Nova Scotia's department of agriculture is apologizing after one of its food specialists told a mother she could not breastfeed and handle food at a farmer's market.

Dartmouth resident Tanessa Holt started her organic food business Food Noise last fall, CBC News reported.

Half of her business comes from farmer's markets in Dartmouth, Halifax and Beaver Bank, she told the network, though she plans to open a permanent location on Portland Street in Dartmouth soon.

She brought her seven-and-a-half month old son Terek to market with her so she could breastfeed him.

But the provincial government put a stop to that Monday, telling Holt that she could not breastfeed at a booth without someone else present to serve food.

A food specialist with the province told her in an email that breastfeeding at a farmer's market booth creates issues around food safety, Metro News reported.

"I would not allow you to breastfeed and then serve customers throughout the day," the email said. "The food safety concern is contamination of food through possible throw up and or feces coming from the baby."

It went on to say that Holt would be allowed to breastfeed as long as someone else handled food.

Holt said on Facebook that the cost of hiring someone for a small business is "prohibitive."

"My husband is more than happy to sit at the market, but it's just not really a good situation," Holt told The Huffington Post Canada in a phone call Tuesday. "If I decide to go to a market, I have to nurse my son and then if for some reason we have to leave, then I'm leaving someone who is not me who does not know my food to sell my products, and I just don't think that's fair."

Link:
Tanessa Holt Barred From Breastfeeding, Serving Food At Farmer's Markets