shelf life

"No need to refrigerate the milk, Ma'am!"
Excuse me?

Yes! The milk and cream here are UHT, processed with ultra-high heat
for short periods of time, sterilizing them by killing the spores.
The products below are some I bought yesterday,
and their expiration date is February 2010.

UHT products are widely used to avoid the high costs of refrigeration.
Here are shelves of it in a local grocery store.

This milk has a shelf-life of 6-9 months (before being opened)
which is especially handy since refrigerators
are often very small!