Milk bottle top

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A Christmas-themed foil milk bottle top from the United Kingdom. Note the red and white stripes indicating semi-skimmed milk and the use by date pressed into the foil.

A milk bottle top is a lid to a milk bottle. Unlike the lids to most other food and drink containers, milk bottle tops are systematically colour-coded to signify to the consumer different varieties of milk. This colour coding tends to vary between, but is usually consistent within, each country.

[edit] Countries

[edit] New Zealand

• Purple top - full fat milk
• Blue dark top - standard fat milk
• Blue light top - "lite"(light fat) milk
• Green dark top - trim (semi skimmed) milk
• Green light top - (e)xrta trim (fully skimmed) milk
• Yellow top - calci trim (fully skimmed with added calcium) milk
• Red top - cream in a 1L or 2L milk bottle

[edit] United Kingdom

See^[1]

A purple-top milk carton

[edit] Plastic bottles

• Blue tops (whole/full fat) indicate the highest fat content, 3.25%
• Green (semi skimmed) indicates fat content around 1.8%
• Red (skimmed) means minimal fat, typically 0.1%

and much less commonly,

• Purple (partially skimmed) or orange at Sainsbury's indicates 1% fat content.
• Gold (Channel Island milk) indicates around 5.5% fat content.

[edit] Glass bottles

See also^[2]

• Silver foil inidicates whole milk.
• Red striped foil inidicates semi skimmed milk.
• Blue hatched foil on a silver background indicates skimmed milk.

[edit] United States

• Red tops indicate whole milk.
• Pink or light blue tops indicate skim milk.
• Blue tops indicate 2% milk.
• Yellow or purple tops indicate 1% milk.
• Brown tops indicate chocolate milk.
• Green tops indicate buttermilk.

[edit] Benefits

The colour-coding of milk bottle tops helps consumer quickly choose the product that is right for him or her without having to scrutinise the labels. It also encourages consistency in the product across regions.

[edit] Criticisms

Critics assert that placing such an emphasis on fat content diminishes the perceived importance of other qualities of manufactured milk, like the addition of vitamins and homogenising chemicals, whether it was organically produced, and the welfare of the animals farmed for it.

[edit] References