No you will not die.
Many things go on with commercial milk,
1) It’s put in a bulk tank with milk from many cows. That bulk tank is put into a tanker with milk from other farms and transported to a dairy where it is mixed with milk from other tankers.
So your pint of milk does not come from one cow.
2) Milk is pasteurised (heated to a high temperature for a short period to kill bacteria and stop it going off during the process above, This is why they can do the process above and sell milk with a shelf-life of several weeks. Pasteurisation affects the flavour through a mass of chemical reactions (maynards, caramelisation etc). This is not a bad thing but not necessary if you get milk straight from a good farm which cares about your raw milk.
3) Milk fat is taken for things like yoghurt making, cheese and other stuff. This affects the flavour because most of the flavour is in the fat.
4) The milk is homegenised. This is where it is forced through a very small gap to break up the fat globules. This affects the flavour because most of the flavour is in the fat. This is also why milk no longer has a head of fat when it sits (see #3) and also why it has a shelf-life of several weeks. Also has a massive impact on getting a decent head on a cappucino.
Many things affect the flavour:
– the species (goat versus sheep versus cow versus human -not just the fat but the casein (milk protein and other things too.)
– time of year (mainly due to diet)
– phase of lactation (but you rarely drink milk from one animal. Kangaroos are fascinating in this regard)
– how it’s been treated.
None of the above will have much affect on lactose levels but may affect if you can drink milk if you have an allergic intolerance.
What was the question?
