Exploring trends of macronutrients in Danish human donor milk

Abstract

Donor milk obtained from milk banks is a source of infant nutrition for mothers that cannot produce their own milk. Milk banks quality control the milk when donated, testing for the presence of pathogenic bacteria, protein and fat concentrations and total energy content. The macronutrient analysis allows the milk bank to decide if they need to add fortifiers to the milk and whether to continue accepting milk from a specific donor. The data registered is a large knowledge base for understanding how the macronutrient content in human milk changes with e.g. time, maternal health and gestational age. Using information from 331 donated milk samples from 74 different donors, all from Denmark, this paper looks at trends in macronutrient content relative to several parameters. Our results show that there is a statistically significant change in content over time and gestational age, but also that other parameters, not covered by the available data, can have an effect on the quality of donated human milk.