Romano has resigned as managing director of NZ Milk Products, the dairy company’s manufacturing operations division, effective immediately.
His departure from New Zealand’s biggest company was announced this evening in a four-paragraph statement which said chief executive Theo Spierings had accepted his resignation. Spierings will temporarily assume Romano’s day-to-day duties.
Spierings was visiting Europe at the time the toxin risk was confirmed and travelled immediately to China.
Earlier this month, Fonterra warned that the bacteria that can cause botulism had been found in three batches of a particular type of whey protein concentrate – 38 tonnes – made at its plant at Hautapu in the Waikato in May 2012.
For New Zealand and Asian consumers, Romano was the face of a food safety scare which has claimed no victims, yet sparked recalls of baby formula in New Zealand and Asia and two government inquiries into the cause and Fonterra’s handling of the warning.
Fonterra chairman John Wilson did not front to the public until six days after the contamination warning.
Fonterra’s communications and information flow to the public have been strongly criticised, and Romano added to the confusion mid-crisis when he said in a Campbell Live television interview that all products of in Nutricia’s Karicare baby food range were affected by the recall when only two were.
Nutricia is made by Danone, one of Fonterra’s biggest customers.
All product implicated in the scare was secured late last week. The concentrate had been sold to eight customers.
Source: StuffNZ
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