Fonterra investigates cause following milk product withdrawal

Dairy giant Fonterra is investigating the cause of a quality problem in milk pulled off supermarket shelves in the lower North Island.

In a short emailed statement, Fonterra Brands NZ managing director Leon Clement said over the last few days the company has had a number of customers in the lower North Island contact it about the taste of their Anchor blue top milk. 

"While there's no issue with the safety of the milk, we’ve found there’s a quality issue limited to a few batches with Best Before June 21-27," he says. "We’ve removed the dark blue top milk we know to be affected from our supply chain and we’re working hard to get replacement stock back on the shelves."

Mr Clement is encouraging customers who have bought blue top that doesn't taste up to scratch to contact its customer care team. 

A Fonterra spokesman said the withdrawal was not as serious as a product recall where the dairy giant has to take back product already sold to consumers for safety reasons.

The company has refused to provide more than a short emailed statement despite requests for an interview. It's understood many of Fonterra's top executives including chief executive Theo Spierings and chairman John Wilson are in Hamilton today attending the annual Mystery Creek Fielddays.

In February the dairy giant also withdrew Anchor and Value brands of milk in the Hawke's Bay due to customers complaining about a slight flavour difference in their milk. The company,  again after emphasising it was a withdrawal, not a product recall, said sensory testing had found a small batch of Value Standard, Anchor Blue and Dairy Dale Standard milk tasted slightly maltier than usual, probably due to what the cows had been fed.

In 2013 the company had a wide-scale recall of products after a suspected botulism-causing bacteria was found during safety tests. It turned out to be a false alarm but it caused product recalls and a temporary ban on Fonterra imports of the ingredients by several countries, including China.

A subsequent government inquiry into the WPC80 incident recommended the Ministry for Primary Industries beef up its ability to manage food safety, including statutory powers to force companies to hand over relevant information. It also found that the reputational damage for New Zealand was significant and it led to Fonterra instituting a number of changes over food safety.