The average milk consumption in the US for the year 2019 came out to 141 pounds per person, no small amount considering the 328 million citizens located herein. This dairy product is delicious and nutritious, but it can get pricey, especially brand names.
Keeping prices low is an area in which Aldi excels, and their cow milk varieties are no different. But you may be wondering where does Aldi milk come from exactly? The answer might surprise you.
Where Does Aldi Milk Come From?
Aldi milk comes from the same U.S. dairy farms, located all over the country, from which name brand milk is sourced. Aldi buy the milk wholesale, have it put in their own private label packaging, Friendly Farms, and have it distributed to their store locations.
Keep reading to find out more about how to find out where your milk in the fridge came from, if there is any discrepancy between Aldi milk and name brand milk and Aldi’s ethical sourcing practices!
How Can I Find Out Exactly Where My Aldi Milk Was Sourced?
Believe it or not, you can actually search on the Internet for the exact plant where your milk — yes, the gallon sitting in your fridge — was processed.
Visit WhereIsMyMilkFrom.com, enter your milk’s code number, found near the expiration date, and boom — results, including the location of the plant and all the products the plant processes. (It does not tell you what brands it services, however.)
One internet reviewer who was investigating the differences between Aldi milk and name-brand milk tried this website and found that both milk gallons were from the exact same dairy farm (just processed at different plants).
It’s no surprise, then, that Aldi’s Friendly Farms milk has the Real Seal stamp of approval, which designates it as a high-quality U.S.-sourced product.
Is Aldi Milk As Good As Name-Brand Milk?
Aldi milk is just as good as brand-name milk because they are exactly the same thing! No different proprietary cows or farms, just different labels and packaging. It is not “B-grade” or lesser quality milk.
Aldi’s Friendly Farms brand gets its milk from the exact same farms and processing plants as other name brands. The company instead has vastly different cost-cutting business models that allows Aldi to sell their milk for much cheaper.
How Is Aldi Milk So Much Cheaper?
Aldi execs don’t necessarily have better negotiating chops than any of their competitors.
Instead, the cost of milk, and Aldi’s many other products, is so low because the stores are run on a high-efficiency model that enables the company to pass savings down to consumers.
Some of these practices include smaller stores, fewer employees, no fancy store displays, limited hours of operation, no “extra fills” services like check cashing, a cart return deposit system and even their bag-your-own groceries policy.
Is Aldi Milk Ethically Sourced?
Aldi claims on its website that “Our milk suppliers guarantee that our milk is hormone/rBST-free [recombinant bovine somatotropin].”
That means the cows are not treated with growth hormones, which have been linked in some cases to higher breast cancer rates in women and prostate cancer rates in men, as well as udder infections in the cows themselves.
No hormones means fewer infections, which also means fewer instances of antibiotics administered to the cows.
Aldi has indeed ramped up its ethical sourcing responsibilities in recent years, with efforts like aiming to go 100 percent cage-free for their eggs by 2025.
They have also released a detailed Animal Welfare Policy, stipulating the humane conditions under which they require a source’s animals to be treated (in line with the World Organisation for Animal Health) in order for them to obtain products from that company.
They very clearly state, “We will not tolerate animal abuse or neglect in our supply chain.”
For more information on where Aldi sources its products, you can see our related posts on who makes Aldi chicken, where Aldi beef comes from, if Aldi beef is any good, and who makes Aldi products.
Conclusion: Where Does Aldi Milk Come From?
Aldi milk comes from the exact same dairy farms as other name brand milk products.
This pleasant surprise means that you can save money on a popular fridge staple, while still enjoying an ethically sourced, American-produced beverage that comes with Aldi’s Twice as Nice Guarantee.
