There’s a post I saw on reddit that points to the dimple on the side of a milk jug, and makes fun of all the people who don’t know what that’s for. In the comments are thousands of people giving dozens of different explanations, and all of them are wrong.
It is not there to indicate that the milk has spoiled by popping out due to gasses produced by spoiled milk. If there was enough gas to pop out the dimple, the whole jug would look like a balloon.
It is not there to provide structural integrity, like lateral support to prevent the bottles from crushing. The contents are under pressure, so if there was enough force on the jug from any direction, then the cap would pop off regardless of the shape in the sidewall.
The actual answer is that the dimple is added to ensure that all of the jugs contain the same volume of milk. Plastic jugs are blown into molds, and minor manufacturing variations over time would create jugs that hold different amounts of milk. Larger jugs would hold more than a gallon. They could just fill by volume, but consumers are wary of purchasing a bottle if it appears to be less full than the others. So they add the dimple to make it so that the level of milk is all the way at the top with minimal air between the milk and the cap.
You can verify this yourself by finding different jugs from the same supplier with dimples of different depths, or even no dimple at all. None of those other explanations would explain dimples of different sizes or jugs without dimples.
TLDR everybody is wrong. The milk jug dimples are added to ensure the jug contains the correct volume of milk.
You buy milk in gallon-sized hard plastic containers?
Is that a restaurant thing? How long does a gallon of milk last in your family?
It’s a US thing. A gallon of milk will last my family about two weeks, or less if the kids are into baking or breakfast cereal that week. I sometimes put a little milk in my coffee or tea, and I occasionally use some for making sauces or marinades. Very rarely will we throw away milk because it has spoiled, but it has happened. Maybe once a year or so, usually because of a power outage or having to travel unexpectedly.
We also have half-gallon plastic jugs which feature the same dent sometimes. When I was a kid, I remember we even had tiny pint-sized jugs for half and half, but I think that was more of a novelty.
Wait…the rest of the world doesn’t have hard jug gallons? What do they use instead?
Bags
That…looks so messy! I know there’s no crying over spilled milk, but have you SEEN the price of dairy??? Gotta work a second job just to afford breakfast!
You put em bags into a hard pitcher thing you have at home, and cut the corner. So I guess it’s a bit less waste
That guy REALLY should have put an explanation there. Afaik there’s one province in Canada that still uses bags. Historically (30 years ago) many countries have used bags. Today most use either tetrapak, smaller bottle style plastic (0.25, 0.5, 1.0 litres) or actual bottles.
It’s not messy, unless you make it messy.
I miss bag milk. :(
So jealous.
1l cartons
One liter (0.26 gl) bottles or boxes.
In Canada, they use gallon sized plastic bags
I’ve lived in various provinces in Canada. West of Ontario I really only see the waxed-paper cartons or the plastic jugs, stores carry both equally. Eastern Canada carries the plastic bags (and everyone has a plastic container at home they place them in after snipping the bag corner) and often the cartons. Bit weird the custom changes across Canada, and coming from the west I was very confused about the bagged milk when I first moved to Ontario.
Maybe someone else can comment on their experiences. I’ve never seen bagged milk in a store in the prairies (but I only lived in major cities).
Well, a bag holding 3 x 1.3L bags.
Just to add, in Brazil we usually have 1l cartoons of UHT milk or 1l bags of pasteurized milk.
Pasteurized milk goes bad in 3 days or so, and many people can’t run through the entire 1l in that time. UHT milk will last for a good 2 weeks after opened, so I guess that’s the kind you buy.
Bags I think.
I would never drink a milk that lasts two weeks. Real food spoils. This must be some liquid plastic.
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Fresh milk that’s been pasteurized and refrigerated should last at least three weeks.
the container isnt very hard, it’s pretty thin but I’ve never had one break. It’s sold at grocery stores in the US (idk about others) and have only ever seen this kind or the cardboard kind.
Here’s an image that’s essentially what the milk section at my local Walmart looks like:
It really depends how long it will last because sometimes my family will go through two a week and other times it’ll stay there for a couple weeks before being thrown out. In general I’d say about one gallon a week for 5 people.
What kind of container does milk come in from where you live?
I can confirm they do actually break quite easily… uh, from experience. They don’t shatter, at least, you just end up with very leaky milk and a grocery store worker disappointed in you.
It may not be hard, but man do I work it.
Jokes aside yeah I reuse my milk jugs to refill with tap water… And forget to replace it with a new one. So I use a milk jug for water for about a year, then remember to swap it out. So it is pretty structurally sound. (Though it may be leaking chemicals into my water … idk)
Pretty sure it’s mostly an American thing, but I’m not well-travelled enough to be sure.
And as for rate of consumption… When I was a kid, my parents made me drink a glass of milk every day - call that 8oz, so 56oz per week. That’s a little under a half gallon (which you can also buy in plastic jugs), not including other uses like tea/coffee and cereal. Altogether, we’d go through about a gallon per week.
I bought them as the sole drinker.
I can do a gallon of milk in two or three days