Small Alberta business ‘Booby Food’ fights back after regulator shutdown | Globalnews.ca
She’s now a mother of three, but seven years ago, Janna Hattingh faced a familiar challenge for new moms.
“I had very little breast milk that I could pump but I didn’t want to lose any of it at all. My background was in nutrition and I was like, ‘I wonder if I could freeze-dry it,’” said Hattingh.
It took 18 months working with federal regulators to licence the niche service: freeze-drying breast milk from moms and surrogates for safe storage and transport back to parents. Between 2020 and 2025, shipments moved through regulated channels and across international borders without issue.
“I do a ton of travelling and I didn’t want my milk to expire and then it’s easier to mix in with solids,” said Lethbridge client Mackenzie Sailor.
“I had a surrogate baby in October of 2024,” said another client from Florida, Kallie Heikes. “We had to find a solution for the breast milk to make it to their home [in Australia] which would take days. So, I found Booby Food.”
But early in 2025 everything changed, following questions from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) specifically related to servicing surrogacy clients.
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An inspection cited violations related to imports and food safety. Booby Food’s licence was suspended on March 5, 2025, and inspectors seized their products.
While documents show no confirmed contamination and no recall issued, the seized milk has not been returned.
Global News asked the CFIA why previously cleared shipments were later deemed non-compliant and what changed. The CFIA said, in a statement, that is still has the milk but “based on the conditions under which the product was handled and processed, that it could not be released without posing a potential risk to human health.”
The statement went on to say, “while commercial processing of human breast milk is an emerging activity, it is not unregulated, and existing legislation applies where food is prepared, imported, or traded. Earlier inspections did not reveal the same scope or severity of risk identified in 2025; however, new information and inspection findings led CFIA to conclude there was a risk to human health.”
Hattingh maintains that, despite repeated requests, inspectors haven’t yet disclosed to her what conditions of operation aren’t meeting current standards and what changes she could make to resume her business.
After a 15-month ordeal, Hattingh is moving out and subleasing her lab, having sold 16 of her 17 freeze driers. She launched a GoFundMe in the hope of rebuilding.
“I started out with one freeze drier and built up a great business,” said Hattingh. “And I can do that again with one freeze drier. And that’s what I plan on doing.”
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