News

The Placenta Smoothie Shop Has Closed Down :(

by Eliza Castile

May 5, 2015

If you bill something as all-natural, people will buy it, probably for at least twice the market value. Even the trendiest of healthy eaters, however, has their limits, and apparently they can be found at a U.K. placenta smoothie shop, which was recently closed down due to possible health violations. You mean we have to start blending our own raw-placenta-and-fruit concoctions? What's next, making our own bone broth? Oh, the humanity!The smoothie shop was the brainchild of birth specialist Kathryn Beale, the Telegraph reports. Like many, Beale claims that placenta has a range of health benefits, from making your hair grow longer to recovering from birth faster. In addition to delicious fruit-and-birth-organ-goodness, the shop also offered powdered placenta pills and umbilical cord ties made from embroidery thread, all of which were crafted in her own kitchen. Perhaps unsurprisingly, not everyone was on board with her means of production, claiming that it could put buyers at risk for staphylococcus aureus, and the Swindon Magistrates Court granted an emergency order to shut down the business last week. District Judge Simon Cooper commented that the risk of staph was "extremely high," although he seemed amused by the shop's very existence."I have never quite appreciated the range and ingenuity of the human mind which will place cases such as this before me," he said in court. I would be surprised too, but working in journalism means that I've read about much weirder things. Placenta smoothies are still pretty up there, though.

Beale, on the other hand, doesn't see what all the fuss is about. "The organisms transferred to the surface of the placenta are protective, not hazardous, and will prevent the growth of staphylococcus aureus because of competition, the low pH due to lactic acid and to other antibacterial compounds produced," she told This Is Wiltshire. She went on to say that she would have contested the order, but the financial costs would be too great if she lost.

No amount of scientific jargon can deter the courts, however, so until Beale can show that she prepares the food in a "safe manner," prosecutor Phil Worth told This Is Wiltshire that the smoothie shop would remain closed. For new mothers still looking to emulate Kourtney Kardashian's love for placenta, however, fear not: you can still have your placenta made into pill form elsewhere.

Images: Kevin Hawkins/Flickr, Giphy, MTV