Airport security discarded ALL my frozen expressed milk before our flight

[Nadsthakur]

During security screening, approximately 25 ounces of my frozen expressed breast milk was confiscated and discarded. I was told that because it was frozen, it could not be tested and therefore could not be taken through security.

I explained several times that this milk was for my 8-month-old daughter, who is unable to latch and is exclusively fed expressed breast milk. This was not simply a drink or an inconvenience, it was my daughter's only prepared source of nutrition for our journey. Despite explaining this, I was told there was nothing that could be done, and I had to stand there and watch as the milk was thrown away.

I cannot put into words how upsetting this was. Expressing 25 ounces of breast milk takes an enormous amount of time, dedication and physical effort. It means pumping throughout the day and night, carefully storing every bottle and planning ahead. Every ounce represents hours of work. To have it thrown away in front of me, after explaining exactly how important it was, was absolutely heartbreaking.

What made the situation even worse was the attitude of the officers involved. Throughout the interaction, I felt they showed very little empathy or understanding of how serious this was. I was clearly distressed and repeatedly explained that they were taking away my baby's only food for our journey. Rather than trying to help, showing compassion or explaining whether there were any alternative screening options, my concerns were simply dismissed.

After my daughter's food had been thrown away, I was handed a customer feedback card and sent on my way. It genuinely felt as though nobody cared that an 8-month-old baby had just lost the only food I had prepared for her. The complete lack of compassion shown towards me as a mother was deeply upsetting and made an already distressing situation even worse.

Instead of looking forward to our holiday, I boarded an international flight feeling anxious and devastated, worrying about how I was going to feed my daughter while we were away. No parent should ever be put in that position.

Before travelling, I checked the guidance available to passengers. Ryanair's website clearly states that parents travelling with an infant can bring as much baby milk as needed for the flight, provided it is presented for inspection. I relied on this information when preparing for our journey. At no point was I made aware that frozen expressed breast milk could be refused because it could not be tested, and I was given no alternative option when I reached security.

I do not know the names of the officers involved, but im sure they can be identified through CCTV footage and staff rosters for the security checkpoint.
I want Manchester Airport to provide a full explanation of why my daughter's expressed breast milk was confiscated.
The specific policy or security procedure that required it to be discarded.
An explanation of why no alternative screening method. The time and physical effort it took to express and store it, and the significant distress, anxiety and disruption this caused to both me and my family.im supposed to enjoy my holiday and now im stressed in morroco about how I will feed her. She doesnt latch and only has expressed milk. Besides complaining to the Airport what else can I do so no other family goes through this.

It's under a heading of "what liquids are permitted on board"

Don’t be silly! 😛

OP was wrong…. 🤷‍♀️

It doesn't actually say that, unlike the airport information. It says breast milk is allowed, and it would be very unusual to travel with more than a tiny amount of unfrozen breast milk because untreated milk doesn't stay sterile for long.

Manchester airport specifies whether it can be frozen or not, so it's clear that someone there felt it needed to be said explicitly.

So simple isn’t it, comprehension not a lot of people on here’s forte though!

It's not considered a solid for these purposes though, so this is an "if my aunt had balls she'd be my uncle" argument.

As others have said, it’s not Ryanair or the airport, it’s the actual government. As in an actual law

https://www.gov.uk/hand-luggage-restrictions/baby-food-and-baby-milk

And a quick google search of ‘does Ryanair allow frozen baby milk’ would bring that up.

So I’m sorry you were distressed, but you were wrong. Simple as. And you can’t have done that much due diligence because I found that out in 30 seconds. Also you come across as really entitled with your ‘no nursing mother should have to suffer this’ statements. If you forgot to get your baby a passport would that be their fault too, because you’re a mother??

Please don’t waste anyone’s time complaining about them not letting you break the law.

You can take ice cream on a plane?

Never knew that!

Don be daft. You get that this is a matter of security, not a question of semantics right? Any solid that is only solid at >1 degree will be a liquid on the plane and therefore needs testing. The tests only work on liquids. End of.

YABU and your attitude is shocking.

Manchester Airport are working to the rules set by the government which explicitly says no frozen breast milk in hand luggage.

The onus is on you to comply with the rules, and on them to enforce the rules. You failed, they didn't.

Incorrect. The Met uncovered a terrorist plot to take down an airline using liquids disguised as juice in bottles, it was pretty much ready to go, and it is possible to do. Just because they caught it before it was successful, doesn’t mean it isn’t a risk.

The shoe bomb failed one time. But again, it is a credible threat. It doesn’t take much of a hole in the side of an aircraft to bring it down.

The question of whether the risk is worth the hassle of security checks is one for the individual to answer, but security is becoming more technologically advanced so the hassle is becoming less. The theatre part of it is absolutely the case, but again that does play a part in safety. You always have the option not to fly if you don’t want to be subjected to it.

It really isn’t. The response was to the Ryanair information posted about liquids and the inference that it was clear. The question was can you bring breastmilk (liquid) on a plane so the issue of whether freezing it means it is no longer liquid or not is not pedantry, it is the very essence of the question. And, using other frozen material examples, if you can bring ice cream, why not frozen breastmilk?

This is all just to say, Ryanair would do well to add the frozen stipulation to its guidance as other government advice stipulated it specifically.

I almost exclusively pumped.

I'm sorry but you should have checked the rules first. You should have been prepared to use formula if necessary. Or expressed on route. Or carried in hold luggage. There are numerous options here.
It was NOT your child's only source of food. It was a choice that suited you.

Security has to be able to ensure the safety of all passengers. If they make exceptions they will be used by people to dodge security checks.

Which is not the case for other frozen materials. I have no opinion on whether the rules are correct or necessary, the rules are as they are. I’m simply saying to suggest OP relied on the written advice from Ryanair that was posted here, the question of whether she could take frozen breastmilk was not answered by that.

Where in the UK do you fly from? Because I fly multiple times a year all over the world, and my experience is that the UK staff are very shouty, usually due to poor airport design and signage. They are also poorly trained, and incredibly slow, and that is going through fast track. In contrast, I went through the normal security line in Helsinki airport in the post covid meltdown summer of 2022, and they screened 200 people in about 20 minutes, with no shouting required.

I also know a bit about the aviation industry, and find it both fascinating and either disturbing or hilarious that on a site for mothers, everyone is saying how reasonable it is to have to entrust an infant's main or only food source to checked luggage. If white men needed a large amount of a liquid that had to be frozen to be comfortable, much less survive, you can be damn sure we would have figured out a way to test it by now. That's setting aside the fact security procedures are demonstrably not very secure, discriminatory, and respond to an incident that, while tragic, resulted in just over half of the number of American lives lost in the for Osama Bin Laden. Oh, and by the way, about half of those deaths were preventable, as the evacuation of the second tower was cancelled, and people sent back to work, and yet we see no such changes to evacuation procedures.... But sure, making it super difficult for some babies to eat on or after flights is definitely reasonable, and "just use formula" (when that isn't an option for many babies for many reasons) is the right response, rather than "why the fuck are we making one failed terrorist attempt more important than feeding actual live babies who have to travel, or whose mothers have to travel?"

I EBF until 3 years old. No formula. But I think this is overkill OP. Just buy some formula. What was with all the frozen breastmilk on a Ryanair flight? For an 8 month old? Why? You’re making a big deal out of nothing here.

Agree with this - if the op had no reason to question the frozen element of her query, it would not have been answered by the Ryanair information. It should have said “all milk must be in liquid form, frozen milk is not allowed through security”.

Anyway the essence of the ops complaint is not the rules, it is how she was treated. Aggressively, curtly, and made to feel like an idiot. Airport security is stressful enough - as I have said several times before, there is simply no reason for them to be so rude.

🤦🏻‍♀️ presumably she can continue to express throughout the holiday but this was their stock for travel day etc.

Seems like the staff were just doing their job though. I wonder could OP not have quickly defrosted some pouches? With some hot water from Costa? Apologies if this isn’t possible, it’s been a while since I was dealing with expressed milk. I remember only too well how hard won each ounce was though, so I’m very sympathetic!

People on here are piling on you because they think you doing your all to try and breastfeed your child is a comment on formula. That’s their own issue. Ignore them.

I would complain to the airport and ask them to make their guidelines clearer, tell them the distress caused and the attitude of the security. It doesn’t take much to be kind about something so stressful and they made a difficult situation worse by their manner.

Thank you. Exactly this.

It's strange how people even on a website for "mums" so many people are so eager to tell a young mum she's an idiot for something that is really not entirely clear and is by far from being a likely cause of terror attacks.

I just flew from Stansted and what a nightmare airport. Fast track took longer than normal queue. 😂 Cornwall airport was also a bit of a disorganised nightmare but the people were so nice. 😂 It makes all Scandi airports look like a dream, so efficient and well organised.

It is the first result on Google.

Yes agree it’s uk specific - maybe us as well but I haven’t been there for ages. In Dubrovnik airport recently they very calmly explained that here we take electronics out and clarified exactly what that meant and how many trays would be needed. In the UK it would have been eye rolling and blustering and snatching the trays away from you

What a stupid rant.

@CallItLoneliness

That's setting aside the fact security procedures are demonstrably not very secure, discriminatory, and respond to an incident that, while tragic, resulted in just over half of the number of American lives lost in the for Osama Bin Laden. Oh, and by the way, about half of those deaths were preventable, as the evacuation of the second tower

Given you claim to know a bit about the aviation industry I'm surprised you've singled out that one event - you must know a lot of the procedures in place either pre-date 9/11 -many actually hark back to events in the late 60s/early 70s,)..shame the US airports maybe weren't that smart with implementation, or the 2006 liquids plot.

It's probably fair/OK to say one partial reason for many of the measures is to demonstrate that an attack by many means would be very difficult (so encouraging terrorists to go elsewhere) so I suppose it can be said there's an element of theatre to it all, but nevertheless the processes are needed....

TBH having had to go through security every working day for many years I appreciate it can be a PITA sometimes but it's really not the Mission Impossible/unreasonable some people seem to think it is.

Obviously a very distressing situation. But totally unfair to put the blame on people who are just doing their job. The people who want airport security to bend the rules for them 'just this once' are the very ones who will be shouting the loudest in the event of a crisis..

As this was such an inportant issue a bit more research and due dilligence was needed to insure there would be no problem bringing it through security. It is unfair to blame others when ultimately this was not done.