In a shock announcement yesterday, the Primary Industries Ministry said there was no contamination linked to botulism in Fonterra whey protein product at the centre of an international food safety alert.
The ministry’s independent testing contradicted the results of tests done by Fonterra or on its behalf by state owned AgResearch.
The alert earlier this month caused product recalls, a trade backlash and tarnished New Zealand’s “clean green” brand.
Key said he would not jump to conclusions about fault until all the inquiries were finished so he could look at in totality.
Fonterra and the ministry each have two inquires into the contamination scare and the Government is undertaking its own independent inquiry.
Key said “jumping down the lens” of television cameras now and second-guessing information before inquiries were completed didn’t make any sense.
“I think people would expect us to take a mature and grown up approach and actually see what went on and when we understand it all, then I’ll offer you a very strong and forceful view of who I think is responsible and who’s not,” he told reporters at Parliament.
Key downplayed whether it had been embarrassing for New Zealand saying it illustrated how seriously we needed to take food safety.
Infant formula maker Nutricia today said it is talking to its lawyers after it pulled thousands of cans of its Karicare brand off shelves based on Fonterra’s flawed tests.
Key said legal action would ultimately be up to the companies involved but urged everyone to wait until all inquires were complete.
“When all of those inquires are completed if a party believes they’ve got a genuine and winnable legal case then they’ll take that action, that’s the way commercial law operates in New Zealand but rather than have lawyers at ten paces my advice would be to allow the inquires to do their work and then consider what you want do next,” he said.
The ministry announced yesterday that nearly 200 further tests commissioned here and in the United States had ruled out the botulism-causing strain of the bacteria in the whey, and there was never any health risk.
The whey had been exposed to a dirty pipe at Fonterra's Hautapu plant in May last year.
Tests done during further processing in Australia in March picked up a specifications problem but Fonterra did not confirm the nature of the threat till July 31, based on AgResearch's extra tests.
It alerted the ministry on August 2 which triggered the product recalls.
