How to freeze milk and other types of dairy to best protect nutritional value and the types of containers that are best for preserving taste and texture.
I’ve coordinated a large buying club that supports several local dairy farms for nearly two decades. During that time, I’ve answered all manner of questions on freezing milk and proper use, storage, and fermentation of dairy products both pasteurized and fresh from the cow (or goat).
It’s exciting to witness an ever-increasing number of people seeking to source food locally. We now even have a local farm in our community that produces a small amount of fresh milk from water buffalo!
The tricky part of the trend toward local food production is that a learning curve and education process are necessary with regard to knowing exactly where your food comes from and how it is produced.
This is something that is entirely unnecessary when you robotically buy dead, fractionated, frankenfoods on a grab-and-go basis from the dairy aisle of the supermarket.
Below are the most common questions I have been asked over the years about how to properly handle and store milk and other dairy products. If you are new to sourcing your dairy from a local farm, I hope this information saves you some time getting up to speed on the process.
Does Freezing Milk Damage It?
The most frequent question I get asked about milk is can it be frozen? The reason people are interested in freezing milk is because, in some parts of the world, fresh dairy is hard to come by, so folks are organizing groups to drive long distances to pick up larger quantities once a month for multiple families.
The trick with that is how to best keep the milk fresh for drinking until the next dairy road trip.
The good news is most definitely yes! You can freeze milk with no problem.
Both pasteurized and raw milk can be frozen, and freezing milk does not harm its nutritional profile or destroy enzymes and probiotics in the case of raw dairy.
Dr. Weston A. Price, author of the nutritional classic Nutrition and Physical Degeneration found that even after being frozen for one year, butter suffered no degradation in either enzymes or fat-soluble vitamins. (1)
Types of Containers
The trickiest part about freezing milk, cream, butter, buttermilk, yogurt, or kefir is choosing the most appropriate container to use.
Plastic vs Glass
I personally do not choose and would not recommend glass for freezing milk and other types of dairy due to the danger of breakage.
If you must use glass for whatever reason, make sure the container is not completely full and the lid is cracked or open to release any pressure that builds up.
The linked article provides more tips on choosing and using glass versus plastic containers for safely freezing food.
Shake it up Before Freezing
When freezing raw milk or nonhomogenized, low-temp pasteurized milk, be sure to shake it up really well first before putting it in the freezer.
This distributes the cream evenly. It’s a good idea to take the jug out and shake it up once or twice more before it is totally frozen for the same reason.
How to Thaw
Note that once cream top milk has thawed, sometimes the cream will have a slight texture to it and might not feel completely smooth on the tongue like it did before it was frozen.
You will be happy to know that this little bit of grittiness with the cream portion of thawed milk isn’t a safety or nutritional problem, but it does bother some people.
Knowing how to properly freeze milk and other fresh from the farm dairy products is also helpful when traveling. This article details how to easily travel with dairy on an airplane.
Other Tips for Handling Local Dairy
While the question of freezing milk is definitely the most common question I receive as a dairy club coordinator, the second most common concern usually takes the form of a frantic email or text late in the afternoon or evening of dairy pickup day:
Sarah, I completely forgot about my raw dairy in the trunk of my car, and it has been sitting in there all day! Has it gone bad or can I use it anyway?
How to Know if it’s “Gone Bad”
Quality raw, grassfed dairy is expensive, and forgetting about it in the trunk of your car all day long is surely a heart-stopping event! The good news is that the raw dairy hasn’t gone “bad” sitting in your car even on a hot day.
Milk going “bad” is a concept that has evolved in our language as a result of the rise of pasteurization and sterilized factory food.
Only dead, pasteurized milk that is devoid of enzymes and probiotics goes putrid or “bad” and must be thrown out as a precautionary measure when it has not been fully refrigerated for a period of time.
Note that throughout most of human history, raw milk and dairy were never refrigerated and rarely consumed fresh.
Milk was usually clabbered or fermented in some way before consumption. (2)
Raw milk has the benefit of inherent probiotic cultures that not only protect it from an invasion of foodborne pathogens but also protect against spoilage.
When raw milk comes to room temperature, the activity of these beneficial probiotics in the raw milk increases, as they more rapidly consume the lactose (milk sugar) during this time hastening the process of transforming the fresh milk to a clabbered state.
Hence, if you’ve left your raw milk in your car for a while, you can safely re-refrigerate when you get home and use it as you would normally.
Shortened Shelf Life
The only catch is that the raw milk won’t be fresh for drinking for as long. For example, if your raw milk normally stays fresh tasting for drinking for two weeks in the refrigerator before naturally souring, then it might only last one week or a few days if you forgot to refrigerate it right away after dairy pickup.
In comparison, when pasteurized milk goes past the “use by” date stamped on the carton, it should be immediately discarded as the risk of foodborne pathogens from the putrid milk is high.
No Longer Fresh for Drinking?
When raw milk is no longer fresh for drinking, on the other hand, it has simply begun the process of naturally souring into clabbered milk, a drinkable yogurt-like product which is how humans usually consumed raw milk prior to the advent of modern refrigeration.
When raw milk has clabbered, you don’t throw it out. You simply use it for something else like scrambled eggs, puddings, or sauces. This article outlines the many ways to use soured raw milk.
Do you have a question or answer about freezing milk or the handling of fresh dairy you source from a local farm? Please share in the comment section.
. how can we freeze milk packet so fast in freezer.actually am started to supply frozen milk to shake parlour. i hav two freezer both has 120 liter capacity. but everyday i hav to supply this frozen milk . so how can i freeze this milk packets so fast.
Is it possible to make butter from raw milk that has been frozen?
Thank you
You make butter from cream, not milk. And, yes, you can make butter from raw cream that has been frozen and then thawed. Here is a video on how to make raw butter from cream. https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/video-how-to-make-raw-butter/
Would blending the milk after thawing give the milk a smoother texture if there’s grit? It’s also been suggested to me that heating it to 90 degrees F reduces grittiness.
Hello Sarah
Thank you so much for this article.
How long do you think raw milk would be good to drink once it has been defrosted?
Xx
It depends how fresh it was when you froze it. If it was very fresh, it will last about a week.
hi! thanks for this informative article. does it work as well with soy milk? im making soy milk at home and due to busy schedule, i usually make several liters good for two weeks. how do i keep them fresh? is it ok to keep them frozen then place it in the chiller the night before i drink it? thanks!
I have no idea … I don’t drink or recommend soy milk for any purpose as it is hormone disrupting and an unhealthful beverage in general. It is NOT a traditional beverage from Asia as is commonly believed. Here is more information: https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/170-scientific-reasons-to-lose-the-soy-in-your-diet/
I have a question that I have not been able to find the answer to. Can you freeze butter milk?
I make my own butter and still have not found a way I can use up buttermilk unless it is baked with glutenous flour. “Any suggestions? I can’t do gluten. Thanks for your time and the wonderful information you make accessible to us Sarah.
Yes you can!
If you have to freeze raw milk, and even if it loses some nutrients, it’s still better than buying pasteurized milk from the store on a regular basis.
I would NOT however freeze it in plastic as plastic leaches in cold temps as well as high. I have been freezing raw milk in wide mouth 1/2 gallon mason jars for many years. I’ve only had a couple break and that’s because I filled it a little too much and may have hit it against something. They’re extremely fragile when frozen. As long as I leave 2 1/2″ at the top, and keep the lid on loosely, I have no problems.
Do you have any research that you’ve come across that plastic leeches in cold temps that you could share? I haven’t found any.
I also use the huge glass mason jars for freezing our raw milk. We freeze it with the top off and don’t have any problems. I just don’t trust plastic. There are also large jars that are made for freezing but we have invested in these and are ok with them so far (going on 5 years). We purchase 22 gallons of raw milk at a time.
“There’s a great article called Freezing raw milk: As good as fresh? Raw milk white papers.
“When raw milk advocates discuss the loss of vitamins due to pasteurization, they often mention vitamin C and B vitamins. (Folks who have subscribed to the email list on this site will read more about the loss in B vitamins in pasteurized milk.)
It turns out that the vitamin C in milk may be as cold-sensitive as it is heat-sensitive. A 1983 study in the Journal of Dairy Science found that about 28% of the vitamin C in fresh raw milk is lost to freezing whereas 26% was lost to ultra high temperature pasteurization (UHT), a common pasteurization technique used with organic milk. The more conventional pasteurization process resulted in a loss of 17% of the vitamin C.
In the same study researchers found that riboflavin (vitamin B2) showed little loss in either freezing or pasteurization. However, thiamine (B1) is more sensitive to heat than to freezing.”
Also….
” One study found that antioxidants are at their peak in human milk in its first two days. There is loss with both time and with freezing (Hanna et al. 2004).”
Love raw milk. I try to drink it fresh. Has anyone ever made goat butter? The bilk I get isn’t goaty at all and am hoping to make butter, cheese and cottage cheese.
Hi Sarah, if pasteurised milk is only missing ‘enzymes and probiotics’ destroyed by the heating process, would it be possible to add these back to fresh pasteurised milk so that it clabbered and soured in the same way as whole raw milk instead of putrefying?
No, because once something is dead, it’s dead. There is no such thing as “fresh” pasteurized milk.
Hi Sarah thank you for this very informative article. I use glass for freezing my raw milk because of the fears of leaching plastic into the milk when using the plastic gallon that the milk comes in. What are your thoughts about this please? Thank you!
Plastic leeching chemicals is primarily an issue when the plastic is heated, not frozen. I am not overly concerned about it, but if you are having success with freezing in glass, then keep on with it. Also, raw milk does stay fresh longer when kept in glass, so that is a benefit also.