Food storage is something most people frankly don’t know much about. How long is cheese good for? What can and can’t be frozen—and for what time period?
Here’s some information you may have never even thought about before: Certain foods should not be exposed to light. Who knew? Foods like olive oil, milk, butter, and beer, should be kept in the dark.
Have you ever poured milk onto your cereal or into your glass, only to be met with a smell like grass or old vegetables? There’s a reason for this. Milk especially, should be kept in the dark. I know what you’re thinking—but it comes in clear plastic jugs! This is true, and what can happen in the grocery store is nothing less than a sulfurous reaction resulting in a “lightstruck” flavor. Interestingly, when milk is exposed to light, the vitamins we need in order to absorb the calcium from milk are also depleted.
Apparently, traces of chlorophyll also suck the vitamins from butter, resulting in bad odors being passed into the butter. This has happened to me many times, and until I learned this information, I always threw out the butter, assuming it had gone bad before the expiration date.
If you’re as big on using olive oil in your family as I am in mine, you might be interested to know that olive oil should also be kept in a cool, dark place—and refrigerating your olive oil can actually help keep the benefits of the antioxidants found in olive oil, working for a longer period of time. Yet another reason to consider a Mediterranean diet, or to at least replace some of your butter-use with olive oil consumption instead.
To avoid this from happening, try to store your milk, butter, oil and beer in opaque or dark containers. If this isn’t possible, then just try to keep them in the dark as often as you can. Your palate will thank you for it later.