Two brothers have pleaded guilty at the Queenstown District Court to smuggling six live scorpions into New Zealand.

Two dairy farmers, a stock agent and a trucking company have been prosecuted for putting 25 cows through a hellish trip to the slaughterhouse.

One person has suffered an asthma attack after consuming fresh meat that illegally contained sulphites, the Ministry for Primary Industries has revealed.

New Zealand has halted all apple exports to China for the rest of the season after rot was found in several batches at the Chinese border.

Ministry for Primary Industries officials have approved an incursion programme in mid-Canterbury following a spillage of one of Europe's most invasive arable weeds - black grass - found in a consignment of imported fescue seed.

Pamela Wade reminds us what to do when an illegal hitch-hiker comes home with us from an overseas trip.

Irradiated tomatoes are on shop shelves, but some customers and even retailers are still unaware that they have been treated.

A Vietnamese air passenger has been charged with smuggling live tropical fish in his trouser pockets after airport staff noticed water dripping down the man's leg.

The Government and the honey industry need to move quickly to set labelling guidelines for manuka honey after a nationwide warning was issued in Britain, Food Safety Minister Nikki Kaye says.

Britain's Food Standards Agency has issued a nationwide warning about misleading and illegal claims made on the labels of manuka honey jars, in a worrying blow to the fast-growing Kiwi industry.

A Nelson fisherman accused of telling competitors of deep sea fishing giant Sealord where the good fishing spots are has won $80,000 in an unjustified dismissal case.

Former Soviet republics Belarus and Kazakhstan have joined Russia in banning Fonterra dairy products.

Kiwifruit growers are concerned that a Government agency appears to have waited for a year before acting against possibly-diseased illegal vines - and that it acted only once another agency became involved.

New Zealand will have to fight to save its 100% Pure image after the Fonterra scandal, says the man credited with inventing the slogan.

"Was the Fonterra milk scandal caused by New Zealand being 'hostage to a blinkered devotion to laissez-faire market ideology'?" asks Bryce Edwards.

Fears that NZ milk products could contain bacterium that may cause botulism is big news in China, with the story featuring prominently in major newspapers.

Authorities have recalled up to 1000 tonnes of dairy products across NZ and seven others, after Fonterra announced tests had found a bacterium that could cause botulism.

The potential contamination of Fonterra products with botulism occurred as a result of a dirty pipe at the company's Hautapu plant, it says.

Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy has signalled he will dump a plan to exempt firms holding Maori fishing quota from a law change which outlaws the use of foreign flagged fishing vessels in New Zealand.

Irradiated Australian tomatoes and capsicums will arrive for the first time on shop shelves soon.