US singer threatens legal action against London store asking it to stop selling its latest, 'nausea inducing', product

This article is more than 9 years old

This article is more than 9 years old

The planet's most flamboyantly dressed pop star is threatening legal action against British manufacturers of the world's most bizarrely flavoured ice-cream.

Lady Gaga has told a store in Covent Garden, central London, to stop selling its latest brand, Baby Gaga – ice-cream made from human breast milk, blended with vanilla pods and lemon.

The US singer, whose last entanglement with foodstuffs involved wearing a dress stitched together from raw meat to an awards ceremony, appears unaware that the product she complained about disappeared off the company's shelves last week.

The day after it went on sale inspectors from Westminster council's food standards department confiscated the remaining scoops of Baby Gaga to check whether it met hygiene requirements.

Matt O'Connor, owner of the newly opened Icecreamists parlour, said he felt like a man "wielding two spoons engaged in hand-to-hand combat". Lady Gaga's letter, he said, "described me as the 'controlling mind' behind the ice-cream, which makes me sound like Blofeld, in a James Bond movie, bent on global domination.

"A global superstar has taken umbrage at what she describes as a 'nausea-inducing' product. This from a woman with a penchant for wearing rotting cows' flesh. At least our customers are still alive when they contribute to our 'art'.

"She claims we have 'ridden the coattails' of her reputation. As someone who has … recycled on an industrial scale the entire back catalogue of pop culture to create her look, music and videos, she might want to reconsider this allegation.

"How can she possibly claim ownership of the word 'gaga' which since the dawn of time has been one of the first discernable phrases to come from a baby's mouth?"

O'Connor said the costumes used in the ice-cream parlour were a reference to "Madonna's Jean-Paul Gaultier designed conical brassiere for the 1990 Blonde Ambition Tour (which itself was inspired by 1950's cone bras). It had no relation to the Lady herself."

Westminster council said it had removed the ice-cream because "selling foodstuffs made from another person's bodily fluids can lead to viruses being passed on and, in this case, potentially hepatitis".

O'Connor dismissed that claim, too. The woman who donated the breast milk, he said, "is a registered blood donor. So she has been screened both by us and a clinic."