It must have been a slow news day yesterday (though our federal member of parliament, Jack Layton, announced that he has prostate cancer—get well soon, Jack!). The front page of the Toronto Star had an article about a YouTube video regarding milk bags.
Like the woman in the video, I wasn’t aware that Americans (and Canadians west of Ontario) don’t drink milk out of bags. I grew up in Quebec and now live in Ontario, both of which offer milk in bags, in addition to cartons. So drinking milk from a bag has always been par for the course for me. “We’re on the last bag of milk!” is often heard in this house. Have a look:
Milk in bags?!?! That sounds weird.
Count me as an American that has only seen cardboard cartons or plastic jugs.
So it’s true, then!
I’ve never shopped for milk while in the US. If I had, maybe I would have noticed that it doesn’t come in bags.
It’s true. In the US milk comes either in waxed paper cartons or plastic jugs. Speaking as a “typical American”, I have to say, that seems really weird. Wouldn’t the milk go bad pretty quickly, as there’s no real seal to keep out air?
No, it doesn’t go bad quickly. It’s still in the fridge, after all.
We can also get milk in cartons. But since cartons contain 2L of milk and bags usually come in sets of threes and contain a total of 4L of milk, it’s more convenient to buy bags.