The words "New Zealand" have to be synonymous with food safety. The country cannot afford its reputation as a pure and wholesome food producer to be tarnished anywhere in the world, but especially in milk fed to babies and especially in the burgeoning market of China.
The fuss over traces of a farm chemical found in Fonterra's infant formula is a warning of how vigilant we have to be. The chemical, a nitrate inhibitor used to protect waterways from fertiliser run-off, appears to be harmless at the levels used by two fertiliser suppliers in New Zealand. It presented no problem until the United States Food and Drug Administration published new tests last year for a number of compounds. When Fonterra found the test detected minute quantities of the the nitrate inhibitor, DCD, the company decided to play it safe.
Chief executive Theo Spierings explained on our pages yesterday that the detected level was 100 times lower than acceptable daily intake levels under European food safety limits. "At the same time we were conscious that there was no global standard for DCD in any food," he said. "Without a common standard we felt there was potential for confusion among food regulators around the world."
In November it took its concerns to the Ministry of Primary Industries, which set up a working group with the fertiliser suppliers. Last Thursday, the fertiliser firms announced the withdrawal of their product. The announcement received the sort of headlines it was designed to avoid.