Freeze-dried breast milk is a lightweight, shelf-stable alternative to traditional storage methods, making it easier for parents to travel with their baby's nutrition. By removing water content through a specialized process, it retains most of the milk's nutrients, antibodies, and enzymes while offering a shelf life of up to three years. Unlike refrigerated or frozen milk, it doesn't require coolers or temperature control, simplifying travel logistics.
Key Benefits of Freeze-Dried Breast Milk for Travel:
- Portability: Weighs 90% less than frozen milk and comes in compact, single-serve packets.
- Shelf Life: Lasts up to 3 years without refrigeration.
- Nutritional Retention: Preserves up to 97% of nutrients, including antibodies and enzymes.
- Convenience: Easy to rehydrate with warm water, no thawing required.
- Stress-Free Travel: No need for bulky coolers or constant temperature monitoring.
Services like Milkify professionally freeze-dry breast milk, making it a practical option for long trips or emergencies. While the process is more expensive than traditional storage, the convenience and reliability it offers can be worth the investment for many parents.
Benefits of Freeze-Dried Breast Milk for Traveling Parents
Traveling with breast milk has always been complicated. Between TSA regulations, cooler logistics, and the constant worry about temperature control, many parents find themselves choosing between maintaining their milk supply and enjoying stress-free travel. Freeze-dried breast milk changes that equation entirely.
The process removes the water content from breast milk through sublimation - essentially turning ice directly into vapor over the course of 48 hours in a vacuum chamber. The process is slow, which is a good thing — that means it’s gentle, and preserves the nutrients in breast milk. What remains is a lightweight powder that maintains nearly all the original nutritional value while gaining a 3 year shelf life. No more refrigeration needed!
Lightweight and Space-Saving
Freeze-dried breast milk weighs 90% less than frozen milk and comes in compact, single-serve packets or slightly larger multi-use pouches, eliminating the need for bulky coolers. For international travel or long trips, this makes a huge difference!
That means no ice packs and no TSA screenings. No fumbling with frozen blocks of milk at the airport. And no wondering about whether a bag of milk is still safe to feed halfway through a 9 hour flight.
Will your hotel room have a fridge/freezer?
When parents travel with breast milk or plan to pump during a trip, one worry they typically have is about whether the hotel room will have a freezer available. Freeze-dried breast milk eliminates this concern — as long as you have clean or bottled water available, you’ll be able to feed your baby from a bottle!
What about nutrients and safety?
Freeze-drying keeps most of the milk’s nutrients intact. This process safeguards key elements like proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), and more!
And when done properly, freeze-drying is very safe. The process reduces the overall bacterial level in breast milk. However, extreme care should be taken to avoid introducing contamination during the freeze-drying process. Milkify uses a patented process where the milk is never thawed, never pooled, and never comes into direct contact with equipment. That’s why we say Milkify is the “safest way to save your stash!”
How does freeze-drying impact the taste of breast milk?
For parents dealing with high lipase milk - a condition that can cause milk to develop an off-putting taste - freeze-drying offers an added perk. The process deactivates lipase, and in many cases actually improves the taste of milk that has already developed the dreaded “lipase taste”. 90% of our clients tell us that baby will accept the milk again, where they were previously refusing it!
Freeze-dried breast milk also eliminates concerns about temperature fluctuations that might compromise milk safety during travel. Whether it’s a power outage, a broken cooler, or the lack of refrigeration at your destination, you can rest assured that your baby’s milk is safe and ready to use.
How can I store freeze-dried breast milk during travel?
Freeze-dried breast milk powder is durable, but it does need the right storage conditions to maintain its quality. The main goal is to keep it away from moisture and extreme heat.
The good news is that Milkify packages your breast milk powder into high-barrier, highly resistant packaging. As long as you follow the instructions for storing and using freeze-dried breast milk (also printed on the back of the pouches) and keep them sealed, you won’t have to worry about periods of exposure to heat or humidity during travel.
One question we often get is, “can I keep my freeze-dried breast milk in the trunk of my car for three days as we travel across the country?” The answer is yes! A few days of exposure to heat or humidity will not affect your freeze-dried breast milk’s shelf life. Just make sure to store it in a cool, dry place (like a kitchen pantry at room temperature, away from sunlight) over the long-term — meaning several weeks/months.
The high barrier packaging is the safest place to keep your breast milk powder. That means it’s best to avoid transferring it into canisters or other travel containers — since we haven’t validated these alternative storage options, we can’t tell you what the shelf life of the milk would be after the transfer.
It’s also best to store your pouches in the dry section of your luggage, away from toiletries. If For extra protection - especially if you’re traveling to humid or rainy locations - pack the milk in a waterproof container or a zip-lock bag.
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Using your breast milk powder
Making a bottle with freeze-dried breast milk powder is very simple — just add water to make a bottle! Well, OK there is a bit more to it than that.
You can refer to full usage instructions here, or by reading the back of your pouches of powder. When preparing to make bottles during travel, here are some things to keep in mind:
- Access to clean water: you’ll want to make sure you have purified water handy. Bottled water usually works just fine. Distilled water is OK, but not necessary. Avoid mineral water, since it contains extra minerals that are already present in breast milk.
- Measuring scoop: if you have multi-use Saver pouches, you’ll want to bring along your scoop (along with a back up in case the first scoop gets lost). A standard Tablespoon + teaspoon measuring scoop will work perfectly for this. Make sure you are able to store it in a clean, dry place. Even if you have the single-use Singles pouches, a scoop can still come in handy for making bottles of different sizes on the go.
- Clean bottles, nipples, and caps: Keep a few extra bottles handy since you never know when you’ll have a chance to wash and sanitize them after baby is done feeding.
- Portable bottle warmer (optional): Most clients find that breast milk powder goes into solution quite easily — similar to infant formula. However, everyone’s breast milk is different, and if your milk is higher than average in fat content, you may find that reconstituting the powder is slightly tricky. If this is the case, and you find yourself dealing with some clumping in the bottle, then there are two easy solutions: (1) use warmer water right at the outset, and (2) switch to a glass bottle instead of plastic. Keeping a portable, battery-powered bottle warmer is not a bad idea in this case.
Before you travel, it would be best to practice making a few bottles for your baby. Travel can be stressful and draining, and although using freeze-dried breast milk is relatively easy, it’s never fun to do something for the first time when the chaos of travel is all around you.
And of course, if you have any questions or run into any issues, the Milkify team is one quick phone call away! You can reach us at (832) 534-0465, or by email at info@milkify.me.
Happy travels!
