Milk is a staple in every fridge, from breakfast partnered with your cereal up to late-night snacks as you prepare your hot chocolate or just plain milk before bed. In the US alone, statistics have recorded an average milk consumption of 141 pounds per capita. That being said, dairy products can be so demanding, and keeping the prices low – which Aldi excels at – could be so challenging. Let’s discuss ‘Where does Aldi milk come from?’.
And so we wonder,
Where does Aldi milk come from exactly?
It is quite surprising but believes it or not, Aldi milk comes from the same US dairy farms from which other brands source their milk, too. Located all over the country, Aldi buys the milk wholesale, put it in their own packaging labels – Friendly Farms, and has it distributed to their stores fresh every day.
Knowing that Aldi milk could come from different farm sources, can we find out exactly
Where or what farm it was from?
Well, the answer is yes. You can actually search the internet for what exact plant your milk was processed from. You could visit WhereIsMyMilkFrom.com, click on “locate the code”, enter your milk’s code number there (this could be seen near the expiration date), and voila – results, including the precise location of the plant where it was processed as well as all the other products the plant produces can be seen there.
However, it doesn’t specify what other brands they produce dairy for. If you are quite investigative, you may find out that Aldi milk and other brands of milk can be sourced from a similar farm or even the exact same plant as well. This very much indicates that Aldi’s Friendly Farms milk has the Real Seal stamp of approval, like other expensive brands of dairy that claim it because obviously, it’s can be of the same source.
So how does Aldi keep their price low knowing that other brands?
that is a little more expensive than the latter – get their milk from the same farmhouses?
It doesn’t necessarily mean that Aldi’s executives have better negotiating skills and chops than any of the other brands. These farms certainly offer the same price range with different brands due to similar procedures and demands. But, part of the reason that milk is much cheaper or at a lower price than others at Aldi is because of the company’s philosophy of keeping its operating costs as low as possible.
Aldi’s stores are run on a high-efficiency model; a much smaller store than other brands while maintaining a similar format for each, with shorter opening hours, and fewer employees – that enables the company to limit their operational costs and pass savings down to consumers. They also cut down on marketing – by not having fancy store displays, no extra fills services i.e. check cashing, not even in packaging for your purchase because they have their bag-your-own policy, as well as cart return deposit system.
But Aldi’s milk is a lot way cheaper, is it as good as other brands of milk?
Aldi’s Friendly Farms milk is just as good as other brands of milk. We have learned that in other ways more expensive milk can be exactly the same thing due to being sourced from the same farm. There’s no difference between proprietary cows or farms, just different labels, and packaging. Aldi’s milk is not the “B-grade” or the lesser quality milk because it is exactly the same milk. The company instead has a vastly different cost-cutting business model that allows them to sell their milk for a much cheaper price.
Is Aldi’s Friendly Farms milk ethically sourced?
If you check on Aldi’s website, they claim there that their milk suppliers guarantee that their milk is hormone/rBST(recombinant bovine somatotropin)-free. This means that the cows from which the milk came are not treated with growth hormones. These growth hormones have been linked to many cases of higher breast cancer rates in women, as well as prostate cancer rates in men.
These growth hormones are also vastly linked to udder infections on the cows themselves, which is highly crucial for the sanitary of any farm. No hormones used mean fewer infections on cows’ health, which also means fewer instances of antibiotics administered to the cows, and much better milk production. Aldi sure did ramp up their ethical sourcing responsibilities – releasing their detailed Animal Welfare Policy on their website, not tolerating any animal abuse for personal gain.
Conclusion
Aldi’s milk comes from the exact same dairy farms as other name-brand milk products.
That is a piece of great information to know because that means that you can cut on and save money by changing your milk staple, while still enjoying the same quality and ethically sourced beverage.
