back to article Council busts breast milk ice cream parlour

A Covent Garden designer ice cream parlour has earned itself a bust from Westminster council for punting potentially life-threatening breast milk ice cream. Municipal operatives relieved Icecreamists of its Baby Gaga blend of jub juice, vanilla pods and lemon zest, the Evening Standard reports. Brian Connell, Westminster's …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Thomas 18
    Grenade

    Hepatitis

    I'm pretty sure you can test a person for any of those (A/B/C). Maybe you could have phoned them up and asked how/if they had screened the donor before sending in the stormtroopers.

    (the article indicates they screen but stormtrooper command wouldn't know that).

    1. Ian Michael Gumby
      FAIL

      Its actually a lawsuit waiting to happen.

      Hep A/B/C are all real threats. Add on to this other drugs that could be in the system.

      You'd also have to have mandatory drug testing and random drug testing of the potential donors.

      Can you imagine a 'crack flavored' ice cream?

      Sorry but this is a bad idea from the get go.

      1. The Alpha Klutz

        Re: "Can you imagine a 'crack flavored' ice cream?"

        aint nobody smoking crack on Tuesday then donating their breast milk on Wednesday.

        And besides, if you could get high from breast milk, don't you think the addict would drink her own? Drugs are expensive.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Happy

        Imagine that.....

        Lying in bed, licking crack flavoured ice cream....

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re:Hepatitis

      Also, how often is every cow that gives milk screened? We all know that things can pass from livestock to humans also. Milk is pasteurised in each case.

      1. Simon Millard
        Black Helicopters

        Cows Milk Screening

        Cow's milk is tested as part of the milking process. If there are signs of infection or blood in the milk, then it is automatically dumped.

  2. Dave 15

    Do we really pay our taxes for this?

    I don't. Frankly if some woman wants to be 'milked' and someone wants to eat/drink it and they are both fully aware of what is what then it is NOT the governments, councils, polices or anyone elses business to intervene.

    There are a myriad of hazards in and around westminster, not least the bull that spews forth from parliament and the council - they fail to control that.

    I certainly don't pay taxes to have some busy body with no real job to do sticking an unwarrented nose in where it clearly isn't needed.

    (Same goes for Cambridgeshire police who can't manage to stop my neighbours from parking all over footpaths in the village, or my son from being mugged, or 70+mph speeders threatening schoolchildren crossing, but CAN find a fleet of police cars and officers to ticket cars parked on a verge miles from any habitation).

    1. Kubla Cant
      Thumb Down

      Cambridgeshire nonsense

      My favourite piece of misdirected jobsworthism in Cambridgeshire is the warning signs on the Huntingdon to March road (and, for all I know, elsewhere).

      When erected, these signs said "Speed Cameras". Shortly after, some jobsworth found spare money in the public pocket and had all the signs modified to read "Safety Cameras".

  3. tim-e
    Thumb Up

    ~slurp~

    Two scoops in a waffle cone, please.

  4. dotdavid
    IT Angle

    Sales?

    I can't imagine sales of that particular ice cream were too high. As for other sales though... the whole thing has been a very effective publicity stunt and this raid has done nothing to change that fact. Mission successful.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    As someone on Twitter posted this morning...

    … people have a problem drinking human breast milk, something specifically made in nature to feed us… but have no trouble drinking the milk from a completely seperate species or, more telling, the unfertilized eggs of another?

    1. Anton Ivanov
      Thumb Down

      And there is a reason for that

      There are only a couple of cow viruses which can jump onto human.

      A few more in goats (goats can carry encephalitis and it can be transmitted to humans via milk).

      Same for other animals.

      At the same time nearly anything one human has can go via milk to another.

      So if I am to drink milk or eat a steak, I 'd rather do so from species that as unrelated to me as possible. Better be safe than sorry. While on the subject - where do you think AIDS comes from? It is originally a monkey virus...

    2. Killraven
      Happy

      Eggs, with or without?

      Having grown up on a farm with chickens, I prefer my eggs fertilized, you just have to make sure they're really fresh or things can get a bit gross.

      1. Liam Johnson

        I prefer my eggs fertilized

        why? Do they tatse better?? Just curious.

        >>things can get a bit gross

        You can eat those too. Gross, but true.

  6. Nazar
    Happy

    Re: Hepatitis

    +1 for "stormtroopers".

    Lucky I wasn't reading this early in the morning with a nice cup of coffee hovering over my keyboard!

  7. Bill Fresher

    Bodily Fluids

    What any bodily fluids be fit for use in food if they were shown to be free of disease?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Precisely!

      Urine is perfectly harmless so long as the donor is not diseased and so long as it's fresh. Under those conditions, blood is clinically pure, too, and equally as nourishing as milk. Serve it to your friends if they want it, but don't sell it to the public.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Jobs Horns

        Ahhhhh

        feed them human blood....

        Well technically - it's just food...

        But....

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        PS to "Precisely"

        I forgot to mention semen.

  8. GuyC

    Why not lift the rest of the Ice Cream

    So to be on the safe side they lifted anything in the shop that was made from the bodily fluids of an animal then? But on the plus side we now know where both of the Daly Fail readers live

  9. The Alpha Klutz

    oh boy

    "Let the market regulate itself.... oh hang on, the market wants something we can't mass produce in China? Better get the banhammer out."

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Aliens

    God knows what the aliens will be making of us as they notice how we pillory someone who has sex with an animal whilst thinking nothing of doing it with one of our own species, yet we then create an industry to let people drink the mammary grand excretions of animals whilst closing down shops that allow us to consume the derivatives of the most human-compatible milk on the planet.

    Intellectualism aside, you have two hopes of me eating any of that dodgy ice cream: Bob Hope and no hope, you sick & pervy f**ks.

    1. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)

      Re: Aliens

      Um, I spot a slight contradiction there. Unless you're being super-clever.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Re: Aliens

        Do keep up at the back.

      2. Oninoshiko

        Re: Sarah

        I don't see any contridiction at all.

        In my mind, at least, there is a world of difference between "I wouldn't do xyz" and "We should legislate away (and spend my money to enforce) the ability of others to knowing do xyz."

    2. Michael Dunn
      Headmaster

      Sick and pervy?

      Why do you "asterisk" the word "folks"? Though it is actually plural without the "s" ;)

  11. Parsifal
    FAIL

    Nanny State In Overdrive

    So breast feeding mothers now have to be screened before they feed their babies?.

    Seriously what is the councils problem, if the donors are properly screened before donating milk whats the problem?. I'm not sure I would try it but to each their own.

    Its not as if History doesn't have examples of other types of Breast Milk donation, such as Wet Nurses.

    This seems more like someone in the council doesn't like it there nobody else should,

    1. Marvin the Martian
      WTF?

      As always "nanny state" writer = Daily Fail story inventor.

      Why invent "now mothers have to be screened"? There's nothing like that in the actual news. And for your benefit, mothers-to-be are screened, since many years, for indeed disease transmission risks.

      I like your pathetic attempt at historical insight. You refer to times when less than 1 in 3 Britons made it to 21 --- now it's above 99 in 100. Way to destroy your own argument.

    2. The Alpha Klutz

      The council.

      Here's a fun game you can play with them:

      Phone up, act panicked and state in a hysterical voice "did you know that the air our children are breathing is full of NITROGEN?". Hang up without offering any further explanation for your hysteria.

      Laugh your ass off when they publicly announce their intention to ban Nitrogen.

      1. Shane Orahilly
        Coat

        Laird

        They said they couldn't help at the moment, as the whole Environmental Department budget has been devoted to control of dihydrogen monoxide release. Apparently the streets are awash with it, especially in Manchester.

        Mine's the DHMO shield at the end, cheers.

  12. John G Imrie

    Was on local TV last week

    Guess that's where the objectors found out about it

  13. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Marvin the Martian
      Paris Hilton

      Women of bovine species: yes

      Human females (you must have read about them) are not closely related to female cows, hence it's technically incorrect. But keep trying.

      1. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)

        Re: Women of bovine species: yes

        I think he was just looking for an excuse.

  14. Shonko Kid
    FAIL

    We're a funny bunch...

    Cow. Goat. Buffalo. Sheep. Yak. Llama! Yeah, go right a head and drink your fill. But milk from ANOTHER HUMAN. Oh no you don't -You might catch something!!

    1. Marvin the Martian
      FAIL

      Eh... yes?

      Remember mad cow disease (or kuru in papua new guinea) and scrapie etc? Ebola/Marburg and probably HIV from eating monkeys?

      There's plenty good reasons to eat parts of unrelated animals (or plants) and avoid what's similar; it's not all just bla-bla-ethics-bla you know.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        WTF?

        I'm no scientist but...

        I can see where you are coming from with eating, but human milk is there specifically to nourish members of the same species. So I'm not sure how this is relevant unless said business starts serving human hot dogs.

        1. '); DROP TABLE comments; --
          Joke

          Human hot dogs

          Been done. Surely you remember manbeef.com?

  15. CollyWolly
    Unhappy

    arse

    We have messed up social standards when it is frowned upon to drink breast milk from your own species, yet it is all fine and dandy if it comes from a cows udder.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Tried it myself, ugh.

    Before people start giggling at me and asking me questions, let my explain...

    My son was breastfeed, the milk usually oozes everywhere and after taking him off my wife after he had been fed it's normal to get a bit of the stuff on your hands.

    It took a few months to get the courage up but my wife asked me to try a bit of the milk residue that was on my hands, so I thought "OK, what the hell"

    It had a very greasy fatty taste about it and also because it was at body temperature it was not appealling at all really.

    I can imagine that cows milk tastes the same before it is processed and chilled.

    No doubt it's being sold as a gimmic rather than it actually offering any positive taste or health benefits.

    1. fnkyfnstr
      WTF?

      Fresh milk from the cow.

      Not that I have tried it "straight" from the cow. but cooled whole fresh milk from the cow before it is taken from the farm is soo much better than standardised, homogenised, pasteurised milk bought at the supermarket..These three process are only present to improve the manufactures profit, presentation, and self life of milk in that order, and do nothing to improve the flavour. Heating it back upto 40 degrees or warmer makes for a pleasent drink.

      Being bought up on a farm, drinking cows milk was the most natural thing you could do, however, I now would agree with others here, there is nothing "natural" about drinking cows milk, if you asked anybody to suck on a cows teat they would probably become nauseous at the idea, but they are doing just that, (Less the supply chain in between).

      I see no reason why people cannot buy normal (Human) milk ice cream.

      1. copsewood

        no more green top

        I bought this from the farm gate in my childhood once or twice. And very nice. But I think because there were always a very few getting tuberculosis by this route that's why you can no longer sell or buy it unpasteurised.

        1. J.G.Harston Silver badge

          It's the inspection fees

          You can't get green top any more because the registration fees for an unpasturised diary are so horrendously high. My milkman stopped doing green top last year because it was getting too expensive. At my last check there were less than 100 diaries left in England registered to supply green top milk.

      2. John Smith 19 Gold badge
        Thumb Up

        @fnkyfnstr

        "Not that I have tried it "straight" from the cow. "

        I have.

        Staying on a farm as a kid. Small farm, waiting for lorry to collect..

        It's *really* strange (as a kid) when you're handed something that not been on a stove and you expect to cold but is actually warm.

        "if you asked anybody to suck on a cows teat they would probably become nauseous at the idea,"

        Put that way it does sound pretty weird.

    2. SImon Hobson Bronze badge

      Nothing like you buy in the shops

      >> I can imagine that cows milk tastes the same before it is processed and chilled

      Can't say how it compares with human milk, but I can tell you that the white stuff sold in shops and called "milk" tastes nothing like what comes out of cows. It's a lot creamier when fresh and untreated, and it's lovely warm. Nothing beats "pick your own" at brew time: cup of tea + cow's udder + squeeze = white tea with a nice creamy taste. If you don't like it warm, then get a sample from the tank when it's had time to cool a bit.

      One advantage of working on a dairy farm (as I used to as a lad), you can still drink real milk.

      1. Chris Miller

        Another vote for unpasteurised

        When I were a lad, we had milk delivered from the local farm - 'green top', which meant unpasteurised from TT (tuberculin tested) cows. Unpasteurised milk is to pasteurised as pasteurised milk is to UHT.

    3. Pirate Dave Silver badge
      Pirate

      @Tried it myself

      Agreed. I tried it when my oldest child was a babe, and it was NOT good. "Bleh" is a good description of the taste. I can't imagine ice cream made from human breast milk would be any better.

      As a child, I'd sometimes drink warm milk straight from a cow when my cousin milked her, and I remember it being much more palatable than the milk my wife made. Still strongish, and nothing like store-bought, but not as yucky as human.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Unhappy

        Another here

        I sometimes used to "check" the milk before feeding the kids when the missus was working to check the temperature.

        It's disgusting. Very metallic tasting. Wouldn't recommend it.

        Nowt like cow's milk that's for sure.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Flame

          it wasn't stored right

          when our little guy was on breastmilk, my wife used a pump to store the excess she produced and to make it easier when going out. Sometimes, the bottles we opened to feed him had that strong metallic odor (forget even about taste). It was due to mishandling. The milk coming out of her was instead very rich, fatty and extremely sweet. It was like drinking sweet consensed milk mixed with a handful of sugar. As much as I wanted to try it, I couldn't get past the overly sweet flavour. And if you're asking, I was breastfed for a few weeks only so I have this unresolved craving for jubs. ;-)

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Concerns over... you know, something bad

    "Selling foodstuffs made from another person's bodily fluids can lead to viruses being passed on and in this case, potentially hepatitis."

    Oh, hum, yeah, but what about:

    "Our donor was screened at a leading medical clinic and then the ice cream mix is fully pasteurised"

    Pasteurised = safe surely? But then they couldn't figure it out because:

    1 - they didn't bother checking that the ice cream parlour pasteurised the breast milk.

    2 - it solved a politically correctness issue raised by *gasp* not 1, but 2 bigots.

    Which leaves us to conclude that either respectively :

    1 - They were incompetent and did not follow proper procedures.

    2 - They take us for idiots, find a lame excuse for their own bigotry, and hope that the stupid population will not notice that they blatantly lied.

  18. Thomas 4

    Was anyone else reminded of

    The scene in Dr Strangelove where the insane general talks about the contamination "of our precious bodily fluids?"

  19. Tron Silver badge

    Amused vegan is amused.

    You don't like the idea of breast milk ice cream, but you're happy to consume the stuff that comes from the same bit of a farm animal?

    1. Slim
      Alert

      Re:Amused vegan is amused.

      This raises another question, is breast milk vegan friendly?

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Had to say it,

    What a tit.

  21. Sampler
    Coat

    That's udderly disgusting...

    Looks like the council is lactose intolerant...

    1. Eden
      Thumb Up

      @ Sampler

      I hope you had a pair of Sunglasses and the who on standby before you delivered that line.

      YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

  22. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Won't somebody think of the children...

    Presumably, each of the "donors" is likely to be breastfeeding their own babies as well as providing the raw ingredients for the ice-cream. If the council are concerned about the health risks fully grown heathly adults voluntarily drinking the stuff then what about the health risks with it being force fed to vulnerable babies?

    What's that doctor, ... you're saying that breast milk is actually safer for babies than processed cows milk?

    Idiots.

    1. Tim Parker

      Re : Won't somebody think of the children...

      "What's that doctor, ... you're saying that breast milk is actually safer for babies than processed cows milk?"

      No - it's almost certainly not in general. It's certainly better for babies - modulo factors like toxic chemical pass-through or biological contamination - but safer as is ? No... part of the 'problem' people have pointed out with processed milk is that it's been so highly treated that hardly any self-respecting organism are going to want to be found alive in it, but the taste has become a poor substitute for the real thing in the process.

      This whole story is a tale of ridiculously over-eager nannying, to be sure, but that doesn't make your comment any more correct.

  23. Blitz
    FAIL

    Hepatitus through Breastmilk?

    There are no recorded transmissions of Hep B or C via breastmilk itself.

    Only in cases where the nipple is cracked and bleeding are there possible issue and the immuno-agent within the breastmilk are KNOWN to sterilize HBV and HBC.

    It is very easy to screen for diseases in breastmilk and frankly there are very few that can actually be present. This is 'Daily-Fail' rubbish that has led to the usual misconceptions and ignorance surround breastmilk.

    Source: US CDC

    Thanks Council for setting back our already ridiculously backwards ways.

    Signed, The only mammalian species on earth that doesn't support and feed it's young from the milk it was intended to.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Intellectualism firmly taken for a long walk off a short pier

    Is Mr O'Connor not simply milking the press here?

  25. Gerry Doyle 1

    This looks like a job for...

    http://titsofdeath.com/

    1. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)

      Re: This looks like a job for...

      Haha! I know 'em well.

      1. Gerry Doyle 1

        Re: This looks like a job for...

        I knew you knew them - sure doesn't FB make mutual friends of us all. Come to think of it, I ended up bringing a band across to play on the same bill at Hawkfest after a natter with Ms. G few years ago.

  26. IAW
    Stop

    Do you suppose

    You know, just maybe, that this publicity seeking tit might be fibbing?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      all people are honest

      a used car salesman told me so.

  27. Gordon861

    Employment Opportunities

    Perhaps the plan is for this to be the new job given to all the inner city unwed mothers. They can sit around at home with their screaming kids watching TV or playing Xbox whilst being milked to make this ice cream.

    As long as the pop out one kid every 18 months they will keep producing milk so they have an excuse now.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Supply

      As far as I'm aware, women will keep producing as long as they're being milked.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Stop

      Yeach.

      You know what rubbish those eat? Clearly this public wants organis mother's milk. So! That's not gonna fly.

      And don't try to get away with it... a trace of chili in our dinner and the little one refuses to drink hours later, getting upset and agitated there's nothing for him except bad stuff.

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Quick send in Bat^h^hoobman

    Dam.... I covered everything in the subject - had to be one.

  29. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    *ahem* @ CollyWolly

    "We have messed up social standards when it is frowned upon to drink breast milk from your own species, yet it is all fine and dandy if it comes from a cows udder."

    So by your standards it'd be fine for us to eat people rather than cows? ROFL!!!!

    I see what you mean though, the thought crossed my mind as the thought of this is totally repugnant to me. One for the pervs I'd say, right next to the weird shoe shop. Surprised it wasn't shut down under the new "anything but missionary" anti-porn laws.

    1. BristolBachelor Gold badge
      Joke

      @AC

      "So by your standards it'd be fine for us to eat people rather than cows? "

      Now there's an idea. The criminals can feed the homeless and do something worthwhile.

  30. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

    There is reason

    Why animals at the top of food chains usually don't consume meat or other bodily parts or excretions off individuals of the same species - a) transfer of disease and b) all the crap eaten by members of lower species in the food chain is concentrated at the top, so you get an extra dose of toxins, prions etc.

    It is therefore unsurprising that most of people find the idea of breast milk ice cream or, say, human flesh hamburgers pretty unattractive. That is also why cannibalism is very rare (and always was rare) other than in extreme circumstances. We evolved to avoid it if at all possible.

    As can be seen in things like incest, the manifestation of such evolutionary protection is the feeling of revulsion and disgust most of us experience at the mere thought of it.

  31. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Boffin

    "Our donor was screened at a leading medical clinic "

    Who is this women?

    Either they have a *very* low interest in these flavors or she's *literally* a human milk cow.

    IIRC a cow produces in the 10s of litres of milk a day.

    And on the the science side *what* infections are expressed in human milk? AFAIK *some* ingested toxins can be passed to the baby through breast milk (metals, some prescription drugs) but viruses and bacteria?

    Incidentally while the *source* of the milk is a bit unusual (not cow, goat, yak, camel) this does not it was not *fully* prepared by pasteurization as any other type.

    Unusual. yes. Would I try it. Yes Inherently dangerous. No.

  32. John F***ing Stepp
    Happy

    So they went tits up then?

    Feel free to downvote for bad punnage.

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Did anyone find themselves...

    inexplicably thinking of their mother after sampling said ice cream? This could be great help in developing the familial solidarity necessary for Cameron's "big society"!

    And if the local council is concerned about product safety, I am willing to oversee the milking process and inspect the "livestock" :)

    Grabbing my coat before female reg readers start throwing stuff at me.....

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Sorry

    http://i.thisislondon.co.uk/i/pix/2009/06/pig-415x249.jpg

  35. David Neil

    Infections and such like

    My youngest spent a while in hospital just after he was born, and they had a breast milk bank, where mothers could donate milk to assist other kids in the special care unit.

    As I recall the milk was marked up, sent off for pasteurisation and some other tests, but was then fine to use. Why is this not acceptable outwith a hospital environment?

  36. kain preacher

    one thing to look out for

    Certain drugs due leech into breast milk. Meth, SSRIs, some hypertension meds. If the milk has been tested and assured to be drug free then no problem.

  37. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Personally

    I think they should be prosecuted by Trading Standards given that the milk was from one Victoria Hiley and not from Lady Gaga. And at £14 a portion, they might also get done by the FSA.

  38. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    It's a no-sale here

    I like mine right from the tap, thanks.

  39. Sam Therapy
    Happy

    Re: Tried it myself. Ugh.

    I haven't but my daughter (all of 3 weeks old) loves the stuff. No accounting for taste, is there?

  40. Elron Hubward
    Stop

    Oh dear....

    Looks like my planned line of "chef's special sauce" flavour ice lollies would probably attract a similar level of dissaprobation from the general public and the Food Standards Agency.

    Shame; I'm pretty sure I'd have had no shortage of willing volunteers to supply the raw ingredients and I'd have made a fortune flogging them from a van outside the local police station.

  41. handy
    Boffin

    Screening for diseases + Drugs is not easy

    The difference is cows milk is relatively uniform. We know exactly what the cow has eaten and what drugs have been used.

    It does not matter that the human milk has been pasteurized, although most most pathogenic bacteria will be killed, a number of organisms have heat resistant prions and spores. This is not to mention drugs (including those over the counter)

    Take weed which a large proportion of the population take (the active component THC is transfered to breast milk were it is10x more concentration than in the blood). Most mums would not smoke, but note everyone has the same morale standard

    As a former transfusion scientist I know these things are not easy to screen for, some currently impossible (for high throughput or to be cost effective). Its why blood transfusions have an opt out policy, as things like HIV are not detectable for upto 6 months after infection.

    We are able to drink cows milk with little fear as they live under controlled conditions and the risk of interspecies disease small. Trouble is with commercial breast milk there are thousands of potential diseases and your relying on the honesty of the provider.

This topic is closed for new posts.