Although Co-op Donor Milk, processed by Medolac Laboratories, is simply 100% human milk with nothing added, we have raised the bar when it comes to our safety standard for donor screening as well as raw milk testing compared to traditional milk banking practices.  Our partnership with the American Red Cross National Testing Laboratories has enabled us to utilize a more robust donor screening program and we have expanded donor blood testing to include screening for West Nile Virus and Chagas Disease (T. Cruzi) in addition to HIV 1 and 2, HTLV I and II, HBV, HCV and syphilis.  Our testing is repeated twice in the first year of donor participation.  We have also raised the bar for donor milk testing and continue to expand our testing as we examine and report on a variety of areas including microbiological and viral safety, environmental toxins, drugs of abuse, heat stable toxins, prescription drugs and ethanol.

We are an evidence based company and as such, we believe that it is necessary to have a comprehensive understanding of the risks inherent in human milk banking in order to take decisive and effective action to lower or mitigate such risks.  Such a risk case has not been done.  While human milk is truly miraculous, it is not magic.  If not handled properly, it can become contaminated with high levels of bacteria and associated toxins plus spores that cannot be removed using any heat treatment and could result in serious illness.  We will be sharing our research with the medical community to promote a better understanding of the potential risks and benefits of donor milk.   After years of studying this, we believe that anything short of commercial sterility is unacceptable in the neonatal intensive care unit.

At Medolac, we support the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals 3, 4 and 5, which seek to empower women and improve health outcomes for both women and children.  Despite concerted worldwide efforts, in 2012, 6.6 million children died before their 5th birthday and much work remains to be done, particularly with regard to premature infants in the developing world. 

In fact, a recent report published by the WHO, "Born Too Soon", indicates that, "global progress in child survival and health to 2015 and beyond cannot be achieved without addressing preterm birth." Greater access to human milk could play a vital role as it has been shown to increase survival in preterm infants.   Despite this fact, donor milk is often inaccessible, particularly in resource poor settings and the benefits of shelf-life stable supply of human donor milk like ours in these situations would be quite significant. 

Medolac has already met with several prominent global aid agencies to find ways to advance the availability of donor milk and adapted human milk in resource poor settings and is committed to working in partnership with governments, international agencies and NGOs to do our part in helping address the urgent need to improve health outcomes for infants globally.