Repeating the errors of the past: the hazards of a commercial human milk industry

Abstract

Recent years have seen the emergence of several for-profit human milk companies around the world. These pay lactating women for milk, which they process and sell as a variety of products. Typical payments are around £3/100 ml; typical prices are around £15 per 100 ml for a basic human milk feed rising to £100–£220 for fortifier sufficient for 100 ml of human milk. The rise of a commercial human milk industry raises medical practice, health services, patient safety, and ethical concerns, and may prove as hazardous to infant wellbeing as the formula milk industry.

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