23kg Of Frozen Breast Milk Seized By Chinese Customs From Woman Returning From Singapore 

A mum's nightmare—all of it, wasted.

Okay, first of all, what a complete waste of liquid gold, aka precious breastmilk.

While it sometimes is inevitable for pumping mums to travel with frozen breast milk, a woman might have unintentionally caused herself some trouble at the airport customs.

In a Chinese woman’s effort to transport frozen breastmilk for her baby from Singapore to Quanzhou, she risked having 23kg worth of milk confiscated at the Chinese customs of Quanzhou Jinjiang International Airport in Fujian province, according to reports from Quanzhou Evening News. She was unable to explain the source of the breastmilk discovered in her luggage, according to the same report.

89 insulated plastic bags, labelled with dates and times, were used to store the breastmilk according to the South China Morning Post.

Unfortunately for the woman, the bags of breastmilk were destroyed by the officers as she did not get quarantine approval in advance.

It is mandatory to get a quarantine approval in advance in order to travel with frozen breast milk. | Photo: Handout

After being taken in for questioning, the lady was let go off to continue on with her journey.

The unidentified woman arrived in Quanzhou on flight MU238 from Singapore on 10 January 2020, last Friday.

It is a mandatory practice for all milk and its by-products, other than infant formula, to be approved prior to transportation into China by refrigerated transport.

Expressed breast milk stored and frozen. | Photo: istock

While such cases are not the first seen in the province according to local authorities, the amount of frozen breast milk confiscated this time was the most they had come across in recent years.

Source: SCMP, Quanzhou Evening News

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Jia Ling

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