ORCID

0009-0003-9687-4799 (Brenner)

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2025

DOI

10.1038/s41372-025-02443-6

Publication Title

Journal of Perinatology

Volume

Advance online publication

Pages

6 pp.

Abstract

Objective

To assess the risk of infant exposure to illicit and prescription drug residues, from infant-ready, pooled, pasteurized donor human milk (PDHM) provided by healthy, screened, voluntary non-remunerated donors to a not-for-profit milk bank.

Study Design

A total of 150 pooled samples, representing 742 donor contributions, were analyzed for 15 illicit and prescription drug analytes using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Detected concentrations were evaluated for clinical significance.

Result

All 150 PDHM samples tested negative for residues of marijuana, amphetamines, benzodiazepines, fentanyl, hydrocodone, and morphine. Three samples (2%) contained trace amounts of oxycodone (< 0.6 parts per billion), yielding exposures over 455 times lower than established standards for infant safety (Relative Infant Dose: < 0.022%; standard safety threshold 10%).

Conclusion

Comprehensive analysis detected no clinically relevant illicit or prescription drug residues in infant-ready pasteurized donor human milk, supporting both its safety for neonatal consumption and the effectiveness of current donor screening protocols and milk processing practices.

Rights

© The Authors 2025.

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original authors and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

Data Availability

Article states: "The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to institutional/ethical/proprietary restrictions, but may be available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request and with appropriate approvals."

Original Publication Citation

Brenner, M., Krutsch, K., Baker, A., Patel, D., & Datta, P. (2025). Quantification of illicit and prescription drug residues in pasteurized donor human milk: A comprehensive analytical approach. Journal of Perinatology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-025-02443-6

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