The smell taste is enough for me, but I also am a bit phobic and won't go past the sell by date. I do sometimes by the Skim-plus which seems to have a 3-4 week timeframe for the sell-by date. I also find for some reason if the milk sits in the refridge unsued for say 3 or 4 days, it gets that funky smell (not quite sour yet, but a bitter smell) and I dump it.