UHT milk is hugely helpful to keep in your home – it has an incredibly long shelf life, and can be a valuable item for cooking, drinking, or adding to hot drinks. Unfortunately, once opened, that shelf life drops drastically, so how should you store it?
Can You Freeze UHT Milk?
Yes, you can freeze UHT milk for up to 3 months. Â Decant the milk into a freezer-safe container up to four-fifths full. This will allow the milk to expand as it freezes without damaging the container. Place the container against the wall of your freezer, and close it.
Does UHT Milk Freeze Well? Yes
Can You Refreeze UHT Milk? Yes
How to Freeze UHT Milk
Before freezing the UHT milk that you’re working with, reconsider whether you actually need to freeze it. At a very basic level, the concept of UHT milk is that it can be almost entirely shelf-stable, allowing you to store it at room temperature for quite a long time.
Provided the container is still sealed, and you’re a long way off the use-by date, then you can keep the milk at room temperature, rather than waste time and effort freezing it.
If you’d still like to freeze it, then you can, of course:
- Find Containers: The first step is to calculate the rough size of the container that you’ll need to use. Measure how much milk you have, divide that number by four, and then multiply the result by five. This will give you the minimum size that the container for your UHT milk must be before you place it into the freezer.
- Portion Out Milk: Decant the milk into the container you’re using, and seal the container.
- Freeze: Next, place the container into the freezer, ideally against the wall of the freezer. It’s also wise to avoid placing the container where the liquid within is pressed against any seam – that would lead to the liquid slowly leaking out of the container, leading to a mess in your freezer.
3 Tips for Freezing UHT Milk
Now you know how to freeze it, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing UHT milk to have the best results:
Ensure a Tight Seal
Ensuring that the container is sealed is vital to make sure that your milk doesn’t spill out into the freezer, as that would lead to a spillage taking place, which is not just unhygienic but is very difficult to truly clean.Â
Beware of Freezer Smells
Milk, and other liquids can act as a sponge for different gases and aromas in your freezer. It’s unwise to freeze milk in a freezer with, for example, smoked fish – that would lead to the fishy smell becoming embedded in the milk, leading to an exceptionally poor final taste.Â
Use the Milk as a Buffer
Using the milk as a buffer against freezer burn is a great idea since it will allow you to slow the approach of frost through your freezer, leading to any solid food in your freezer staying un-burned for a lot longer.Â
How Long Can You Freeze UHT Milk?
You can freeze UHT milk for up to three months, which is the rough limit for freezing most dairy food items. Beyond this, it should be safe to consume but it will change it texture more drastically.
Although UHT milk can last for months in the cupboard, once opened it must be popped into the fridge where it will last for around 7 days.
How Do You Defrost UHT Milk?
The simplest way to defrost UHT milk is to allow it to revert to a liquid in your fridge – that will thaw the milk while keeping it at a safe temperature, allowing you to drink it without worry.
We would not advise thawing UHT milk on the worktop at room temperate. This is when bacteria can take hold.
Can You Refreeze UHT Milk?
Yes, you can refreeze UHT milk as many times as you like. As the smooth liquid won’t succumb to freezer burn, there’s no noticeable degradation from repeated freezing.
The only risk is that the more you freeze it, the greater the chance that it’ll absorb some funky freezer odours.
Does UHT Milk Freeze Well?
Yes, UHT milk does freeze well. Since it’s a liquid, there’s no degradation in texture. Sometimes, it can absorb freezer aromas, though this is quite rare.
Providing that you thaw it slowly, you’ll struggle to tell the difference between UHT milk straight from the carton versus UHT from the freezer.
Related FAQs
If you’ve still got questions about freezing UHT milk or UHT milk in general, then these may help:
Yes, boxed milk can be frozen but it can be a good idea to decant it from the box and store it in a more suitable container. A box might not have room for expansion which can lead to the carton splitting.
We would advise against freezing UHT in plastic pots. You’ll find that they are very fragile and, before you know it, you’ve got milk pouring through your freezer. 
