Is tetra pack milk for toddlers safe?
Is tetra pack milk for toddlers safe?
Milk can be considered as a power food for a child and all doctors agree with it. It is difficult to find a perfect combination of calcium, protein, and other important nutrients in anything else. That is why parents are encouraged to feed milk to their children and include it regularly in their diet. For most babies, the first liquid or semi-solid food they have in their life rising from breast milk is cow milk.
Although it is not preferred to give buffalo milk to children really young like toddlers or around the age of three or four as well. When it’s finally time to introduce cow milk to their child, parents often worry about which type would be suitable. They often land on the question- Is tetra pack milk for toddlers safe?
The milk buying rules you should be looking out for
Table of Contents
There are multiple names and types of cow milk available today which include names like skimmed milk, semi-skimmed milk, toned milk, raw milk, and some other variants that are also present in the market. There are two main points you need to consider while you are choosing the milk for your child.
If the milk has been properly pasteurized then it will be safe for your child. The other consideration is the packaging of the milk. If the correct form of material and process is followed for aseptic milk containment then you have nothing to worry about.
This should also be known by parents that excessive heating or repeated heating can damage the nutrient value of the milk.If the proteins and vitamins of the B group are affected then it might indirectly become a block in your child’s growth. Parents might sometimes out of concern try reheating the milk repeatedly out of the notion of killing the bacterias. But they would be just killing the nutrients by repeated heating.
- Tetra pack milk is distributed in a school milk program.
The fear of preservatives
Many parents believe that as the milk comes in a tetra pack and has a fairly long shelf life than raw milk and package milk then it might have preservatives. But this wrong notion is developing the fear in them to not choose tetra pack milk for their children. But it is important to know that the extended shelf life of tetra packs does not happen from preservatives.
In fact, not any kind of preservatives is added by the reputed milk brands at all. It is just the process of pasteurization and packaging which keeps the milk consumable a little longer than other formats of cow milk available. There are two heating temperature rules that are followed by the milk packaging brands. One format of pasteurization allows the milk to be heated at 75 degrees celsius for fifteen to twenty seconds.
2. Advertisement of a tetra pack milk brand.
The HTST technique and milk safety
The other temperature that is also used is very high, at about 138 degrees celsius the milk can be heated for around twenty-three seconds. After the heating is over the milk is properly cooled and immediately packed scientifically into the tetra packs without any risks of bacteria. The heating process that is internationally approved by pediatric organizations is followed by reputed milk brands before putting the milk into the tetra packs.
The process of such pasteurization kills all types of spores of bacteria and other microorganisms as well. The whole process from the start to the end is done following certain sterile and hygienic standards otherwise their license might get canceled easily. The tetra packs are also considered safer than other kinds of packaging as it keeps the milk fresh.
The reheating of tetra pack milk
Many people have made the mistake of reheating the milk of the tetra packs. They would pour the milk into a bowl and then boil it over the gas oven for several minutes. This would vapourize several vitamins of B types and will also damage the protein content. A lot of money and time would go in vain but your child wouldn’t get the essential nutrients still.
The pasteurization treatment that goes on in a UHT(Ultra High Temperature) process would directly abolish the need for you to boil the milk from the tetra pack. Even after the UHT treatment of the milk, the packaging takes place in a highly sterile environment. The tetra packs in which the milk is poured are also pre-sterilized so there remains no risk of bacterial contamination.
3. Brands of tetra packs gaining popularity in many Asian countries.
Just a warm-up is sufficient
You can just pour the milk from the tetra pack out into the glass of your child and let the kid enjoy the cow milk. You may warm up a little bit just out of preference to serve it warm. But otherwise, there remains no need for it. Not boiling it would actually be beneficial in several ways as mentioned earlier.
You might have already got the answer to the question- Is tetra pack milk for toddlers safe or not. But there are a few more things the parents should know which are given below.
The trick of just one boil
The other type of milk that many parents are swaying away from is raw milk. The milk is directly delivered to your doorstep from the milkman’s farm. This type of milk is also sometimes referred to as ‘fresh milk’. Out of the wrong notion that packaged or tetra packs might not be suitable for their children, parents often tend towards raw milk.
As the raw milk comes unboiled and unpasteurized the duty falls upon the parents to get it into the state which will be suitable for the child to consume freely. Many mothers have reheated the milk every time they serve it and unknowingly boiled off most of the vitamins and proteins. The milk would still look the same even after you reheat it several times and that is where mothers are not able to catch the mistake.
The raw milk option and right processes
Experts suggest if any parents are choosing to bring raw milk into their house instead of the tetra pack or plastic package ones then the correct way to make the raw milk consumable is a one-time boil at about a hundred degrees celsius temperature. The boiling should not exceed nine or ten minutes.
The ideal minute count for boiling would be between seven to eight minutes. But it has been proven several times that just having the banner of raw milk doesn’t mean it will be completely unadulterated and without contamination of microbes coming from unhygienic environments. It is suggested to never consume raw milk without boiling it one time.
This is valid for not only children but adults as well. The bad bacterias and other contaminants might be alive if not boiled and cause infection and other diseases for your stomach and bowel health.
4.The image of a girl happily drinking milk from her glass.
The detailed tetra packaging safety
The tetra packs were not always so common to be found like today.The tetra packs offer such a safe environment and hygienic space for the contents that only the packaging itself extends the lifespan of the product. These tetra packs have been often termed as the ‘white revolution’, which means the reduction of use for other not-so-safe packaging materials.
As mentioned before, the factories of the branded companies are responsible for carrying out the pasteurization process either by the UHT or HTST protocol. The HTST stands for High-Temperature Short Time method.
The method in which an extremely high temperature is used for the boiling process reduces the total time for heating. After the boiling is completed the time comes to cool down the milk. When the milk is systematically cooled down then without any wastage of time the milk gets transferred into the sterile tetra packs in a bacteria and microbe-free environment.
The tetra pack shelf life
This whole bounded and highly maintained process makes the branded tetra pack milks totally safe for your toddler. It’s time to break all the remaining wrong notions with the power of nutritional science to make your toddler grow much more beautifully and with immense health.
5. A group of primary school children posing with a tetra pack milk.
But you should be aware of the printed shelf life of the tetra packs. Just after you bring it from the supermarket you should check the date when it expires.
The best choice is to consume the milk within three to five days. Buying smaller packs other than just very large tetra packs might also remove the problem of wastage. Extremely large tetra packs are not a smart move to make if you just have one toddler back at home and none of the other adults like milk.
The proper factory packaging removes any chances of adulteration. On the other side, the tetra packs are easy to transport as well. This will help you in carrying the milk for the toddler wherever you want.
6.Two children drinking tetra pack milk together in their school.
Tetra pack for toddlers
The aseptic packaging of tetra pack milk is hard to beat by any other packaging kinds available in the market. The process used in pasteurization and quick sealing of packages makes the milk tightly packed in calcium, protein, B category vitamins, and other nutrients which will directly reach the children.
The highly maintained sterile environment and strict surveillance in the factories of reputed brands make the milk completely pure and non-contaminated. The tetra packs are safer to use than glass bottles and another plastic packaging. The easily carrying structure makes the tetra pack much faster in the race than other milk competitors.
7. A tetra pack milk advertisement using children’s images for promotion.
The authorities and guidance
The food safety standard maintained by government authorities makes companies always stay aware and not cause mistakes in their milk manufacturing, packaging, and delivering processes so that every toddler can have tetra pack milk without any kind of worry. You can start with the tetra pack milk when your child is either six months old or older.
The tetra pack milk can be introduced as the first liquid food they drink other than breast milk as you might have already known that tetra pack is actually safer than other kinds of cow milk packagings.
Conclusion
There have been a lot of myths and rumors about tetra pack milk in the past. But repeatedly it has been found that the actual truth is that the tetra pack milk is one of the top best milk packages that can be provided to children. The nutrients present in the tetra pack milk are absolutely perfect in form and would need no boiling also for consumption. The parent can warm the milk for a minute or two but if they let it boil for several minutes it wouldn’t remain as nutritious it could have been for the child.
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