Bacteria scare for New Zealand dairy industry
New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra has said tests of some ingredients used in infant formula and sports drinks have discovered a type of bacteria that could cause botulism.
Customers were urgently checking their supply chains following the announcement by Fonterra, the world's fourth-largest dairy company, with annual revenues of about NZ$20.25bn (€12bn).
The news is a blow to New Zealand's dairy industry, which powers the country's economy. The country exports about 95% of its milk.
Consumers in China and elsewhere are willing to pay a big premium for New Zealand infant formula because the country has a clean and healthy reputation. Chinese customers have a special interest after tainted local milk formula killed six babies in 2008.
The Centres for Disease Control describes botulism as a rare, but sometimes fatal, paralytic illness caused by a nerve toxin.
Fonterra said it had told eight of its customers of the problem, which dates back more than a year, and was investigating whether any of the affected product was in their supply chains. Fonterra said those companies would initiate any consumer product recalls.
At a news conference, Fonterra repeatedly refused to name the companies, countries or specific products affected.
Gary Romano, managing director of Fonterra's New Zealand milk products, said his firm supplied raw materials to the eight companies and it was up to them to inform their consumers of what products might be tainted.
The company acknowledged that its chief executive, Theo Spierings, planned to fly to China today, in part to deal with the fallout from the botulism scare.
Mr Romano said the problem was caused by unsterilised pipes at a Waikato factory. He said three batches of whey protein weighing about 42 tons were tainted in May 2012, adding that Fonterra had since cleaned the pipes.
The company said it identified a potential quality problem in March when a product tested positive for the bacteria Clostridium.
Many strains of the bacteria are harmless, Fonterra said, and product samples were put through intensive testing over the following months. It said that on July 31 it discovered the presence of a strain of the bacteria that can cause botulism.
Mr Romano said Fonterra had not received reports of anyone becoming ill and added that the problem had not affected any fresh milk, yoghurt, cheese or long-lasting heat-treated milk.
New Zealand's Ministry for Primary Industries said it was working with the company to investigate.
Mr Spierings said food safety was the company's top priority. "We are acting quickly," he said. "Our focus is to get information out about potentially affected product as fast as possible so that it can be taken off supermarket shelves and, where it has already been purchased, can be returned."
Rabobank's 2012 Global Dairy Top 20 report ranked Fonterra as the world's fourth-largest dairy company by revenue behind Nestle, Danone and Lactalis. The company is a co-operative, partially owned by thousands of farmers.
In 2011 the company collected 15.4 billion litres of milk in New Zealand, representing about 90% of the country's total.
In 2008, six babies in China died and another 300,000 were made ill by infant formula that was tainted with melamine, an industrial chemical added to watered-down milk to fool tests for protein levels.
