Episodio 30: Milkify

Trascrizione

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