Lipase
It's time to go back to work and you've been saving breastmilk in your freezer preparing for months. Someone thaws out your breastmilk and reports it smells like fish! You are panicked thinking your breastmilk has gone bad! We use to assume this "fishy" or "soapy" smell was from high lipase levels in breastmilk. Rest assured, your milk is absolutely safe to consume!
Emerging research suggests that the change in smell and taste are not caused by higher than normal lipase but instead by the crystallization of milk lipids. This crystallization occurs at most standard freezers which damages human fat globule membranes that encompass the lipids, resulting in lipase access to lipids and break down the milk fat.
No More Scalding
We also used to recommend "scalding" high lipase milk to remove excess lipase and minimize the smell or taste so your baby would take the milk. Some infants are sensitive to the taste and smell of thawed breastmilk.
Scalding inactivates lipase so it would need to be done immediately after expression, not when thawing later. However, scalding destroys bioactive properties in your breastmilk!
Normal lipase in breastmilk breaks down the triglyceride molecules in fatty acids as soon as milk leaves your breast. These fatty acids become oxidized when they are exposed to air and can cause an odor.
Recommendations
Use fresh milk whenever possible!
Avoid a lot of oxygen exposure when storing your milk
Warm your milk
Add small amount of alcohol free vanilla (discuss with your pediatrician)
Bottom Line
We eat stinky foods all the time such as fish and cheese, there's nothing to be concerned about! Fresh milk will always taste the breast and will never smell like cow's milk which is pasteurized and homogenized. Breastmilk isn't designed to be stored in your freezer.
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