The paternal instinct is a strong one, a mere whiff of risk to a young child and parents will shun the associated product.
Therefore the timing of the announcement was crucial.
If the Government left it too long to go public, Fonterra risked accusations of keeping consumers in the dark to protect revenue.
In three months, the forensic abilities of the police have been unable to identify the letter writer.
The NZ public now has three weeks to do what police have been unable to - identify the person/s who made the threats.
There is the possibility that forensic science has identified the person, but police want to gather more evidence before arresting the individual. Let's hope that's the case. Because if the collective minds of Fonterra, Federated Farmers and police agreed that three weeks was enough time for the public to out the letter writer, you'd have to question why the threats weren't made public back in November - months away from the threat deadline - with a view to bringing the guilty party to justice swiftly.