What You Need To Know Before Picking Up A Carton Of Organic Milk

The world of milk has changed drastically in the last few years. Talking about milk once boiled down to two things -– whether or not you drink it and what percentage of fat you prefer if you do. Now, grocery aisles are filled with countless different kinds of milk that are likely to taste quite different from one another while also having unique nutritional impacts on your body.

In this sea of dairy products comes organic milk. While many see the term as a one-size-fits-all definition, knowing what organic milk is and what it isn't is very important to consumers paying more for what they believe is a healthier alternative to standard milk. Organic milk is essentially milk that is gathered by grass-fed cows who haven't been tampered with via hormones or antibiotics which can affect the animal's physical growth and milk production. This means the organic distinction for milk is focused on the health and maintenance of the cow that produces it, rather than the pasteurization process that comes after the milk is acquired.

However, because savvy branding is easy to misinterpret and the stipulations surrounding organic milk are easy to work around, not all organic milk is created equal. So, to make sure your milk is truly as healthy as the price tag leads you to believe, you might need to do a bit more digging.

For starters, one thing needs to be clarified — there is a massive difference between raw and organic milk. While organic milk is typically pasteurized in a similar way to standard cow's milk, raw milk does not go through pasteurization. This means the milk is practically untouched on the way from the cow to the carton, and while this could be seen as a good thing to some, its downsides are plentiful.

To start, raw milk is far more susceptible to harmful bacteria than its pasteurized alternatives. This makes sense, given that pasteurization was a major technological advancement in ensuring that milk is safe to drink. Furthermore, while people who drink raw milk swear by it as a healthy aspect of their lifestyles, many health advisors warn against it due to its lack of meaningful health benefits, relatively speaking.

However, beyond that, the legal requirements to be deemed organic milk become a bit less clear. More specifically, while the ways in which cows are fed are often quite important to consumers in this conversation, that's not always the case when it comes to major organic milk manufacturers.

The most frustrating thing about organic milk is its lax rules when it comes to grass-fed cows. Many organic milk brands, especially ones that are legitimately sourced locally or provided by small businesses, comply with the rule that cows must be grass-fed and allowed to graze for their milk to be considered organic. Some companies, however, don't comply by feeding their cows things that consumers aren't expecting organic dairy cows to be eating. In fact, some organic dairy farms look concerningly similar to standard, non-organic dairy farms.

So, how do you detect the difference between a legitimate organic milk brand and a faux-organic one? Well, it all comes down to the fine print and doing a little extra research — make sure you carefully examine that organic food label. Since legitimate organic milk is oftentimes locally sourced, you can look at the milk processing code, plug it into whereismymilkfrom.com, and find out if the milk comes from a local provider. And then you have the Cornucopia Institute, which is an organization that scores dairy companies on how organic their products are. Using both resources together could give you a good path forward if you are looking to buy truly organic milk.