Human Milk Composition and Preservation: Evaluation of High-pressure Processing as a Nonthermal Pasteurization Technology

Abstract

Human milk is seen not only as a food, but as a functional and dynamic biologic system. It provides nutrients, bioactive components, and immune factors, promoting adequate and healthy growth of newborn infants. When mothers cannot supply their children, donated breast milk is the nutrition recommended by the World Health Organization, as it is a better alternative than infant formula. However, because of the manner in which donor milk is handled in human milk banks (HMB) many of the properties ascribed to mother's own milk are diminished or destroyed. The major process responsible for these losses is Holder pasteurization. High-pressure processing (HPP) is a novel nonthermal pasteurization technology that is being increasingly applied in food industries worldwide, primarily as an alternative to thermal treatment. This is due to its capacity to inactivate microorganisms while preserving both nutritional and bioactive components of foods. This review describes human milk composition and preservation, and critically discusses HMB importance and practices, highlighting HPP as a potential nonthermal pasteurization technology for human milk preservation. HPP technology is described and the few currently existing studies of its effects in human milk are presented.

Effect of high pressure and heat treatments on IgA immunoreactivity and lysozyme activity in human milk

“…Furthermore, some studies carried out to investigate the effect of high-pressure treatment of human milk on antibacterial proteins have shown that after treatment at 400 MPa up to 30 min, retention of immunoglobulins (IgA, IgG and IgM), lysozyme (15,(18)(19)(20) and lactoferrin [14] was higher than that obtained after applying a LTLT pasteurization treatment. These results lead to the idea of applying high-pressure treatment for pasteurization of human milk in order to preserve the content of bioactive proteins [21].…”

The Milky Way: paediatric milk-based dispersible tablets prepared by direct compression – a proof-of-concept study

“…They usually come to know milk through breast milk which has a predominately sweet or umami taste . Breast milk and liquid milk are composed of about 88% water, with about 12% made up of fat, carbohydrates, proteins, minerals and vitamins . Commercially, milk obtained from different animal sources is processed by pasteurisation to obtain liquid milk.…”

Comments on the High Pressure Preservation of Human Milk

“…The key target in this treatment is the high microbiological safety (Huang et al, 2016). This pattern is also applied in studies on the human milk pascalization carried out so far (Vazquez-Landaverde et al, 2006;Viazis, 2008;Viazis et al, 2008;Permanyer et al, 2010;Moltó-Puigmartí et al, 2011;Lou et al, 2012;Delgado et al, 2014;Sousa et al, 2014;Windyga et al, 2015;Sousa et al, 2016;Kiełbratowska & Kołodziejska, 2017;Li et al, 2017). Tables 1 and 2 below illustrate some recent results, focusing on trends and the scatter of experimental data.…”