Pry This Breast-Milk Ice Cream From My Cold, Dead … Oh, OK, Have It

Published on Wednesday, March 2, 2011, by James Norton / Edit Post

It was too weird to last, apparently: The breast-milk ice cream enjoyed briefly by Londoners at the shop Icecreamists has been confiscated by local authorities on health grounds.

According to the BBC: "Westminster Council officers removed the product to make sure it was 'fit for human consumption.' Icecreamist founder Matt O'Connor said the donor was medically screened and the milk mixture was pasteurised."

This puts the Westminster Council in a long, fuddy-duddy tradition of buzzkilling and/or perfectly reasonable, health-defending food-haters, including:

* The Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections, which confiscated a cupcake truck.
* The BSE-squeamish feds who banned haggis (a.k.a.chieftain o' the pudding-race).
* And, of course, the legendary LAPD crackdown on the dreaded bacon-wrapped hot dogs.

Breaking news: Add iguana meat to the too-hot-for-our-taste-buds parade.

Image source: Flickr member Critical Moss under Creative Commons

ALLFood Media
POST A COMMENT |18 Comments

COMMENT

  • Um, regular milk is breastmilk from cows. I don't get the squeamishness...

  • So I get WHY they confiscated it, but it does seem (at least from this article) that the donor went through proper checks to prevent contamination of the milk with communicable diseases. Other things like anti-biotics and medications, drugs and alcohol can all be transmitted through breast milk but I am sure they wouldn't have used milk containing these elements.

    Being a breastfeeding mom...+READ

    So I get WHY they confiscated it, but it does seem (at least from this article) that the donor went through proper checks to prevent contamination of the milk with communicable diseases. Other things like anti-biotics and medications, drugs and alcohol can all be transmitted through breast milk but I am sure they wouldn't have used milk containing these elements.

    Being a breastfeeding mom myself I don't think there is anything wrong with breast milk ice cream if the milk is clean. Human milk is the most easily digested food for humans, contains a plethora of antioxidants and antibodies not to mention perfectly balanced fats, carbs, proteins and vitamins and minerals for ultimate absorption. Plus, my husband and I think it tastes like sweet skim-milk so its not like the flavor is bad.

    I think the big problem here is just that people relate breast milk with sex or even sexual fluids which is really silly. I suppose that's why Anthony spit out the breast milk cappuccino. Because it was a STRANGER's breast milk.

    As to the chef, you make a valid point. And I personally would rather eat food from your truck than from random people who have no food handler's permits or licensing, and thus can be assumed no education in food safety.-COLLAPSE

  • Human milk is for humans but we consider it to be for human infants and are squeamish about consuming it past babyhood

  • We can still eat cute animals, right? At least we can still do that.

  • "crackdown on the dreaded bacon-wrapped hot dogs." "confiscated a cupcake truck."... it's misleading to put these things in the same category as this idiotic 'breast milk isn't fit for human consumption' BS.

    The cupcake lady got shut down because she didn't have a permit to sell where she was. The hot dog vendors got shut down because they didn't permits to sell anything at all. They were just...+READ

    "crackdown on the dreaded bacon-wrapped hot dogs." "confiscated a cupcake truck."... it's misleading to put these things in the same category as this idiotic 'breast milk isn't fit for human consumption' BS.

    The cupcake lady got shut down because she didn't have a permit to sell where she was. The hot dog vendors got shut down because they didn't permits to sell anything at all. They were just people that put tables up and started selling them like a lemonade stand... but lemonade can't give you listeria monocytogenes. They didn't get shut down because they were selling bacon wrapped hot dogs, they got shut down because they were selling food, it could have been dry salad, without complying to *any* local health and licensing regulations.

    As a restaurant chef that's seriously considering going into mobile food sales, the idea that there are people out there that might be competing with me that haven't jumped through the fairly rigorous licensing and equipment hoops that licensed vendors have to is completely unfair. If you don't enforce your health and safety regulations, why bother to have them?-COLLAPSE

  • It does bring out our flawed way of looking at food, thinking that human milk wouldn't be fit for humans. Then it is also weird to picture a modern day dairy with women instead of cows.

  • My mistake. Can't wait until there's a dolphin-milk ice cream place in my town.

  • Guilty: Dolphins are mammals, therefore they lactate.

  • Guilty's ice cream shop sounds like a magnet for kids who dare each other to eat a worm. Raccoon Milk Jamoca Almond Fudge? Dolphin Milk Tahitian Vanilla With Sea Salt? Bat Milk Mousse with Mouse? Just think of the possibilities.

  • ret3: Give me a break. Dolphins don't lactate.

  • This give me an idea for an interesting ice-cream shop concept: just plain (not vanilla!) ice cream, made from various milk sources. Corn- and grass- fed cows of different varieties, goats and sheep of different species, cat, bat, dolphin, dog, koala bear and hog, etc., and yes, humans, too, perhaps from different regions or dietary regimes (mmm, Upper midwestern ovo-lacto-vegetarian! My...+READ

    This give me an idea for an interesting ice-cream shop concept: just plain (not vanilla!) ice cream, made from various milk sources. Corn- and grass- fed cows of different varieties, goats and sheep of different species, cat, bat, dolphin, dog, koala bear and hog, etc., and yes, humans, too, perhaps from different regions or dietary regimes (mmm, Upper midwestern ovo-lacto-vegetarian! My favorite!)-COLLAPSE

  • She was health screened.

  • Three letters for you people who don't seem to get it. HIV.

  • Human milk is for humans. Did we forget that somewhere along the way? Cow milk is for calves, wolf milk is for wolf pups...on and on and on. I saw Gordon Ramsey drink "exotic" camel milk brought to England from France and he thought it was great. Then when he was offered a breast milk cappuccino, he spit it out. Drinking camel milk makes my skin crawl, Vorpal. And a close second is a glass of any...+READ

    Human milk is for humans. Did we forget that somewhere along the way? Cow milk is for calves, wolf milk is for wolf pups...on and on and on. I saw Gordon Ramsey drink "exotic" camel milk brought to England from France and he thought it was great. Then when he was offered a breast milk cappuccino, he spit it out. Drinking camel milk makes my skin crawl, Vorpal. And a close second is a glass of any other animal's milk.-COLLAPSE

  • Agree with ThinksWithHisStomach. The very idea that human breast milk is not fit for human consumption is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.

    Personally, I don't think I'd want to try it and the idea makes my skin crawl a little, but to each his or her own.

  • Totally disgusting but it should not be illegal ... there is no law against being seriously disturbed.

  • I just saw this on the news this past weekend. Definitely an interesting concept!

  • How can human breast milk not be fit for human consumption?