Bacteriological effectiveness of the laboratory water bath ECROSKHIM PE-4300 for the expressed breast milk pasteurization

Abstract

Breastfeeding is commonly acknowledged as being the biological norm. In cases when a child cannot be latched to the breast, freshly expressed mother's milk is the first choice that in specific conditions may require pasteurization. In accordance with the Russian sanitary rules and regulations as of 2021, “human milk is processed by boiling it in a water bath,” which is extremely destructive for the most of its biologically active and important components. The global practice of thermal processing of human milk is its low-temperature pasteurization according to the Holder method for 30 minutes at the temperature of +62.5°C. Currently there are no Russian domestically produced breast milk (BM) pasteurizers whilst it is not always possible to purchase imported equipment as yet. The purpose of this research was to assess the bacteriological safety of BM pasteurization using the laboratory water bath PE-4300 domestically produced by “ECROSKHIM” in Saint Petersburg, Russia, which allows the reproducing of the Holder method. Materials and methods used: a prospective single-center study of 153 lactating mothers was conducted with 306 BM samples being subjected to bacteriological analysis prior to and after the pasteurization. Results: before pasteurization, the growth of opportunistic bacteria was detected in all BM samples mainly due to the growth of S. epidermidis. After pasteurization, 96.1% of BM samples turned out to be sterile. In the remaining 3.9%, the scant growth of S. epidermidis (2.6%), Streptococcus oralis (0.65%) and Acinetobacter (0.65%) was not clinically significant. Conclusion: BM pasteurization in the laboratory water bath ECROSKHIM PE-4300 demonstrated high bacteriological safety of the device’s final revision, which in its turn allowed Authors to recommend this method of processing of both maternal and donor BM in pediatric and perinatal facilities.