Same milk, new rules.
There's often much confusion when NYC residents purchase their milk because of dual expiration dates. So the city Health Department wants to end current expiration date requirements, and give cartons only one date -- for New Yorkers and non-New Yorkers alike.
City regulations currently rule that milk can not be sold 9 days after it was pasteurized, while the industry standard is 6 days longer. So city store owners are required to remove their milk cartons from the refrigerators before the rest of the state. NYC is one of the few places in the country that has its own dating system.
Reasons like milk taking a few days to get to city stores or sitting on warm stoops after deliveries are now obsolete. So health officials plan to unveil their proposal at a Board of Health meeting Tuesday, after the City Council petitioned them to make the change earlier this year.
If the change takes place, only the manufacturer's expiration date would be posted.
Officials say that until milk is actually fine to drink until it spoils -- regardless of the expiration date: "There is no hazard of drinking milk after its expiration."
