🧊 Refrigerator

The refrigerator is the main place to keep milk at home. Cold slows down the growth of bacteria, and milk stays fresh longer. A fridge is usually kept at +2 to +6 °C. The US agency FDA advises no higher than +4 °C. For comparison: at room temperature, the number of bacteria that cause food poisoning can double every 20 minutes.

The built-in dial does not always show the real temperature. So the FDA advises putting a separate thermometer inside and checking it from time to time. Do not pack the fridge too full: cold air must be able to move freely. Perishable food should go into the fridge no later than 2 hours after you buy it.

For almost a century and a half before the fridge, there was the icebox: a cabinet filled with ice gathered in winter. Electric home fridges appeared in the 1910s. In 1927 General Electric released the “Monitor-Top” model, the first truly mass-market one; more than a million were made. The home fridge changed the life of milk. People began buying it at the shop to keep at home, and the morning milkman gradually became a thing of the past.