If you see milk labelled as fresh/frisch it does not mean fresh like in the classical sense. If there is written “länger haltbar/longer shelf life” on the packaging somewhere it’s not fresh milk like in the UK, the U.S or the Netherlands for instance. Fresh milk might be labelled as “traditionally made” and is often sold in glass bottles for some reason. Most of the milk sold in Germany is UHT milk (H-Milch, 70% of the market) or Extended shelf-life milk (ESL-Milch, with the label “länger haltbar”). While in the U.K 90% of the milk sold is actually fresh milk. ESL milk has the advantage of having much longer shelf life of 4 weeks when unopened. In contrast to UHT-milk ESL-milk still needs to be refrigerated while being unopened.

In my opinion UHT-milk tastes like it was cooked in the kitchen. ESL-milk is suposed to taste more like the fresh milk. I prefer the way milk is offered in the U.K and elsewhere. However, milk consumption per head is much lower in [Germany](https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/453718/umfrage/pro-kopf-konsum-von-milchprodukten-in-der-eu-nach-laendern/) than in the U.K.

I made this short thread because of this [answer](https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/comments/q7ub84/why_are_the_milk_cartons_so_small_here/hgspilh/?context=3) to my reply and I find it irritating that supermarkets/discounters sell ESL-milk as “fresh” with big letters.

6 comments

  2. By fresh milk you mean Vollmilch? Maybe it is indeed harder to get at stores like Aldi, but for example at REWE you definitely will find several brands sold not only in glass.

    Edit: But you are right, a lot of the milk sold is ESL or H-Milch.

  4. We had enough of your nonsense on this topic in this thread:

    [https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/comments/q7ub84/why_are_the_milk_cartons_so_small_here/](https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/comments/q7ub84/why_are_the_milk_cartons_so_small_here/)

    Standard milk sold in Germany has been “pasteurized”. UHT milk is heated to a temperature of 150 °C for a few seconds, thus leading to the “cooked” taste. ESL milk is treated with a combination of microfiltration and heating, thereby extending the shelf-life but keeping the original taste. ESL milk is not UHT milk, and UHT milk doesn’t nearly make up 70 percent of the milk sold in Germany.

  5. UHT milk certainly doesn’t make up 70% of the market. That figure probably applies to ESL milk. If you want unpasteurised milk, just buy directly at the farmer, I don’t see the problem. Nobody who says “frische Milch” means unpasteurised one.

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