knew the approximate arrival time of the dairy delivery. When they were maybe 15-20 minutes late we knew they were overweight and had jumped off I-80 to avoid and bypass the scales!!! One or two improvements since my time. We had a lot of leaky gallon plastic containers, made a mess of the display case. The shelf life seems to be much longer. The Food Club product was the same as the name brand, but that may not be the case today with Walmart and Great Value.

Scott
 
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