Boxed Milk

Because milk is vital to health bone development, it is important that you, and your family, get your required amounts. If you're sick of wasting milk because of its quick shelf life, you should try boxed, or shelf-stable, milk.

Boxed Milk




(NC)-Most of today's adults remember how parents and teachers stressed the importance of drinking milk to build strong healthy bones. While the message is still relevant and being reinforced, there are many new drink distractions for today's tykes and teens.

There's no doubt a healthy calcium intake builds strong bones, but research has also found calcium can help prevent the onset of high blood pressure and cancer, and assist with weight management, which has become an increasingly prevalent concern among today's youth.

According to Osteoporosis Canada, kids aged four to eight require 800 mg of calcium a day which is about three servings of milk products; those aged nine to 18 should have 1300 mg of calcium which is about four to five servings per day. The challenge for most parents is finding a way to inject calcium into their child's diet. Milk is perishable and requires proper storage and packaging to prevent it from going sour. This pushes many parents strapped for time to throw a pop can into their child's lunch bag and send them on their way.

However, recent alternatives have emerged to resolve parents' lunchtime calcium dilemma. New technology now allows milk to be stored at room temperature in Tetra Pak cartons - the kind used for juice boxes. Using ultra-high temperature (UHT), "shelf-stable milk" is heated to 140 degrees before entering a rapid heating and cooling phase that eliminates all possibility of contamination. The milk is then stored in air-tight aseptic packaging to ensure air and light don't sour the milk.

For parents, shelf-stable milk is also easier to stock up on, as it has a much longer term expiry date than traditional packaging. The 100 ml cartons are an ideal size for any brown bag or boxed lunch and provide children with at least one of their daily calcium servings.

It is critical to children's long-term health and quality of life that they receive all their essential vitamins and nutrients. New innovation has now made it easier to do just that.

- News Canada



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