London officials ban ice cream shop’s sale of dessert made from human breast milk

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Under the category of “taking pop culture just a bit too far,” government officials earlier this week reportedly seized samples of a “Baby Gaga” ice cream –- made with human breast milk -– from a shop called Icecreamists in London and sent it to a lab to be tested for possible hepatitis contamination.

Now, citing food safety concerns -– not to mention a fair amount of public outcry -- members of the Westminster City Council have ordered the owners of the ice cream shop to stop selling it.

According to the BBC, Westminster City Councilman Brian Connell said that lawmakers supported small business and innovative ideas. But Connell said the unusual fare went too far. “Selling foodstuffs made from another person’s bodily fluids can lead to viruses being passed on and in this case, potentially hepatitis,” Connell told the BBC.

But Matt O’Connor, the shop’s founder and owner, countered in London newspapers that he and his staff had followed the same lab-screening protocols as those used at blood banks or U.K. breast milk banks. (The shop reportedly procured the milk from women who responded to an online ad the shop had placed. The initial batches quickly sold out.)

Besides, O’Connor argued, if babies can drink human breast milk, why can’t adults consume it if it’s been mixed with Madagascar vanilla beans, lemon zest and churned into a $22.80-per-scoop frozen dessert?

Council officials and members of the U.K.’s Health Protection Agency and Food Standards Agency, however, weren’t swayed. They have since removed the shop’s remaining stockpile of “Baby Gaga” ice cream.

-- P.J. Huffstutter