Perspective: Human Milk Composition and Related Data for National Health and Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research

Jaspreet K C Ahuja¹, Kellie O Casavale², Ying Li¹, Kathryn E Hopperton³, Subhadeep Chakrabarti³, Erin P Hines⁴, Stephen P J Brooks⁵, Genevieve S Bondy⁶, Amanda J MacFarlane⁵, Hope A Weiler⁵, Xianli Wu¹, Michael M Borghese⁷, Namanjeet Ahluwalia⁸, Winnie Cheung³, Ashley J Vargas⁹, Sonia Arteaga¹⁰, Tania Lombo¹¹, Mandy M Fisher⁷, Deborah Hayward³, Pamela R Pehrsson¹

Affiliations

¹ Methods and Application of Food Composition Laboratory, Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center, Agricultural Research Services, US Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Maryland, USA.
² Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Food and Drug Administration, US Department of Health and Human Services, College Park, Maryland, USA.
³ Nutrition Premarket Assessment Division, Bureau of Nutritional Sciences, Food Directorate, Health Products and Food Branch, Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
⁴ Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology Branch, Public Health and Integrated Toxicology Division, US Environmental Protection Agency, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
⁵ Nutrition Research Division, Bureau of Nutritional Sciences, Food Directorate, Health Products and Food Branch, Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
⁶ Bureau of Chemical Safety, Food Directorate, Health Products and Food Branch, Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
⁷ Environmental Health Sciences and Research Bureau, Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
⁸ National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Health and Human Services, Hyattsville, Maryland, USA.
⁹ Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
¹⁰ Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program, Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
¹¹ Maternal Adolescent Pediatric Research Branch, Prevention Science Program, Division of AIDS, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Bethesda, Maryland, USA.

PMID: 36084013
PMCID: PMC9776678
DOI: 10.1093/advances/nmac099

Perspective: Human Milk Composition and Related Data for National Health and Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research

Jaspreet K C Ahuja et al. Adv Nutr. 2022.

. 2022 Dec 22;13(6):2098-2114.

doi: 10.1093/advances/nmac099.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Methods and Application of Food Composition Laboratory, Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center, Agricultural Research Services, US Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Maryland, USA.
² Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Food and Drug Administration, US Department of Health and Human Services, College Park, Maryland, USA.
³ Nutrition Premarket Assessment Division, Bureau of Nutritional Sciences, Food Directorate, Health Products and Food Branch, Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
⁴ Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology Branch, Public Health and Integrated Toxicology Division, US Environmental Protection Agency, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
⁵ Nutrition Research Division, Bureau of Nutritional Sciences, Food Directorate, Health Products and Food Branch, Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
⁶ Bureau of Chemical Safety, Food Directorate, Health Products and Food Branch, Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
⁷ Environmental Health Sciences and Research Bureau, Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
⁸ National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Health and Human Services, Hyattsville, Maryland, USA.
⁹ Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
¹⁰ Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program, Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
¹¹ Maternal Adolescent Pediatric Research Branch, Prevention Science Program, Division of AIDS, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Bethesda, Maryland, USA.

PMID: 36084013
PMCID: PMC9776678
DOI: 10.1093/advances/nmac099

Abstract

National health and nutrition monitoring is an important federal effort in the United States and Canada, and the basis for many of their nutrition and health policies. Understanding of child exposures through human milk (HM) remains out of reach due to lack of current and representative data on HM's composition and intake volume. This article provides an overview of the current national health and nutrition monitoring activities for HM-fed children, HM composition (HMC) and volume data used for exposure assessment, categories of potential measures in HM, and associated variability factors. In this Perspective, we advocate for a framework for collection and reporting of HMC data for national health and nutrition monitoring and programmatic needs, including a shared vision for a publicly available Human Milk Composition Data Repository (HMCD-R) to include essential metadata associated with HMC. HMCD-R can provide a central, integrated platform for researchers and public health officials for compiling, evaluating, and sharing HMC data. The compiled compositional and metadata in HMCD-R would provide pertinent measures of central tendency and variability and allow use of modeling techniques to approximate compositional profiles for subgroups, providing more accurate exposure assessments for purposes of monitoring and surveillance. HMC and related metadata could facilitate understanding the complexity and variability of HM composition, provide crucial data for assessment of infant and maternal nutritional needs, and inform public health policies, food and nutrition programs, and clinical practice guidelines.

Keywords: B-24 population; bioactives in human milk; breast milk; environmental chemicals in human milk; human milk; human milk composition data repository (HMCD-R); intake volume; national monitoring; nutrients in human milk; variability in human milk.

Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society for Nutrition 2022.

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Figures

**FIGURE 1**
Categories of potential components to measure in human milk. HM, human milk; OC, organochlorine; PBDE, Polybrominated diphenyl ethers; PCB, polychlorinated biphenyl; PCDD, polychlorinated dibenzodioxin; PCDF, polychlorinated dibenzofuran.

**FIGURE 2**
Examples of variability factors associated with human milk composition and/or volume.

**FIGURE 3**
Schematic representation of the Human Milk Composition Data Repository (HMCD-R).

See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Perspective: Human Milk Composition and Related Data for National Health and Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research

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Perspective: Human Milk Composition and Related Data for National Health and Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research

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