Walmart Shoppers Are Finding Out Great Value Milk Often Goes Bad Before Expiration Date: ‘I Would...’

Bad milk can ruin a cup of coffee, a bowl of cereal, a blueberry smoothie, a mood, a day, and just about everything. In the past decade, there has been a barrage of complaints that have exploded online from customers who bought Walmart’s Great Value milk. In most of these cases, people shared that the milk went bad way before the expiration date printed on the product packaging.

“I purchased this milk on July 13th, 2024. It went straight into my refrigerator. It had an expiration date of July 30th, 2024. I opened it for the first time on July 25th, 2024. It was spoiled. I am not sure I trust Walmart delivery to deliver perishable goods anymore. Either the expiration date was wrong, or the milk had been unrefrigerated too long before it got to me. Spoiled 5 days before the stamped expiration date? That's not right,” a customer named Elizabeth wrote in a review on Walmart’s website. In another review, an anonymous customer said, “This was the third time I received milk where the expiration date was only 2 days away and the milk was already sour.” A customer named Timothy said, “I don't know what Walmart does to their milk, but it hardly ever lasts to the stated expiration date.”

In an interview with NewsChannel 15, a customer named Cynthia Flanagan shared that when she tried to pour her most recent carton over her cereal that clumpy expired milk came out, 5 days before the expiration date. At that time, in 2018, a Walmart spokesperson told the outlet, “We take this claim seriously and are looking into it as part of our ongoing quality control tests to ensure milk is good through its expiration date.” However, it seems little has changed since then. Even though years have passed, the cesspool of complaints hasn’t ceased to flood the online platforms.

In a September 2020 Facebook post, a woman named Jennifer Foster shared that she had been experiencing the same “souring milk” problem since the start of the pandemic. “I have to throw out at least one gallon of milk a month,” she wrote. Samantha Edwards recently shared, “I keep having that issue with Walmart’s milk… Never makes it to the expiration date.” On Instagram, Steve Salmasian wrote, "I would rather drink milk from a cow. I’m tired of Walmart’s great value milk expiring before the date. This is the last one I’ll ever buy."

In another recent post, Reddit user u/Calcading brought the same issue to attention. “Walmart Great Value milk going bad before expiration date,” they wrote in the post caption. Some people pointed to the latest “No testing policy” that the FDA rolled out for milk and dairy products. However, since the policy was issued only recently, this assumption can be ruled out. Many people penned memes and jokes on the prevalent issue. “What a Great Value,” wrote u/CptSoban. u/Rurumo666 wisecracked, “Perfect for MAGA, the milk of human suffering.”

Others reflected on the problem from a scientific perspective. “Milk going off is purely a function of the temperature at which it is stored. Nothing else really matters,” wrote u/BannedForEternity42. Mel Science explains that factors like temperature can cause the bacteria lingering in the air to convert lactose into lactic acid. This increasing acidity causes the milk proteins to fold and the milky liquid to separate into whey and a viscous, clumpy mass, often called curds. Typically, curd or cheese is made by squeezing a lemon or adding curd into the milk. But when the milk left untouched turns sour, it is regarded as spoiled.