Congratulations to all my Canadian readers for the incredible win by Team Canada in hockey today — 3-2 in sudden death overtime against Team USA.

It’s so sweet — and appropriate — for you guys to win the gold on your home turf as Olympic host nation.

Nice job Canada.

As in — you just know that this kid is gonna be big fun by the look on his face.

And I just love the fucked up Bucky Beaver teeth he’s sporting.

Just dropped the BF off at the airport for his 5AM flight back to Beijing. He won’t be back here until June when he returns for a big conference.

It was great having him back but there’s something about having spent a number of months alone and then having someone in your space who acts as if he has full rights and privileges {even if he, in fact, does} that’s a bit disconcerting.

Maybe when he comes to visit in June I’ll have him stay at the Comfort Inn out near the highway.

Anyway, here’s Gilbert O’Sullivan with the song whose name I stole the title of this post from.

Hot subway suck on a real life New York City subway via Ronny and Tito.

I luvz me some science shit!

I recently fired off an email to a family member who is high up in the food safety/dairy biz.  I had a question about . . . well, just read my email and his response.

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Here’s a question for ya — you know those new milk containers that Costco is using?  The ergonomic square gallon ones?  Do they keep the milk fresh longer than the standard plastic gallons?

The reason I ask is because they seem to — dramatically longer in fact.

My theory is that the new screw on cap that it uses doesn’t allow spoiled milk to accumulate under the lid the way the standard plastic gallon does.  Since there isn’t spoiled milk under there it can’t drop into the milk itself whenever you open and close the cap and therefore the milk stays fresher longer.

Or am I just full of shit?

The carton in question

And here’s what he said by way of an answer:

LOL!!

Well… the observation you have is a good one.  The answer you seek is complex though.

As it turns out, we’re {my family member’s company}  is in charge of that milk.  Look at the container; you should see xxxxx on the jug.  That’s the XXXXX Avenue plant code.  We’re one of just 2 places in the nation that makes that container.  It doesn’t require a milk case to ship, so there isn’t any extra energy wasted in sending out crates and trying to get them back and then washing them before sending them out again.

Anyways, the milk could stay fresher for longer for several reasons.

1.  We form the plastic in house.  We’ve got blow-molds going 24/7 and that hot resin kills all yeast, mold and bacteria, so we start with a sterile container.  In the case of paperboard or pre-formed plastic jugs, there is always a chance that the container will have some sort of microbe on it to start the breakdown process. I attached a pic.
2. On average, the milk is about 24 hours old when we process it.  Having local dairies helps in the freshness of the milk.  The older the milk, the more time bacteria has to grow in there.
3. After pasteurization, the milk to transported to a sterile room and the jug is filled by weight.  See the pic attached.

4. We cap the whole thing and seal it using an induction sealer that heats the foil to a high enough temp to melt the resin and seal the whole thing up.  The foil gets hot enough to sterilize the cap.
5.  We’ve got a great QA manager that understands what it takes to keep this product as safe and as microbe free as necessary.
6.  Yeah… what you said… that could contribute to it being a good product!

Actually, your observation adds to what I mentioned above.  In the food industry, we have a concept called the “hurdle effect” that helps to explain how to keep food fresh.  A hurdle is an action or a process or an ingredient that is added to the system to prevent or decrease growth of bacteria.  The fresh plastic is a hurdle, the fresh milk… pasteurization… all of those are hurdles to bacteria.  Put them all in a row and you have a good product.

… I’m rambling… I thought I only did that in person, talking to people….

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Who knew food science could be so interesting?