A British expat living in Australia was shocked to learn how “complicated” our milk colour system is – and her discovery has left plenty of Aussies stunned.
Jordana Grace, a radio host on 92.7 Mix FM on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, reignited the milk discussion after she reposted a viral clip on Tuesday about the different types of supermarket milk in the country.
She pointed out that in the UK there’s just three types.
“We have a pretty simple colour coded system,” she said.
“Blue lid is full fat, green is semi-skimmed and red is skimmed milk – pretty easy, dabby dozy, lemon squeezy.
“But then we come to Australia — how do I explain this,” she joked before revealing the “complicated” system.
“So blue milk is full fat. I know you’re thinking this is the same … no. Dark blue is full fat, but light blue is light milk and pink milk is skim; not to be confused with trim red milk.
“And then there’s a purple for lactose free, which can also be green and don’t forget yellow which is reduced fat which is different from light, skim and trim.
“And then you have grey which is cold pressed.
“I don’t even know what the black ones are for. And then gold is homogenised.”
She joked that after explaining all that she needs to lie down.
Her clip has attracted more than 70,000 views with some Aussies confessing they had no idea of the meaning behind each colour.
“I’m Australian and I only just realised that milk is colour coded. I always just read the label,” one joked.
“Hahahaha me too. I’ve never noticed,” another admitted.
And of course foreigners were also left confused.
“I didn’t even know milk in Australia was colour coded, I always just read them,” one person wrote.
“I never even knew there was colour coding lids for milk in AU. I just look for text ‘Full Cream’,” another confessed.
Each country will have their own colour scheme to reflect the type of milk. For example, in Canada, a blue lid is skim milk, while a yellow lid is homoenized milk or skim milk, according to Milk Wiki.
In Finland blue is light milk and light blue is fat free milk.
“It wasn’t so long ago that milk came in a one pint (568 ml) glass bottle. It was pasteurised full cream milk and it wasn’t usually homogenised, so it had a creamy plug at the top,” Dairy Food Safety Victoria explained in its site.
“Then we saw the introduction of cartons, sachets, and plastic bottles as packaging trends evolved and then an explosion in different types of milk.”
The comments section in Jordan’s post is still going off with Aussies only just learning of the colour system.