Acting MPI director-general Scott Gallacher played down Fonterra’s role in the trade nightmare, brushing off suggestions the dairy giant had handled the situation inadequately and had provided the ministry with incorrect information.
Gallacher said the situation was in a rapidly evolving state and the ministry was working with Fonterra to reassure consumers and overseas markets.
He said MPI was checking information it received from Fonterra this morning about the scope of ingredients in the affected Nutricia Karicare range and a further update would be made soon.
Gallacher could not confirm what Nutricia Karicare batches had been, or were on sale in New Zealand but said there had been no reports of NZ infants affected by the formula but said two types of infant formula – Karicare Infant Formula Stage 1 for babies from birth and Karicare Stage 2 Follow-on Formula for children from six month old – should be avoided.
“Ever since we were notified on Friday afternoon we have had a number of conversations with Fonterra and there are a number of questions we have over the timeliness and the timetable leading up to our notification on Friday afternoon,” Gallacher said.
“But at the moment we are fully focused on making sure we deal with the here and now and ensure we are providing the right sort of information to all consumers.”
“Ever since we were notified on Friday afternoon we have had a number of conversations with Fonterra and there are a number of questions we have over the timeliness and the timetable leading up to our notification on Friday afternoon.”
Scott Gallacher
Acting MPI director-general
It is understood about 900 tonnes of products, including infant formula, containing contaminated whey have been recalled because they included bacteria associated with the potentially fatal disease botulism.
The 38 tonnes of whey produced in May last year were contaminated by a dirty pipe at the Fonterra processing plant at Hautapu in Waikato.
Fonterra is yet to explain why it took so long to identify the potentially fatal strain of bacteria.
China has temporally banned all Fonterra-produced whey powder and dairy-based powder and has increased boarder inspection of New Zealand dairy products.
Russia has also blocked milk powder products despite not being one of the countries that imported the potentially contaminated product.
Other countries affected include Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Saudi Arabia.
Gallacher said NZ could face more market closures but officials were working hard to get information to relevant authorities in overseas markets.
“At this stage we are not aware of any additional market closures but we are focused on working closely with our counterparts in all overseas markets to ensure that we can respond to any information request they have and highlight where any information gaps are,” he said.
