A University of Auckland microbiologist says Fonterra should not have left scientists in the dark over its false-alarm botulism scare.
The Ministry for Primary Industries said yesterday that the bacteria found in some of Fonterra's whey concentrate was not the botulism-causing Clostridium botulinum, but Clostridium sporogenes, which has no safety issues.
University of Auckland microbiologist Siouxie Wiles told Radio New Zealand it was understandable why the mistake was made, but scientists should have been kept in the loop about what was happening.
"If you are growing these organisms they look the same, but when you test them for the presence of toxins that's when you see the differences," she said.
"From the very beginning we were saying 'what have you found? Which toxin is it? Is it the one which affects humans or is it the one that affects cattle? How much have you found?'