[antirez]

Thanks for the info. I had the impression that in Germany everybody was purchasing fresh milk because in Italy there is a pattern that as you move towards the north, people are more and more hardcore with fresh milk, and there are fresh milk "centrals" in most cities in the north with locally produced fresh milk. I expected the pattern to continue towards north.

UHT milk is sold here of course but mostly used as a "backup", to take a few home if you end without milk. Also micro-filtered milk is gaining in popularity for years at this point, but if I should judge the percentage of buyers from the amount of bottles I see in supermarkets, still far from fresh milk.

An important part of this is: fresh milk duration is 4 days max mostly for a matter of ancient regulation. With new productive chain milk gets a lot less contaminated with bacteria so usually lasts a lot more. Many people say that filtered milk is mostly about regulations than a huge difference in duration per se. What is true is that in filtered milk actually the fat is split from the rest of the milk and pasteurized at higher temperatures, and then re-added, so indeed the duration should be better, but not a lot better than fresh milk produced with a very good standards.

Finally, in certain parts of Sicily it is possible to purchase "raw" milk, not pasteurized at all, in automatic machines on the street (in the province of Ragusa, for example). They have a special permission because of an enhanced procedure that allows the milk to be not contained in the process.

[barrkel]

It's definitely cultural, probably a combination of regulation and dairy industry history. In the Wikipedia article I link in another post this thread, Denmark just to the north consumes hardly any UHT, and Austria to the south-west consumes far less.

Micro-filtered milk lasts for a spooky long time. I've had it in tea and coffee a few days past its best before date, and it's still not soured - three weeks past purchase, IIRC.