How do you feel about Canadian milk bags?

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Eleni G

only one of many ways to get milk in Canada, by the way. Just as Yanks actually sell yogurt you can squeeze into your mouth. In PUBLIC. And just TRY finding salt and vinegar potato chips here, let alone real fish and chips. Every McDonald's had vinegar packs for our fries. Here, you ask for vinegar and they look at you like you're bloody thick! My theory: Canadians are a more highly evolved people (ask Michael Moore in Bowling for Columbine) and they retain some of the social graces of their largely English colony roots, where lord forbid one should place a milk carton just flat on the table! No. One pours it from a snipped corner of the bag and into a lovely milk pitcher, preferably cut glass, you heathens (Just kidding folks.) The material now is biodegradable and takes little space in landfill. We rather LIKE our planet, you see. As for the vinegar, well, it cuts some of the oil off. Vinegar is very healthy. I believe if you asked Frito Lay they would tell you that the Catsup chips were first marketed in the States. That they remain on the market there, I suspect, is another American plot to try to annex Canada. Finally, why do Yanks think the last letter of the alphabet is pronounced "zee" when everyone KNOWS it is "zed"? My question: when you snorted, did the milk come out your nose?

Karen L

They don't sell milk in bags everywhere in Canada. They're not here in BC where I live now. I wish we had them. Cuts down on the garbage and recycling. For the curious, to use them you put the bag in a pitcher(they sell plastic ones especially for this that fit the bags properly), then you cut a small hole in one top corner of the bag, and there you are. Works fine.

The Divine Bubba Blue

Why? Because in the 70s it was far cheaper to supply it in plastic than it was to supply it in paper containers. In Canada, the price of milk is one of the few things that's regulated* - if the price of the milk itself goes up, the producer has to find a cheaper way to package it in order to still make enough profit to still be in business. Plastic was something like one cent less a litre than paper, which over millions of litres sold was quite a saving.

*And for good reason - Western producers back in the 30s, knowing their product was one of the few essentials around, raised their prices for milk to stratospheric amounts, "knowing" that parents would pay anything for milk. They were wrong, though; families with less money cut back on dairy foods and kids went without milk. We're still paying for that stupid, short-sighted idea in increased health care costs. The rate of osteoporosis among women over 75 who were raised on the Prairies is 2.5 times that of women over 75 who were raised in southern Ontario. This is why the price of milk is so heavily regulated.

Lieu. Provo William Parry Wallis

What do they use elsewhere? Cardboard cartons, plastic bottles? Bags seem pretty efficient to me.

Judy C

Milk in a bag is traumatic for you?????? Wow ... what more is there to say?

Milk in a bag is not a 'cultural' thing and I can't imagine it being so bizarre either. You my American neighbour, need bigger fish to fry!!

MasterPython

I think it's just an Ontario and Quebec thing. I have never seen them in a Western province.

your messiah

why not.

*ajidamoon* the Eh team

A few years back Ontario was criticized for still using the Milk in a bag. "They", whomever this mysterious they is, claimed the bags were bad for the environment, and the 4 litre jug was a better route. Now "they" have gone back on that, seeing as how the jug can stay in a landfill for upwards of 200 years, if not properly recycled. The bags "only" take about 60 years to biodegrade.
The stores here in Ontario carry the bagged, cartons and the jug milk. I, personally, prefer the jugs. Too many mishaps happen in my household where the bag doesn't make it all the way down in the container, and thus ends up on the counter and floor. Plus I think the bags absorb some of the smells and flavours from the inside of the fridge leading to a differing taste than the jug milk. Same with the cartons, they always taste funny to me.

thinkingtime

Why not?

Kate

what do you get milk in boxes? lol.

SteveN

When my mother was growing up, it was not uncommon for the milkman to come to her door, pick up four empty glass bottles with rubber stoppers, and drop off four full bottles (3 homogenized, 1 bottle of cream).

When I was growing up, the milk was changed to plastic bags. You would get a gallon of milk (fully sealed) inside another plastic bag that kept the four smaller bags together.

We would make full use of the bags. We would rinse out the smaller bags and use them to hold leftovers, butter a cake pan without getting our hands greasy, or put a sandwich in for school. The bigger bag that the milk came in was used as our garbage bag. and saved on having to buy the Glad kitchen catchers.

Nowadays, we have the option to buy in 4 litre bags, or in the 1 or 2 litre containers. Have not seen any plastic jugs here in Quebec. We usually buy the 2 litre carton for three reasons now:

1) Half the family is drinking 1% milk and the other half are drinking 2%. (they say they taste the difference, but I'll drink either one)

2) Like someone else mentioned, the open plastic bag was susceptible to spills and the milk picked up smells from the fridge.

3) The paper cartons are recycled in our neighbourhood, so we rinse them out and get them into the green bin. One less thing for the landfill.

And if you think milk in bags is weird or traumatizing, you must have a low tolerance for change! I'd hate to see what you would do if you were with me to buy the grape or orange sip-sacks at Perrette's in the 1970's. Imagine a small plastic sack (like the milkbag) that you would jab a sharp straw through and suck out all the sugar-water with artificial colors and flavors! ;-)

old lady

Milk in a bag was easier to transport, bags were only used once so they didn't have to be sterilized as milk bottles did, and they didn't pose a danger if they shattered. So it was economical, and safer to use bags for milk.
Once the rigid plastic bottle was developed, milk bags were pretty well phased out.

Jane Marple

About ketchup potato chips? apparently its typically Canadian.

I'll always remember when I visited Mississippi. I went to a restaurant who served some kind of local fish. You should have seen my face when the waitress put the plate in front of me and there was laying an entire fish that had been fried with its head still on and they had conveniently placed it facing me with its mouth wide open. !

maryoftoday

The first one I consumed was my freshman year in High School and The first thing I said when I picked one up is! "What are these Breast Implants" Chuckle Chuckle! Down to the office for detention I went!

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So very weird, I take it your wife is canadian?

How do you pour them or do you just poke a hole into one? I would be curious on how they pur the milk out without spilling it.

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