Fonterra yesterday apologized for a milk powder contamination scare in China, which has raised safety concerns that threaten New Zealand’s US$9 billion annual dairy trade and Fonterra’s own business in a top market.
Fonterra, the world’s biggest dairy exporter, said over the weekend that it had found bacteria in some products that could cause botulism. It said contaminated whey protein concentrate had been exported to China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Saudi Arabia, and used in products, including infant milk powder and sports drinks.
At a media briefing in Beijing after hurriedly flying to deal with the fallout in one of its largest markets, Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings said food safety was the company’s top priority.
Photo: Reuters
“We really regret the distress and anxiety which this issue could have caused,” he said. “We totally understand there is concern by parents and other consumers around the world. Parents have the right to know that infant nutrition and other dairy products are harmless and safe.”
The company was not facing a ban on its products in China, only restrictions on whey protein concentrate, he said, adding that 38 tonnes of whey protein concentrate were contaminated, of which 18 tonnes were used in its own factories in Australia and New Zealand to produce milk formula for two customers.
In China, Spierings said that products from two companies — Coca-Cola Co and Chinese food firm Wahaha (娃哈哈) — are safe because any bacteria would be killed during processing. Protein drinks made by Auckland-based Vitaco Health Group, another Fonterra customer, were also unaffected for the same reason.
A third company in China, Dumex Baby Food Co (多美滋嬰幼兒食品), a subsidiary of France’s Danone, has told Fonterra that 12 batches could have been affected, he said. Half have been recalled as a precautionary measure and the other half remain in factories.
“None of the products tested by Dumex in China have reported problems,” Spierings said. “There have been no customer complaints.”
Products exported to China under the Karicare brand by another Danone subsidiary, Nutricia, do not contain the contaminated whey protein concentrate, he said.
Fonterra is a major supplier of bulk milk powder products used in infant formula in China, but it had stayed out of the branded space after Chinese dairy company Sanlu (三鹿), in which it had held a large stake, was found to have added melamine — often used in plastics — to bulk up formulas in 2008.
Spierings said the latest problem originated in a pipe in an factory in New Zealand that was seldom used, so a normal cleaning was not sufficient to sanitize it.
Fonterra discovered in March that some whey protein concentrate, produced and sold to customers in May last year, was contaminated. It immediately began testing, but as most of the bacteria’s strains are benign, the company did not find the harmful strain until last month. Customers were informed on July 31, Spierings said.
“The supply chain for infant nutrition powder takes a long time with many steps,” he said.
Initial tests last year did not uncover the harmful bacteria, Spierings said, but a more thorough round of testing in March did.
The affected plant was closed for cleaning after the possibility of a problem was discovered, he said.
He said the problem was isolated to that factory, and he was confident all contaminated products had been found.
China has restricted New Zealand imports of whey products, but Spierings said he expected that the curbs would be lifted as soon as the company furnishes a detailed explanation of what went wrong to Chinese regulators early this week.
The majority of the affected products have already been contained, he said, and the problem will be resolved within two days after all contaminated products have been recalled.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day