The New Zealand Herald quotes Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings as being ‘very relieved’ with the news that the recent botulism scare turned out to be a false alarm.
Fonterra issued a recall of dairy product containing whey protein concentrate ingredient, and products made using it, including infant formula, when it was thought to contain a botulism-causing bacteria.
The Ministry for Primary Industries received results revealing the organism as clostridium sporogenes, which isn’t capable of producing botulism-causing toxins, unlike clostridium botulinum.
“I believe that we did the right thing and made the right calls all the way through this,” said Spierings at a recent news conference. “Of course it was not an easy product recall. The original results from AgResearch indicated the presence of toxin-producing clostridium botulinum in the affected whey protein concentrate and we could therefore not take any chances.
“On the basis of the results we received from the AgResearch tests, we had no choice but to alert regulators, and announce a global precautionary recall with our customers.”
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