Is Milk Local?
Dairy milk remains a consistently local food.
Short answer: Yes.
Longer answer: Yes. Even as food supply chains have become longer and more complicated, the majority of milk and dairy products in our region are sourced from the over 1000 family farms in New England or neighboring farms in Eastern New York.
While some dairy farms in our region bottle and sell their own milk directly, the majority of family farms belong to a co-op and have their milk picked up daily or every other day and it’s sent to a nearby processor. There, it is pooled together with milk from other dairy farms in the region and is pasteurized. The milk is then packaged and distributed for stores, schools, and other businesses as fluid milk or is turned into other dairy products we love like cheese, butter, ice cream, and yogurt.
From Farm to You
If just being pasteurized and packaged as fluid milk, the whole process from farm to store occurs in just about 48 hours. Talk about farm fresh!
How can I tell if the milk or dairy product I purchased from a grocery store was processed in New England, New York, or in my specific state?
Each container of milk is identified by a 5-digit code. The code includes a 2-digit state code followed by a 3-digit processing plant code.
Visit www.whereismymilkfrom.com and enter your code. You can also find this code on other dairy products like yogurt, coffee creamer, cottage cheese, ice cream, and more.
2-Digit Codes for States in the Northeast:
| New England | Code |
| Connecticut | 09 |
| Massachusetts | 25 |
| New Hampshire | 33 |
| Vermont | 50 |
| Rhode Island | 44 |
| Maine | 23 |
| Other States | Code |
| New York | 36 |
| Pennsylvania | 42 |
| New Jersey | 34 |