Shipping liners blamed for smelly milk

Fonterra researchers say a "musty" flavour detected in milk drinks containing calcium caseinate from New Zealand milk may have been due to tainting by chemicals from wooden floors in shipping containers, or plastic liners used in shipping.

Scientists at the Fonterra Research Centre investigated samples of beverages and the calcium caseinate ingredient and said they traced the intense musty/leathery smell to chemical tainting.

TBA, a chemical scientifically known as 2,4,6-tribromoanisole, was found at concentrations strong enough to smell in the drinks, and at even higher levels in the calcium caseinate samples.

The scientists identified timber floors in shipping containers and slipsheets constructed from recycled plastics as two potential sources.

They did not identify any TBA in timber samples and recycled slipsheets but did find another chemical, TBP (2,4,6-tribromophenol) which can be easily converted to TBA by fungi found in the environment.

Though materials that contained TBP still did not fully account for the amount of tainting in the drinks, they said the levels found may have been affected by poor extraction of chemicals from the samples.

Fonterra now ships using slipsheets of virgin plastic resins free of potential contaminants.

- NZPA