Land of milk and money: Indian company pushing ahead with plans to sell breast milk to Australians – for $300 a litre

An Indian company plans to import breast milk to Australians for $300 a litre .By MATILDA RUDD
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NeoLacta Lifesciences was granted permission to start selling their breast milk on Aussie shores last year, with the average price of pasteurised milk overseas in excess of a few hundred dollars.
But it won’t be made available to the general public, rather given to the five breast milk banks in Western Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland to feed premature or sick babies.
The company website states the promoters of NeoLacta ran a successful dairy business in Australia and it is offering bottles of ‘ready-to-feed human milk’ made in a ‘world-class, pharmaceutical-grade facility.’
At present mothers who are lactating and are in excess supply are able to donate their milk to neonatal wards but as demand grows there isn’t always an abundance in storage.
But experts warn that diseases and STD’s like HIV, hepatitis, syphilis and the Zika virus could all be present in breast milk, but there is only a small chance of transmission.
Neonatologist Dr Gillian Opie from Melbourne’s Mercy Hospital said there were other risks to do with illicit substances that could tarnish the health benefits of breast milk.
‘There has been testing done in the US to show that breast milk can be contaminated with drugs like caffeine and alcohol,’ she said.
‘It may be watered down, so not as nutritious as it should be.’
The Department of Agriculture, who granted NeoLacta’s import permit, said it had tough biosecurity measures to ensure food products did not pose a risk to humans.
While breast milk is currently screened, if companies begin to commercialise the milk supply for mother’s struggling to breastfeed there may need to be further rules imposed.
 
Source: Daily Mail
Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4607058/NeoLacta-Lifesciences-importing-milk-Australia.html
 

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Así lo expresó Domingo Possetto, secretario de la seccional Rafaela, quien además, afirmó que a los productores «habitualmente los ignoran los gobiernos». Además, reconoció la labor de los empresarios de las firmas locales y aseguró que están «esperanzados» con la negociación entre SanCor y Adecoagro.

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