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Major losses of fat, carbohydrates and energy content of preterm human milk frozen at −80°C

Journal of Perinatology volume 34, pages 396–398 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

Objective:

Long-term storage of human milk (HM) requires freezing at low temperatures, the consequences of which upon macronutrients are unclear. To test the null hypothesis that HM freezing and storage for a range of 1 to 10 weeks at −80 °C does not affect HM fat, protein, lactose and energy contents.

Study design:

Samples of HM were obtained from 20 mothers (60 samples) of preterm infants (25 to 35 weeks gestation), who routinely expressed their milk, every 3 h, using an electric pump, from the second to the seventh week after delivery. All samples were frozen at −80 °C for 8 to 83 days (43.8 days average). After thawing and homogenization, energy and macronutrient contents were measured using an HM analyzer.

Result:

Fat, carbohydrates and energy contents were significantly lower in thawed HM than in fresh HM (fat, fresh vs thawed: 3.72±1.17 vs 3.36±1.19 g/100 ml, P<0.001; carbohydrates, fresh vs thawed: 5.86±0.71 vs 4.09±0.96 g/100 ml, P<0.001; energy, fresh vs thawed: 64.93±12.97 vs 56.63±16.82 kcal/100 ml, P<0.0001), whereas protein content remained unchanged (protein, fresh vs thawed: 1.14±0.36 vs 1.15±0.37 g/100 ml, P=0.7). The decline in carbohydrates content but not in fat and energy correlated significantly with freezing duration.

Conclusion:

Freezing at −80 °C significantly decreases the energy content of HM, both from fat and carbohydrates. Since quantitatively the decrease in macronutrients was much higher than that published for HM storage at −20 °C, our results do not support freezing HM at −80 °C as the gold standard for long-term storage. We suggest that caloric intake calculations in preterm infants cannot be established based upon fresh HM data.

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Author notes

  1. H M Lev and A Ovental: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neonatology, Tel Aviv Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel

    H M Lev, A Ovental, D Mandel & R Marom

  2. Department of Pediatrics, Tel Aviv Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel

    F B Mimouni & R Lubetzky

  3. Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    D Mandel, F B Mimouni, R Marom & R Lubetzky

Authors
  1. H M Lev
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  2. A Ovental
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  3. D Mandel
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  4. F B Mimouni
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  5. R Marom
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  6. R Lubetzky
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to D Mandel.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

This study was presented in part at the PAS annual meeting in Washington DC, USA, 2013.

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Lev, H., Ovental, A., Mandel, D. et al. Major losses of fat, carbohydrates and energy content of preterm human milk frozen at −80°C. J Perinatol 34, 396–398 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/jp.2014.8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/jp.2014.8

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