Tesco Milk cartons leak when defrosting

Basil_Fawlty

I bought some of the 1 pint Tesco milk (organic in my case, but the tubs are similar to the normal milk) and froze three and put one in the fridge.

When I went to defrost one in the fridge overnight, it leaked and when I checked in the morning there was milk everywhere because the container had somehow leaked during defrosting.

I emailed Tesco and they sent this reply:

Thank you for your email.

We do not advise freezing in the carton as it may not be strong enough or enough
space in it to contain the frozen milk.


What cheek!! So we're supposed to open the carton, expose the milk to foreign bacteria, place it in a 'container', then freeze it, complete with bacteria, ready to multiply when you defrost it? It's madness!

THey used to do the organic milk in the cardboard cartons - remember the days when things were simple?

Could we all email Tesco and ask them to change their milk back to the cardboard cartons and complain about this design flaw? If many of us do it, it'll make them think instead of fobbing us off!

I noticed that on the side of the carton it says 'place in suitable container before freezing'. What nonsense!

CrazyChemist_2

This happened to me a couple of weeks ago but I thought nothing of it till I saw this post! I thought it was a one off so I didn't take it back to tesco. I will now. I don't care if it's a few weeks on but if it's their fault for being so damn incompetent then I'm definitely going to get a refund.

I'll definitely email them about it and ask them to get back to the good old cardboard cartons... ah fond memories eh?

ManAtHome

Water expands when you freeze it - I suspect milk will be similar. Bit tricky unless you have a bit of 'give' in the container.

Basil_Fawlty

Exactly - I'd expect them to allow for that instead of blaming us for freezing it in the first place. :mad:

Outtathaway

spaceage wrote:

I noticed that on the side of the carton it says 'place in suitable container before freezing'. What nonsense!

Well if it says not to freeze in the carton then its not their fault that you didn't listen to what is written

Basil_Fawlty

I don't know what planet you're living on but freezing milk in the container supplied is the only way to ensure it doesn't go sour the moment you defrost it. If you take it out of it's container you then have to consume within 3 days, for good reason too. :rolleyes:

peter_the_piper

The 6 pint containers from Sainsburys of semi-skimmed freezes ok without decanting any but the 4 pint ones always leak so M.I.L always takes off the top inch from each one. Providing you freeze then straight away there is minimal/no risk. She always tells us not to freeze whole milk as the cream does not always mix back again.

us,thecat&thedebt

i think ill start using the milk man lol

y cant tesco put them into proper contanier thats sutible :mad:

hawkwinddotcom

us,thecat&thedebt wrote:

y cant tesco put them into proper contanier thats sutible :mad:

Why can't you just follow the instructions that its not suitable?

They have warned you !!!!!!! :rolleyes:

IvanOpinion

Tescos have said not to freeze in the original packaging, OP has a problem with opening the carton ... I ask why do you freeze milk - its not exactly in short supply. I know a friend of mine freezes it in ice cube bags then she only has to break off a few but to me it seems an awful lot of trouble

The bottom line is that Tesco have made the instructions clear - you have a choice ... put in a new container (which has problems), freeze in original packaging (which has problems) or don;t freeze (which may have problems). Maybe they should supply it in both containers then those that need to freeze it can pay extra for the better container.

Ivan

Jazzycat

just thought I would add that plastic milk cartons are not vacuum sealed when supplied - freezing in an alternative carton will make absolutely no difference to the life of the milk. Therefore opening the cartons to decant will make no difference to the life of the milk.

Maybe we could ask tesco to make all their liquid containers bigger than the fluid volume so we could freeze the contents in its original container. I'm sure we would all be very happy to pay 5p more for the extra packaging and distribution costs - where do I sign???