I'm a little milk-phobic, so I won't drink it if it is a few days close to the expiration date. It gets a little sketchy-smelling around then. Of course, we live in the high desert and it can be challenging getting the milk home at a cold temperature to preserve it, so that might be a factor, too.

Provided you don't leave it out, the date on the label will be very accurate. You might be able to drink it for a little while after, but it won't taste very good. As everyone said, smell is the best way. Bad milk smells like s**t. Unfortunately, it tastes even worse. If it fails the smell test, don't bother with the taste one.

On a side note, here's a good test for eggs. In case an egg looks like it is bad, fill up a tall glass of water. The egg should hit the bottom. If it floats, throw it out. Bacteria have caused gas inside the egg and are causing it to float.

I may be wrong, but I think most lactose-free milk is ultra-pasteurized because that disables the lactose, so that it cannot react with lactase enzymes.

And, we keep milk 2-3 max past its expiration date. As for the drugs... some drugs (fortunately not very many) DO go bad after their expiration dead... tetracycline can become very dangerous and things like hydrogen peroxide lose effectiveness with light and over time, thus why it is stored in a dark brown bottle.

Here in NYC my experience has been that milk in plastic jugs usually acquires a slightly off smell by the NYC sell-by date - or maybe I just have bad luck with milk. (At which point it gets dumped as I don't want to take the risk.) Though, the quality of perishables at the average Manhattan neighborhood grocery store seems noticeably worse than that of the standard gigantic grocery stores I used to go to in the midwest.

I recall reading a report recently that women (at least some) are more sensitive to milk which may be past its prime and are more able to detect its going toward bad before men.

With that said, I try to buy milk with 12-14 days to go before sell by date which usually gives me around three weeks before there is an issue. Since, in L.A. at most markets you can buy 2 gallons for around the price of 1 and 1/3 separate gallons (Costco fighting measure) I go for the two gallons, and put any bad milk on the roses which my gardening neighbors swears produces giant blooms. @:-)

Mrs BamaVol's pretty good at detecting when men are past their prime. :D

Mrs. Redbeard has acute olfactory senses. The joke in our house is that she can be in the garage and smell cat pee in the basement.

Aaah, yes, I used to buy that UHT milk as an undergrad student...... Never went bad, but it tastes and smells like stinky monkey butt in the first place, so how'd ya know......?!?!

:D I was reminded of a bread mix I think Mrs BamaVol baked a month or 2 ago. It was called Monkey Bread. I'm guessing UHT milk could be used.

Remember that ultraviolet light (such as flourescent light) supposedly shortens life. So a transparent/semi-opaque container sitting in the front of the shelf may go off sooner than one at the back of the shelf, or one packaged in an opaque container.

Not quite the same but I find high-fat (10%+) milk/cream stays o.k. longer than milk.

More like women have better smell and taste (more likely to be supertasters) than men?

Cool... I always dig for the back anyway, since that's where the new milk is.

Yup... half/half lasts longer, and whipping cream lasts forever.

Also, I'm totally the opposite of granola, but I buy organic milk not because it's organic, but it lasts for 2-3 months. Since we don't go through milk that fast, it's well worth the increased cost.

Plus, it does taste better.

When my boys were younger, I used to always have a box of oat milk in the cabinet for those mornings when they used the last of the regular milk and wanted more cereal or something.

They preferred the oat milk from the carton to regular shelf-stable milk; the latter does "taste funny."

That's UHT, or Ultra High Temperature treatment. It does taste different from "fresh" milk which of course tastes different from unpasteurised milk.

My own rule of thumb adds into account when the milk was opened. A sealed container of milk will last longer than one that has been opened. So, I have found that the 5-7 day rule holds from when the milk is opened or from the sell by date, which ever comes first. You definitely can't keep an open carton/bottle of milk for 3 weeks even if the sell by date hasn't been reached yet.