Packaged Breast Milk

[Haunted Ghost]

Don't laugh. This is not a joke. This is a serious post.

I have access to a lot of poor young women in Southeast Asia. I was watching the Today Show this morning and one of the segments dealt with the subject of "outsourcing breast feeding". It turns out that here in the US there is a business that acts as a broker between mothers (who are either too busy to breastfeed their children or are incapable of producing milk) and women who allow other children to drink from their breasts. In an interview with Meredith Veira, the owner claimed that these women got paid $1,000 per week. Another guest has a business that actually packages pasteurized breast milk in liquid form.

I was thinking, since my source is half way around the world that I can't follow either of these two strategies. But I also know that cow's milk can be packaged and sold in powdered form. What steps can I take to make this business work? How can I market the powdered breast milk in industrial countries like the US or Canada?

The biggest obstacle is the perceived risk from the end-users' point of view. I mean, their babies' health are at stake.

The other obstacle, obviously, is the FDA. But this may not that big of an obstacle given that many bodybuilding supplements and new age supplements (ginko, creatine, etc.) aren't even FDA regulated.

So what do you think? Mid-way thru writing this post I even came to a conclusion that babies may not even be the ideal end user. Athletes and bodybuilders can surely use the protein.

This is a serious business post. I hope I get serious responses. Please do not troll.

[Ben_Grimm]

I have nothing useful to say really but I just wanted to say that I like that you're thinking outside of the box. Way outside it seems to me. It may be the best idea ever. I look forward to seeing some of the responses you get. Good luck.

[spider]

You need to figure out some of the science. For example, what is beneficial about fresh mother's milk and does it lose those characteristics if it's not fresh or if it's powdered? I would imagine a lot of the compounds that make fresh mother's milk healthy are lost when you dehydrate it -- as is the case with all sorts of things, like fresh fruit is much more nutritious than dried fruit. Maybe freeze it? That is the best way with fruits and vegetables.

Well, anyway, awesome question and good luck.

[spider]

Also, I'm sure you would need some sort of certification progam for the health of the mothers donating milk. It's generally easier to pass diseases from human to human than cow to human, for example. So it might be even more important for the women to be healthy than it is for cows.

[scott1]

"Not only does Marker do brisk business with human milk, but he's creating totally new markets for human breast cheese (Miss Cheese), human breast yogurt (YoGoGirls) and human breast ice cream (Bosomberry, Chunky Mammal)."

Quote from a somewhat relevant article.

First I'd heard of this was from a Craigslist ad that someone linked to. It was for a lactating woman offering her free rent in a house in San Francisco in return for the milk. The house was inhabited by a group that was interested in consuming the milk for health benefits.

In Europe pasturized (cow's) milk is sold in soft sided boxes in the non refrigerated sections of grocery stores. It's made non-preishable via a different pasteurization method, or something.

[AvivaSimplex]

This is fascinating.
http://jscms.jrn.columbia.edu/cns/20...eastmilkfetish

[ QUOTE ]
On radioball.net, the main Web site where women sell milk, some men ask for photos or promise large sums of money to mothers willing to nurse them.

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
Sarah Scott posted an ad online to sell her milk but got discouraged after getting eight e-mail messages from men in two days.

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
Amy Horton was willing to give away her milk free but said 10 men contacted her shortly after she posted her ad. One said he needed milk because he had a baby and his wife had just died. But when Horton asked for proof, the man declined to answer.

“The stories got kind of creative,” she said. “I just know that there are a lot of sick people out there.”

[/ QUOTE ]

Do I even want to know how you "have access to a lot of poor young women in Southeast Asia?"

[latefordinner]

I don't particularly have any problems with two (or more) people voluntarily deciding on a transaction where one person gets fulfillment of a fetish and other person gets money - whether it's buying someone's dirty underwear, renting a dominatrix to tie you up, or buying breast milk.

I seriously doubt that's the case for "poor young women in SE Asia" though.

Honestly though, if you are simply TOO BUSY to breastfeed your child, perhaps you are too busy to be a parent?

Even selling fresh breast milk is illegal in some US states, I'm almost positive the FDA would get interested if you were selling dehydrated breast milk from across the world. I would also imagine, that from a PR perspective, much of the perceived benefit of fresh human milk would be lost and I see no reason why someone would buy it over, say, formula.