Barring certain specialty products like organic, the gallon jugs of name brand versus store brand are basically the same, with the difference in price due mainly to marketing and advertising. Store brands are typically produced in plants operated by the name brand producer. There is a plant code on every jug of milk in the U.S. and you can see which major plant produced your milk. Beyond that, you can compare the nutrition facts label if you have concerns about milkfat content or any added vitamins or minerals to make sure it is a 1:1 product match.
In most instances there is no meaningful difference between name brand milk and store brand milk.
byu/earthdogmonster inFrugal
Posted by earthdogmonster
9 Comments
It’s all the same. They just swap packaging on the pack lines change the date coder to whatever setting the store brand uses and voila.
https://www.whereismymilkfrom.com/
I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever bought “name brand” milk before. There’s no real singular national brand of milk that you can get everywhere in the country. Maybe Farlife but that’s a fairly recent development.
I worked in many food plants and manufacturing as a filtration engineer.
Keep in mind because different brands of foods are made in the same plants, this doesn’t automatically mean they are exactly the same. Usually one brand is made on certain days, everything is scrubbed and another brand, be it major or smaller, is made on other days. They do not and can’t use proprietary formulas across all brands just because they are made in the same plants.
Milk is milk but not all of it has the same milk fat content, filtration levels, or use the same farmers/ranchers. Then there is the difference between organic, no hormones, A1/A1 vs A2/A2, lactose free, etc.
This belief is so frustrating to hear. Stop the madness!
Yeah, it’s the same unless you are shopping local. My local dairy milk is AMAZING
Generally true, but some areas do have regional dairies. I always try to buy animal products as locally as possibly because while it may be a bit more expensive for me, it’s at least money that’s staying in my community.
Remove the word “milk” from that sentence and it still applies.
I just discovered no name corn flakes that don’t just equal, but actually beat the heck out of, Kellogg’s.
We buy our milk at Braum’s. It is a regional store, but has by far the best milk in this area.
When we lived in our last state, we bought our milk straight from the locally owned dairy farm.
There can indeed be a difference.
I disagree. There are differences. These days I mosly cook/bake with milk so I don’t care as much if its lower quality. But when my kids were younger and we drank more I could definitely tell the difference when I went with a cheaper brand (unless it was Sendiks house brand here in WI)