Prices of dairy products fell in the second straight GlobalDairyTrade auction overnight.

Fonterra says the potential contamination of 14 milk tankers with mud and gravel is a "very minor incident" and its safety systems worked as intended.

Botulism scare avoidable if responsibility passed swiftly to top management: review chairman.

That the scare turned out to be the result of a false positive test does not mitigate the need for Fonterra to up its game, writes Fran O'Sullivan.

Fonterra failed to recognise the "explosive reputational risk" involved in the botulism scare, an independent inquiry has found.

Fonterra's botulism scare will be one of the key themes of this year's China Business Summit, which takes place today.

There is understandable concern that the recent food contamination scandals in China could have a corrosive effect on the trading relationship between China and New Zealand.

World dairy prices were up 2.4pc in the latest overnight auction.

Firm in dispute with Fonterra argues recall of some infant formula brands cost it the thick end of $326 million.

Hokitika dairy co-operative Westland Milk Products and Waikato's Tatua outperformed their far larger competitor, Fonterra, for farmer payouts over the 2012/13 year.

Fonterra said it was too early to say what the impact of last month's contamination scare would have on its earnings for the 2013/14 year.

Fonterra said its normalised earnings before interest and tax for 2012/13 came to $1 billion, down 3 per cent on the previous year.

Exporters say many Chinese consumers remain unaware that Fonterra's botulism scare was a false alarm.

Trade Minister Tim Groser says New Zealand is partway through a process of restoring its reputation in the world as a safe food producer after Fonterra's whey product contamination scare and subsequent product recall last month.

An 11-year-old put Fonterra's light-proof milk bottles to the test.

Two Fonterra managers "on leave" as a result of the botulism scare are now awaiting a board review to find out their fate.

AgResearch has defended its testing of Fonterra's whey concentrate products that led to a false alarm over the presence of a botulism toxin.

Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings says he wasn't informed of the contamination event that led to the company's botulism fiasco quickly enough.

Fonterra has found reprocessing that occurred after plastic was found in whey protein at its Hautapu plant led to its recent contamination scare.