Human error blamed for botulism scare
Print Edition
Fonterra, the New Zealand co-operative which is the world’s biggest dairy exporter, said yesterday that a contamination scare in some of its products was caused by human error, and all tainted stocks had now been taken off the market.
CEO Theo Spierings, seeking to reassure customers and worried parents who feed their infants with formula milk made from the company’s whey protein concentrate, said there was now little or no risk to consumers.
New Zealand, which depends on the dairy industry for a quarter of its total exports, has been gripped by worries that a raft of recalls for infant formula in China, a major market, and other countries could snowball into a slump in demand or even bans for other dairy products.
Fonterra said at the weekend it had discovered whey protein products that contained a bacteria that can cause botulism. It said previously its tests had found the contamination in a dirty pipe at one of its plants. No injuries have been reported due to the contamination.
Spierings, who rushed to China at the weekend to apologize for the scare and try to win back customer confidence, said the situation there was stable. “I said at a press conference in China that I would not leave before the situation was stable from the perspective of markets, consumers, customers and global authorities,” he told reporters at the company’s headquarters in Auckland.
At the first international auction of its dairy products since news of the contamination — which didn’t include those products connected with the scare — prices slipped 2.4 percent but stayed near their recent high levels on the back of strong demand from growing middle classes in emerging economies.
Fonterra’s fortnightly auction, the biggest wholesale marketplace for milk powders and dairy produce, saw a near doubling in volumes made available. Economists said the sale suggested customers would continue to pay a premium for New Zealand dairy products.
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