Researchers Find LED Lights Improve Taste Of Milk

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BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) - Virginia Tech researchers have found that the type of lighting used in retail display cases can affect the taste of milk.

Susan Duncan is a professor of food science and technology in the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She conducted tests that showed consumers preferred milk stored under LED lights over milk that's has been exposed to fluorescent lighting.

The university said in a statement that riboflavin, a nutrient in milk, oxidizes when exposed to fluorescent lights, which changes the taste and reduces the nutritional content.

Duncan's tests show that when milk is stored in the traditional translucent plastic jugs, those reactions can take place in as little as two hours.

Consumers described the taste of fluorescent-exposed milk as "cardboard," ''stale" and "painty."

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