Hoping to generate some discussion! A few months ago I had several moms contact me about the safety of freeze-drying breastmilk.  Of course, these questions are in response to a viral post from a mother on Facebook that is doing this at home.  I promised to do some research for them which included asking the LACTNET community!
 
Facebook post: "Rita talked me into freeze drying it and making powder. I now have shelf stable breast milk that is just like formula! It’s awesome for the diaper bag and on the go! Another cool thing is the fact that it doesn’t lose any nutritional value! Bottles up!   Update. Definitely wasn’t expecting this to circulate so much! The ziplocks were just to transport the milk from my sisters house to mine about 30 minutes away. It is now stored in a mason jar with oxygen absorbers. We weighed the milk before it was frozen to know how much water to add back in. I’ve also got a lot of questions regarding the type of machine that was used. My sister owns the Harvest Right freeze dryer."

My first thought is that, if this was a feasible idea, commercial companies would have already pounced!  Second thought was that HMBANA would be endorsing the process. Don't believe either of these are happening at this time.  Maybe I'm wrong.

In my search so far I have found articles from 1924 (!) to 2016!  One mentions that the process is prohibitivlely expensive (one of my moms found a home freeze-dryer at the bargain price of around $2,000!) and a related 3 year research project going on in Mexico.  I did find one quote from HMBANA in a news article that said they were not aware of a researched safe process but was "an interesting concept" that needed more research.  I have found articles that discuss what is lost and what is protected in freeze-drying. I found a reference to research in Spain that essentially says it's way better than pasteurization but can't access the original article they cite (Jaime Salcedo et al. Human Milk Bactericidal Properties, Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition (2015)).  

Anyone else getting these questions from moms?  Thoughts? 

Holly Prescott RN BSN IBCLC 
Southeast, USA

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