KEY POINTS:
The South Korean Food and Drug Administration has found traces of melamine in a product produced by New Zealand's Tatua Cooperative Dairy Company.
The government agency found trace amounts in the product lactoferrin and has banned all further imports from Tatua, Reuters reported.
Tatua earlier suspended its exports of lactoferrin because of melamine fears.
Exports of lactoferrin - used in baby formula and nutraceutical drinks with a claim to boost the immune system are worth up to $10 million a year to Morrinsville-based Tatua.
On September 17 a customer in China told a Tatua agent about the contamination and shipments were stopped.
Product was tested in China and New Zealand on September 18-19, with results on September 22-23 - when the New Zealand Food Safety Authority was informed.
Tatua chief executive Paul McGilvary told the NZ Herald the products tested in New Zealand which were positive for melamine were less than four parts per million and within a new Food Safety Authority standard for dairy products of five parts per million.
"We know there's absolutely no health and safety issue with the product," McGilvary said.
"The Food Safety Authority's also come out and said they expect to find low levels of melamine in many food products."
The company was conducting a trace-back exercise to find the source of the melamine, which could be found in fertiliser, insecticide, plastics, glue and packaging material.
"I think we'd feel a whole lot more comfortable once we know what the source is because we can probably eliminate it."
Regulatory authorities were scrambling to set up melamine limits for dairy products, including 2.5 parts per million in Hong Kong and McGilvary understood the US was using 10 parts and China was thinking about five parts.
Tatua wanted to see how the regulatory requirements developed and to understand the needs of customers.
"We want to make sure that we don't export a product and inadvertently breach someone's regulation."
- NZPA, AP
