Freeze-Drying Breastmilk
When Teddy was on a bottle strike, I had a lot of milk that was set to expire soon, and I didn’t want to lose any of that hard-earned milk. This was milk I had expressed from his first days and weeks that I didn’t want to go to waste.
For all you pumping mamas, you know that pumped milk is a precious commodity!
I did a lot of research and asked a lot of questions before choosing to freeze-dry it!
The information I give will be based on my knowledge and experience working with Booby Food, a Canada-based company. I spoke directly with the owner of the company, Janna, about their process and even had her answer some of your questions. Other companies may do things differently, so you may want to reach out to the company you’re considering with any of your own questions.
If this is something you’re interested in trying, I want to give you as much information about it that I can!
Let’s get started!
how does freeze-drying work?
Freeze-drying breast milk is not a new concept! It is recently a more well-known thing to do, but there’s evidence that this practice actually dates back to the 50s.
Through a process called sublimation, freeze-drying turns breast milk into powder by removing the water. This process uses low temperatures for longer to ensure the nutrients in the milk are protected. If done too fast (like dehydrating) the nutrients would not survive.
At Booby Food, here is their freeze-drying process:
Deep freeze: Milk gets put into a chamber where the temps drop below -40 degrees Fahrenheit.
Pressure drop: Air inside the chamber is removed via a pump, which drops the pressure to create a vacuum. The low pressure turns the solid to gas. The vacuum pumps out the water particles.
Drying: “Cycles of warmer and cooler air cause ice crystals inside the frozen breastmilk to vaporize (without thawing the breast milk) leaving behind your nutrient dense, superfood breastmilk powder, a.k.a. Booby Food!”
Package: Booby Food’s packaging is resealable bags that protect against air, light, oxygen, and moisture. Booby Food puts on your individual package the exact reconstitution ratio.
Triple clean, disinfect, & sanitize
Again, if you chose to go with a different company, you may want to check their website or reach out to learn their process.
It is strongly recommended not to try this at home. Doing the process incorrectly is going to compromise the milk’s nutrients.
“should I try it?”
I absolutely LOVE our freeze-dried milk! I can easily sprinkle it onto Teddy’s food or simply add the correct water ratio to turn it back into my own liqui milk!
And the best part? It has a stable shelf life of about 3 years!
I wanted to try it because I wanted to know how the process worked, and I also had a lot of milk from those early breastfeeding days that I wanted to preserve.
Here are some reasons you may want to try it:
To preserve milk that is soon expiring (within that 10-12 month range)
For the convenience factor
It’s easy to travel with or throw into your diaper bag with a bottle - way easier than hauling a cooler around!
Can help with high lipase
Janna at Booby Food answered one of your questions about this! She said that freeze-drying doesn’t reduce the amount of lipase in the milk, but removing the water reduces the activity of the enzyme making the breast milk taste and smell much milder. She said that many mamas whose baby rejected milk at the breast because of high lipase tended to happily take the bottles of freeze-dried milk!
Can add some nutritional value to your child’s meals by sprinkling it in purees or on solid foods (we’ve done it on corn on the cob too!)
Great for surrogates or donor milk
Convenient if you need to ship milk across the country - no worry of it thawing or unfreezing
Huge space saver
Using Freeze Dried Milk In Bottle ⤵️
Usng freeze dried milk in food ⤵️
q&a
“How did you ensure it would stay your breast milk from start to finish?”
This was one of my biggest concerns and one thing I researched heavily before moving forward. At Booby Food specifically, they are “by appointment only.” This means that she is part of the process every single step of the way.
This also means that there is only one client’s breast milk at a time being handled in the chamber. They have an extremely detailed tracking system.
After each client, their chamber is cleaned, disinfected, and sanitized three times.
There are some companies who do not do one batch at a time, putting multiple clients’ milk in the chamber at the same time. This can become problematic in terms of cross-contamination, especially for babies who have food sensitivities or health concerns. Please ensure that the company you choose has safe practices in place.
This entire process also ensures that the nutrients are preserved, making it entirely safe for your little one!
“Were you nervous sending so much milk/work off and it not making it?”
Listen, I was so terrified about this! It hit me as I got to the FedEx office, and I started panicking! Janna at Booby Food was incredible. She messaged me every time she got a shipping update, even when it went through customs in Canada. It gave me so much ease!
If you use a different company, don’t be afraid to ask them about their process.
how much does it cost?
No matter what company you choose, it is going to be an investment. I don’t want to put any specific dollar amounts, because it is going to vary based on the company you choose as well as the quantity of milk that you have.
In my experience at Booby Food, they wait until they have your milk in hand before charging you. This way they know exactly how many ounces of milk there are! For example, you may think you send them 200 ounces, but as they start they see that there’s only 185 ounces all measured out (remember, using different bottles or measuring in bags can sometimes throw off a few measurements). They are very particular in measuring so that they can ensure proper ratios at the end too. They want to make sure they aren’t over or under charging you.
Again, you may want to check on how this part is done if you go with another company.
I hope this was helpful in choosing to try freeze-drying or not. Again, all of the information I have is based on my own personal experience, so some things may vary between different companies. Don’t hesitate to reach out to those places and ask as many questions as you need. It’s important that you feel safe and secure before sending your milk.
If you’d like to read the Huffington Post article on this topic you can find that here.
If you’d like to watch my highlight on this topic, click here.
Happy freeze-drying, Mamas!
Xoxo,
Kar
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