Épisode 30 : Milkify

Transcription

0:00
I'm Zachary Cartwright this is water and
0:02
food today my guest on water in food is
0:04
Dr Berkeley luck who's the co-founder of
0:07
milkify this is a company that enables
0:09
nursing mothers to powder their breast
0:11
milk for long-term storage and also
0:13
prevent nutrient degradation she is the
0:16
first company in the US to offer this
0:18
service and let's see how she uses water
0:20
activity to produce a safe product in
0:22
this episode of water and food hi Dr
0:25
luck welcome to the show how are you
0:27
today I'm wonderful thank you for having
0:29
me yes I'm glad we can finally record
0:31
this episode so thank you for being here
0:34
yes
0:35
um Dr luck what exactly is milkify what
0:38
what is this company
0:39
so milk-fi offers a service for nursing
0:42
moms it enables them to freeze dry their
0:44
own breast milk for longer storage and
0:47
enhanced convenience so the breast milk
0:49
powder can be stored for years without
0:51
refrigeration and can be used by mixing
0:54
with warm water just like you would use
0:55
powdered formula and this technique of
0:58
preserving breast milk is being used by
1:00
milk Banks and hospitals around the
1:01
world but we're the first to make it
1:03
available directly to consumers in the
1:05
U.S
1:07
um the way that it kind of works we
1:08
operate in a closed loop system so Mom
1:10
sends us her frozen milk in coolers that
1:13
we provide her and then we freeze dry
1:15
each Frozen bag of breast milk that she
1:17
sends us individually we package it into
1:19
a single serving little pouch just like
1:22
this
1:23
um and then we send it back to her and
1:25
each pouch that she gets back has a
1:27
specific amount of water
1:29
um that she needs to rehydrate her milk
1:31
and the goal with all of this is to help
1:34
more infants receive breast milk until
1:36
at least that first year of life or
1:38
longer by empowering moms to be able to
1:41
stockpile their own milk with greater
1:42
ease in convenience
1:44
and with all the current shortages and
1:46
an infant formula do you see more people
1:48
using the servicenow or reaching out to
1:50
you to learn about it oh yeah we've seen
1:52
a huge huge wave of interest in the last
1:54
month
1:55
um so so far we've helped over a
1:56
thousand moms save their their Frozen
1:58
sash of breast milk and we currently
2:00
process a little over 30 000 ounces of
2:02
breast milk each month
2:04
um we started back in 2019 and we only
2:07
operated locally at first but then we
2:09
started offering our service Nationwide
2:11
in January 2021 and we've seen
2:13
tremendous growth since that time uh
2:16
with even even more and more over the
2:19
last month as soon as the formula
2:20
shortage kind of hit
2:22
um so because of this we're in the
2:23
process of expanding to a larger
2:24
facility and we're also hiring if anyone
2:27
is listening interested in working with
2:28
us and we expect to be processing at
2:31
least three times this current volume by
2:32
a year end oh wow and what are some of
2:36
the the benefits of using this form of
2:39
breast milk over infant formula
2:41
well breast milk
2:45
nutrition so breastfed infants develop
2:48
your allergies they get sick less often
2:50
both when they're infants and in
2:52
adulthood and this is from GI Health to
2:54
ear infections and cavities and even
2:56
from a neurodevelopmental standpoint
2:58
breast milk early in life has been
3:00
linked to Better Health outcomes
3:02
and organizations like the World Health
3:04
Organization and most medical providers
3:06
recommend the diet is exclusive breast
3:09
milk until at least six months of age
3:11
and a Diet including solid foods breast
3:14
milk with solid foods up to 12 months
3:16
and so my mom's mini moms go to Great
3:19
Lengths to continue providing breast
3:21
milk to their infants and most health
3:23
care providers now recommend
3:24
breastfeeding over formula and provide
3:27
women with an array of resources to help
3:29
them promote this endeavor
3:32
and you touched on it a little bit but
3:34
what is some of the feedback from your
3:36
clients how is this helpful to them to
3:38
be able to do this and and store their
3:40
breast milk and then use it later what
3:41
are they saying about the service
3:44
the phrase that I've heard
3:46
our clients use most often to describe
3:48
our services
3:51
yeah having been a working mom that
3:53
breastfed an infant for entire year I
3:55
can personally attest to the difficulty
3:57
of making this happen and once you've
3:59
devoted hours and hours to pumping
4:01
cleaning sterilize and storing your your
4:03
milk there's a huge value in freeze
4:06
drying your stash because this isn't
4:08
something that you can replace you can't
4:10
just go to the store and buy more and
4:12
you're only making milk for a short time
4:15
um since the milk has an expiration date
4:17
when it's stored in the freezer and if
4:19
you freeze dry it it can extend that
4:20
expiration date the ability to save it
4:23
for longer is more than just a
4:25
convenience for most of our customers
4:27
it's enabling them to feed their infants
4:29
the best possible food
4:30
for longer
4:32
um so in addition to that some of the
4:34
the specific ways that we help moms
4:37
um we help them break free from the
4:39
freezer as our tagline would suggest
4:42
um but Mom's pump in store for various
4:44
reasons they pump to maintain their
4:45
supply sometimes this builds to an
4:47
excess of milk and they just literally
4:49
don't have the freezer space for it
4:52
um you have moms that are moving across
4:55
the country you know shipping 2 000
4:56
ounces of milk across the country is a
4:58
pretty big endeavor moms that are
5:00
traveling for either vacation or for
5:02
work
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surrogate situations in which milk is
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being shipped across the country again
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and one thing that we didn't really
5:08
realize when we started this is actually
5:09
the palatability so when you store
5:12
breast milk in the freezer for six
5:13
months or a year you start to see
5:15
changes in taste after the freestyle
5:17
freeze thaw process has occurred
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um but since freeze drying bypasses that
5:23
following step which can cause a lot of
5:25
changes to the taste and by removing the
5:28
water from the milk you're also
5:29
preventing some of the enzyme activities
5:32
such as lipases that can cause changes
5:34
in the taste of the milk many moms have
5:36
told us that their infant refuses their
5:38
frozen milk but that they'll readily
5:40
accept the milk when it's freeze-dried
5:43
and where did the idea for milkify come
5:45
from is this from your own personal
5:46
experience or or maybe through school or
5:49
something else how did you come up with
5:51
milkify
5:52
it was through school so my I have a PhD
5:54
in my research Focus was the infant gut
5:57
microbiome
5:58
um specifically I was studying
6:00
neurodevelopment and health outcomes
6:02
that were correlated with early
6:03
colonization of the bacterial species
6:05
that are found in breast milk
6:07
um I didn't have a kid yet so uh when I
6:10
had a colleague though that was pumping
6:12
when she came back from maternity leave
6:13
and I initially thought of freestrying
6:15
as a way to preserve the beneficial
6:17
bacterial species in breast milk because
6:19
that's what I was studying that's what I
6:21
was interested in I didn't really fully
6:23
realize the other logistical barriers
6:26
that freeze drying can help overcome
6:28
until I started previewing the idea with
6:31
other mom friends and they loved the
6:33
idea started telling me all the ways
6:34
that it would have helped them when they
6:36
were breastfeeding
6:37
um
6:38
and pretty early on it became pretty
6:41
clear that one of the most concerning
6:42
things or something that they were most
6:45
important what was most important to
6:46
them was the safety and the sterility of
6:48
the process and so that's kind of where
6:51
I started with the original idea
6:54
um when I started looking into it drying
6:55
techniques obviously like freeze drying
6:57
spray during have been all around for a
6:59
very long time
7:00
um but they were kind of designed for
7:01
really large scale food operations with
7:04
batch processing
7:05
um and it just doesn't work well with
7:07
breast milk in specific on an individual
7:09
basis because of the potential for
7:11
cross-contamination and that's what
7:13
that's kind of where I started so that's
7:15
what led to our our in-bag process
7:17
design I needed to come up with a
7:19
process that allowed for individual
7:22
processing of breast milk bags while
7:24
preventing and minimizing the risk for
7:26
contamination
7:28
um and so the the benefit to doing it
7:30
this way that we do so we landed on
7:32
using basically pouches engineered to
7:34
allow water vapor to escape while
7:36
keeping each bag of milk separate
7:38
and this allows us to retain metadata
7:41
from each bag that Mom sends Us in
7:43
addition to preventing any cross any
7:46
contamination while the milk is being
7:48
processed
7:50
um so we can retain the information
7:51
that's on the bag a lot of the times mom
7:53
will write notes about their diet or you
7:56
know I had covid when I pumped this milk
7:58
things like that we can save data from
8:01
each and every Bag doing it this way and
8:04
when you first got going what were some
8:06
of the biggest hurdles that you had to
8:08
overcome
8:09
um you know as a business or as a
8:10
scientist what are things that you had
8:12
to overcome to get to where you are
8:13
today
8:14
uh some of the things that uh one of
8:18
them was designing the process it's kind
8:20
of um there's there's no road map and so
8:22
designing process is different from the
8:23
standard processing techniques
8:25
um to allow the prevention of
8:27
cross-contamination between bags of milk
8:29
uh was something that took a lot of
8:31
ironing out it took about eight months
8:33
of of kind of trial and error just to
8:35
see what was going to work what was not
8:38
um and then even after I had the idea
8:40
and the process ironed out there's still
8:41
kind of an educational barrier on the
8:43
consumer side you know why is the why is
8:46
this so important for the safety of the
8:48
milk
8:48
um and then after we got going
8:51
um and people started to learn about us
8:53
the one of our current hurdles
8:55
especially is building a food processing
8:57
operation from the ground up and scaling
8:59
it to keep up with the demand
9:02
um it's it's not a an easy thing to do
9:05
quickly and so that's been one of the
9:06
biggest hurdles so far
9:09
and when did you start to realize that
9:11
uh you really needed to focus on the
9:13
water or the moisture in this product
9:15
did you have my boss calls it in aha an
9:19
aha moment or a turning point where you
9:21
knew you needed to start measuring water
9:23
activity of this freeze-dried powder
9:27
kind of from the very beginning so uh to
9:30
be honest that the aquilab 3 was one of
9:31
the very first purchases we made as a
9:33
company uh very early in the r d phase
9:36
when I was still you know trial and
9:37
error
9:38
um it was based the purchase was
9:40
basically based on previous published
9:41
research so we knew the critical water
9:44
activity thresholds for bacterial
9:45
species of concern specifically in
9:47
breast milk like chronobacter which can
9:50
grow in very dry environments and was
9:51
the cause of the recent formula recall
9:55
um and so we used water activity testing
9:57
from the very beginning to hone our
9:59
process to ensure that the cycle
10:01
parameters that we're using in
10:03
combination with the embed process
10:05
resulted in a consistent result
10:08
um which is a desirable final product
10:10
that was also going to remain safe
10:12
remain safe during storage
10:15
and are there any other reasons that you
10:17
choose to to focus on what activity and
10:19
maybe not moisture content because we
10:21
always see a lot of companies use
10:22
moisture content because it either makes
10:24
more sense to them or they used it in
10:26
the past is it mainly the bacterial
10:29
concern that you're looking at what
10:31
activity or are there other things why
10:33
you use water activity
10:34
right so we we since we operate in a
10:37
closed loop system we don't pasteurize
10:39
and so microbial growth is a particular
10:42
concern for us we want to be sure that
10:44
whatever we're processing and packaging
10:46
is going to stay safe
10:48
um so measuring moisture conscience is
10:49
simply just wasn't for one wasn't
10:51
accurate enough for us
10:53
um and we know that it's not what
10:56
determines microbial growth which is our
10:57
main concern
10:59
um so our goal from the beginning was to
11:01
basically use industry standards to
11:02
ensure that the product that we are
11:05
producing was not susceptible to
11:07
microbial growth during storage
11:10
um you know since since most moms are
11:12
using these breast pumps at home we have
11:14
no idea
11:15
um how well the the pump parts were
11:17
cleaned anything like that anything
11:18
that's coming we assume anything that's
11:20
coming into our process is also coming
11:22
out so we really we need to be really
11:25
um really sure that the water activity
11:27
and the most accurate read of water
11:29
activity is low enough to prevent any
11:32
growth during the three year shelf life
11:34
that we um that we advertise
11:36
and so if that water activity is too
11:39
high you have bacterial problems do you
11:41
notice any problems if the water
11:42
activity is way too low
11:44
yeah so we too low in the powder may
11:47
have trouble rehydrating so and like you
11:49
said too high you're risking microbial
11:51
growth so we we aim to fall within the
11:53
water activity range that's going to
11:55
allow for for maximum nutrient retention
11:57
and probiotic retention
11:59
um in addition to just being desirable
12:01
so for example we want a nice fine
12:03
powder
12:05
um we want you know flow ability we want
12:07
it to be um be desirable to use and easy
12:11
to use so we need Mom to be able to
12:13
rehydrate it with with room temp or a
12:15
little bit warm water and have it just
12:18
go right into solution to to remake her
12:20
milk
12:21
um so this is so that's one of the
12:23
reasons we use it the other is because
12:25
it is water activity testing is a pretty
12:27
vital part of our food safety plan by
12:30
incorporating this testing into our
12:31
final quality control check we can
12:33
ensure and have a verifiable record that
12:36
the um that the milk that we're
12:38
processing is within that critical
12:40
control limit and we can ensure that if
12:43
we did need to add additional processing
12:45
times if it was too high we would still
12:47
have the opportunity to do that before
12:49
it's packaged
12:50
and you brought this up a little the the
12:52
shelf life of these powders you said
12:54
maybe is somewhere around three years
12:56
how does water activity relate to that
12:58
shelf life and how did you determine
13:00
shelf life for these powders yes so
13:03
shelf life for us is really important
13:05
most moms um want to know that it's the
13:08
reason they're using the service they
13:09
want to know how much longer is my
13:11
breast milk going to last and so we had
13:13
meter group perform a set of water
13:15
activity tests or sorry a set of shelf
13:17
life testing
13:19
um that gave us a range uh based on
13:21
different types of milk and the
13:24
packaging that we're using our our
13:26
thresholds for water activity
13:28
um and we we basically know based on
13:31
this uh this testing that's been done
13:32
how critical water activity thresholds
13:35
are to having an impact on predicted
13:39
shelf life
13:40
um so we determined our three year shelf
13:41
life based on the testing of our product
13:43
and the packaging specs that we use
13:46
um but one of the things that we've kind
13:48
of noticed recently also is uh a small
13:51
business is starting similar operations
13:54
um have kind of started to also say that
13:56
they have a three-year shelf life
13:58
um and since we know that this estimate
14:00
is highly sensitive to packaging
14:02
selection and to the testing the water
14:04
activity testing
14:06
um we think this may cause problems in
14:08
this growing industry due to a lack of
14:09
oversight and regulation we're the only
14:12
service that's performing any kind of
14:13
quality control testing but I feel
14:15
really strongly that this should be
14:17
required for any operation that's freeze
14:19
drying breast milk
14:21
and that's a really good point so that
14:23
you're saying that that three-year shelf
14:24
life that you know we've been able to
14:26
partner and determine together that's
14:28
based on all of the factors really
14:31
specific to your company so storage and
14:33
packaging and drying down to a certain
14:36
water activity so there's a lot going on
14:37
so for a another company to say three
14:40
years just by copying you doesn't make
14:43
any sense because there has to be a lot
14:45
of analysis that has to be done to to
14:47
Really determine what that shelf life is
14:50
um exactly and you just brought it up
14:51
your industry isn't really currently
14:54
regulated how could this be done better
14:56
what improvements do you see that need
14:58
to be put in place
14:59
yeah so currently the the FDA
15:03
um breast milk was formerly regulated by
15:05
the USDA right now the FDA the CDC kind
15:08
of relegate all guidelines for
15:10
processing of breast milk to the human
15:12
milk banking association of North
15:14
America
15:16
um this organization puts forth
15:17
guidelines they're designed to ensure
15:19
safety of milk that's processed by its
15:22
member milk donor Banks
15:24
um since we're not a milk bank and we
15:26
operate in this closed-loop system this
15:28
kind of leaves us outside of that
15:30
there's a little bit of a regulatory Gap
15:31
there
15:33
um and we feel that this is kind of
15:35
being taken advantage of by certain you
15:37
know small scale individuals operating
15:40
um out of their homes or their garages
15:42
anybody can make a website uh and make
15:44
pretty product packaging
15:46
um but given the implications for
15:48
potential mishandling uh you know the
15:51
potential to cause illness in an infant
15:53
population we feel pretty strongly that
15:55
regulatory authorities need to play a
15:57
larger role in determining how breast
15:58
milk is processed for consumers in a
16:01
commercial a non-hospital setting and
16:03
this could include a set of guidelines
16:05
that's very similar to what hmbana has
16:07
put forth for milk donor Banks including
16:09
registration facility requirements staff
16:12
training GMP certification quality
16:14
control testing and these kind of things
16:17
that would help make it safer so what is
16:19
next for your company what do things
16:21
look like maybe five or ten years down
16:22
the road I know you mentioned that
16:24
you're really growing in size but how
16:25
are you going to scale your operations
16:27
and what do your future goals look like
16:30
yeah that's a great question so like I
16:33
said right now we're focused on
16:34
expanding our Houston Hub because we'll
16:37
still be our largest Hub
16:39
um but our five to ten year goal would
16:41
be to be able to have various hubs
16:43
around the country so
16:45
um you know shipping breast milk across
16:47
the country is fairly expensive and we
16:48
want to make the service affordable and
16:50
and accessible to more women across the
16:53
country and we can do that if we have
16:55
locations that are closer to where they
16:57
live that would get the shipping costs
17:00
down and make it more affordable
17:02
a lot of people listening especially if
17:04
they're concerned about the infant
17:06
formula shortage I'm sure they're really
17:08
interested in in maybe looking at your
17:09
services how can they get a hold of you
17:12
or a hold of your company what's the
17:14
best way for them to learn more
17:16
yeah we have a lot of information and
17:18
links to all of the research about
17:20
freeze drying breast milk on our website
17:22
it's at
17:25
www.milkafi.me and if you have questions
17:27
for me directly my email is is Berkeley
17:30
that's
17:31
b-e-r-k-l-e-y at milkify dot me
17:34
and if somebody is also interested in
17:36
maybe joining your team you mentioned
17:38
this at the start as well that you know
17:39
you're growing and you may need people
17:40
to join your team is this also the same
17:43
way you would like them to reach out to
17:44
you yes please reach out yes
17:47
well I really want to just thank you for
17:49
your time I know we've been trying to to
17:51
get this done for a while now and and I
17:54
think with everything going on with the
17:55
formula shortages this is a perfect
17:57
timing to get your message out there and
18:00
and let people be aware that this is an
18:01
option for them I'm really excited to
18:04
see your team grow and perhaps we can
18:06
meet in a a year or somewhere down the
18:09
road and see how your operation is
18:10
scaling and kind of touch space
18:12
that would be great thanks Zach I'm
18:15
Zachary Cartwright this is water and
18:17
food
18:19
find this podcast on Apple iTunes
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18:23
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