According to a Virginia-based study, the taste of milk is affected by exposure to certain light. The study found that riboflavin, a key nutrient in milk, oxidizes when exposed to fluorescent light, reducing nutritional content besides making the taste go "stale." The researchers have suggested the use of light-blocking pigments in milk packaging to avoid a change in taste.

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According to the researchers, people have described milk exposed to conventional fluorescent lights as "cardboard," "stale," and "painty" as opposed to the sweet and rich "milk fresh from dairy" it is supposed to have.

LED lights have replaced fluorescent lights in many countries to reduce energy consumption. This new study might help to discover a way to keep the taste of milk intact without making many expensive changes, Phys reported.

"We want to help figure out ways to return to the fresh taste of milk that our grandparents experienced when it came straight from the dairy," said Susan Duncan, a professor of food science and technology in the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Duncan, who is also the associate director of the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station and an affiliated researcher with the Fralin Life Sciences Institute, wants to find ways to preserve both the delicacy and nutrition of milk, the consumption of which has been decreasing for several decades.

Besides the effect that light has on milk, Duncan's tests show that when milk is stored in the traditional translucent plastic jugs, oxidation of riboflavin can take place in as little as two hours. Opaque milk packaging that protects riboflavin and other nutrients from lighting helps to deliver that fresh, sweet and rich taste.

"The research that is being done around this new lighting gives us momentum to explore other ways that we can preserve the natural taste of milk," Duncan said.