I just had a bowl of cereal with Woolworths Soy Milk and I am convinced it is UHT Cows Milk, same taste, same stomach pains. Woolworths please confirm this product is actually Soy Milk, I will be posting test results.
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It is a very unusual circumstance, and concerning if what you suspect has occurred.
Have you contacted Woolworths with your complaint?
What has been Woolies response? Did you take the product back with your complaint?
Soy milk products are produced in a very different process from long life cows milk. How would cows milk get into a soy milk processing line? Certainly Woolies would know more concerning their soy product supplier and factory processes to offer an explanation if it is at all possible.
P.S. there will be a product bar code and also some form of batch/date numbering on the packaging. Is it possible to share those details? For the possible benefit of others who read this topic and use the same product. They may or may not have a similar experience.
Assume this is the product.
Hi @Ash001, welcome to the community.
Have you send the soy milk to an independent testing laboratory to check what the contents are? If you have, it will be interesting to see what they are when they are received.
It wonât as they will be produced at two completely separate factories/processing plants (if it was the same plant, potential milk allergen would appear on the soy milk packaging and soy on milk packaging). The only way for it to occur is the wrong packaging is send to the milk processing plant, but this is also impossible as the milk processor would be sourcing the milk packaging. They would need to get the soy labelling design from Woolworths, then organise the soy packaging production and then use it in their UHT plant. Something that wouldnât happen.
It is possible that the same manufacturer makes the soy and milk UHT packaging and dispatched the wrong packaging to wrong UHT processing plant. While possible, extremely unlikely as it assumes no one noticed the wrong packaging all the way to the supermarket shelves and there would be 1000s of reports of incorrect packaging resulting in a nationwide recall. Neither seem to have occurred. If it does, then consumers will know there has been a massive mix-up.
What is likely is the company making soy milk under Woolworths brand uses a significantly different recipe (soy milk is a mixture of ingredients which can be altered or different ones used as there isnât a standard to what soy milk is) or source of ingredients to other brands, making the soy milk to taste significantly difference. This difference creates confusion and one tries to find reason to why it doesnât taste the same.
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Most likely is as you suggest, however!
Store brand products are sometimes produced by company ABCD and supplied in bulk to a third party nominated by the store brand for final packaging. The company doing the final packaging may be processing a number of different lines for Woolies, Coles etc. A single production line may be used for filling a cardboard pack with a liquid product, be it OJ, Soy Milk, UHT milk etc. There are food standards requirements for regular cleaning and sterilisation of the equipment on the line, especially any in contact with the product. If this arrangement is in place, it may not be necessary to warn of potential cross contamination.
I can only refer back to my prior comments that Woolies are in the best position to respond to any concerns.
There is a reporting mechanism in place for reporting issues or concerns with contamination of food products, state by state which consumers can also follow.
âFood complaints
The relevant links for reporting.
Food enforcement contacts
While that may be correct for some products, it is highly unlikely for milk. Milk production will occur at the milk processing plan under contract for Woolworths. In the past this has been in Freedom Foods in their milk processing UHT plant at Shepparton, and not sure if they have the current UHT contract. It is highly inefficient to move products like milk (heavy liquids) around the country to a special storebrand processing plant. It also increases the risk of contamination (esp. microbiological).
At the time Freedom Foods had the Woolworths UHT milk contract, they also had Woolworths non-milk UHT products. These products came from their Sydney based UHT operation, a complete separate operation in a different state.
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I thought it unwise to rule anything out until there is some further information available from Woolworths or the supplier first hand.
Or perhaps there will be some further responses or advice provided by @Ash001. The explanation of what is believed to have occurred may be as most would expect, or due to an unexpected event, no matter how unlikely?
P.S.
Odd things do happen,
EG Asahi beer bottle with âAsahi Super Dryâ black cap full strength beer on a bottle labelled as lower alcohol and carb âSoukaiâ. The contents could be either. If the paper labelling the last detail to be applied, hopefully the batch code confirms itâs not full strength. A guess is the black cap was inadvertently mixed up with those for the lower strength Soukai. Quite possible given it has been made in Australia by non Japanese hands some could suggest. Or has some prankster at the brewer been slipping full strength bottles from the other product into the line? One could say very unlikely, but not impossible. Taste test required to resolve.
It may well be just the taste of the product and my stomach issues straight after, a mere coincidence However,if this product is100% soy (which of course, it may well be)Woolworths have nailed it in terms of managing to get Soy Milk to taste like UHT milk. And further I would then continue to buy this productâŠ
Yes, itâs possible.
Looking to the product label in addition to Soy Protein (4%), it contains canola oil, other plant derived products, added vitamins, plus natural flavours including salt. Assume other promoted Soy milk products have similar formulations. Perhaps the flavour likeness is in the balance of ingredients and selected flavours?
P.S.
The sodium content is relatively high and worth considering given 2000mg is the recommended daily maximum intake for adults.
No soy milk is 100% soy, unless they are made inky from whole soybeans and nothing else. Almost all mass produced soy milks, like the Woolworths UHT soy milk, are a highly processed milk substitute which have varying ingredients depending on the manufacturer and their interpretation of what soy milk is.
Beer is very different to UHT milk or soy milk. Beer can be produced under licence at any brewery. All they need is the same methods of production and same raw ingredients, and the final beer taste should be similar to the beer made in its original location. As Asahi Holdings own many breweries around the world, including in Australia, they can also use one of their other breweries to also produce any of their beers.
Many beer multinationals do this, an example is the Japanese company Lion which owns XXXX and many other breweries. If you live in Tassie, XXXX Gold is produced by their Boags Brewery in Launceston. Their breweries also produce some Japanese brands as well as it is more efficient to produce such beers locally, than send them around the world from Japan.
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Itâs a simple observation that no food packaging process is perfect. The cause may be obvious or due to intervention. That itâs a different product is irrelevant to observation.
Nothing is impossible, including strawberries being packaged with embedded needles. There were only a handful of proven examples from weeks of national production.
Whether there is some form of contamination with the Soy milk product. It may be unlikely in the example discussed, but is it impossible? Is it prudent to keep an open mind to the possibilities until there are further details one way or another?
How much do we really know about the origins, place of processing and packaging of any of these products? Rather than us in ignorance, attempt to answer those questions, is Woolworths the best source to make inquiry of?
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This is even more impossible. If one knows how a UHT plant works (I am fortunate to have seen one in operation), it will be obvious why placing cows milk into a number if containers within a soy milk UHT processing line is impossible.
The allegation of cows milk being used instead of soy milk was first raised 5 weeks ago in May 2022. As there would be many in the community who potentially have severe reactions/allergies to cows milk, by now Food Standards Australia, Woolworths and others would know that miraculously cows milk somehow appeared in their soy milk products. There would have been an immediate recall, just like the âneedlesâ example you raised.
As outlined above, most soy milk sold in Australia is a highly processed product and as there isnât a standard for what soy milk is, manufacturers can use their own discretion in formulating soy milk from a number of different ingredients. This is highlighted in the above postâs ingredient listingâŠ
Water, Soy Protein (4%), Maltodextrin (from Corn), Canola Oil, Sugar, Acidity Regulators (526, 332, 504), Emulsifier (450), Thickener (509), Stabilisers (460, 466), Natural Flavours, Vitamins (Vitamin B2, Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Vitamin B12)
Only 4% of soy milk is a soy based ingredient. The other 96% are ingredients selected by a manufacturer('s food technologist) to make what they think a consumer will enjoy as âsoy milkâ. Each manufacturer will have their own âsecretâ recipe to try and produce a soy milk they think is better and more likely purchased by a consumer.
As a result, soy milk from different manufacturers will have different taste depending on their own blend of selected ingredients. Store brand products taste can also change over time, as supermarkets go out to the market for supply of their store brand products. This means formulations change over time as different recipes or manufacturers are used.
With UHT products, often they donât contain preservatives and have a limited post-opening refrigerated shelf life. Taste can also change after opening when air (oxygen) comes into contact with the product or if not sealed well, volatile compounds from other food stuff within the refrigerator.
It is extremely unlikely the Woolworths Soy Milk has been substituted with cows milk for all the reasons outlined above. About the only one not discussed has been alchemy, which also fits into the impossible category.
It is also worth noting that soy milk is a cowâs milk substitute. Food technologist will be trying to as the best they can without using milk, replicate the taste of cowâs milkâŠjust like taste if meat iin plant based meat product substitutes. If Woolworths soy milk tastes somewhat similar to cowâs milk, the food technologists working for the company manufacturing soy milk for Woolworths may have hit the jackpot⊠meaning they may have a taste edge over other brands.
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As I first suggested @phb in responding to @Ash001
Iâm prepared to leave this for @Ash001 to provide any further details. There is no need for alchemy. There may be a genuine issue with the Soy product - sample of one, cause unknown. Itâs really about how Soy is processed, than dairy.
Iâm also willing to keep suggesting ways it might be that there are portions of cows milk proteins (or perhaps some other stray contaminant) finding their way into Soy products. Especially if any of the raw ingredients come in a powdered form from an OS supply. There is always a possibility. The baby formula tampering that has occurred in China is just another example of the unthinkable happening. Appreciate the wisdom of those who have been in a UHT production facility of late. Has anyone first hand experience of how Woolies Soy milk, current production batches, been produced?
I can also think of numerous other reasons those including I might have similar gastrointestinal problems. Constructively there are a variety of alternate milk substitute products, or even Zymil!
The one telling observation to date is there is no trend of increased complaints of an issue with Woolies soy milk products. At least in the public arena. There are also no public recalls to suggest Woolies or their supplier is aware of any potential issue.
Perhaps there is a bonus in their soy milk tasting like UHT milk. It may as @Ash001 previously suggested be a better outcome.
