frozen milk smells awful

[pumpkin]

I just tried to use some of our older frozen milk. It tastes ok, but it smells awful. It smells like freezer burn.

The milk that is only a week or two old is fine so its not just the act of being frozen.

Its stored in Lasinoh milk bags in the freezer section of our fridge. What can I do to help it last longer?

[Latte Mama]

Well first off, make sure it's not being used after 3 months. That's how long frozen milk in a fridge freezer is good for. In a deep freeze, I believe it's 6 months. You can put your Lansinoh bags in a ziploc after they freeze for added protection as well. Keeping them towards the back of the freezer where it's coldest will help also.

[pumpkinhead]

Does it have kind of a soapy smell? If so, it's possible that your milk has excess lipase. It's an enzyme that breaks down the fat in your milk (meant to help baby digest it) but it doesn't stop working at freezer temperatures. If you have lots, that just means that it will start breaking down the fat and give the milk a funny smell.

It doesn't generally affect the taste and it's perfectly fine for your baby to drink. IF it bother's your baby, you can try scalding the milk (bring it to the point just before boiling in a pan) before you freeze it to inactivate the lipase.

AFAIK, BM is good for up to 6 mos at the back of a fridge freezer and up to 1 year in a deep freeze/chest style freezer.

[pumpkin]

It smells like a combo of freezer burn and lemons. Its got definite acidic undertones.

[Super~Single~Mama]

If its freezer burn then I read that getting all the air bubbles out of the bag can help prevent that.

Otherwise, the pp probably know best.