Surprised border officials have intercepted a live Christmas tree, complete with pot of soil, sent by post from the UK.

Strengthening systems to track dairy products through ever-lengthening domestic and international supply chains will be one of the key areas of work following the latest report on the Fonterra botulism scare.

An Australian man who smuggled live scorpions into the country has been fined more than $10,000.

An Australian man who smuggled live scorpions into the country will be sentenced today.

Two West Coast men have denied starving 150 cows and 30 calves to the point where they have to be euthanised.

Two brothers were yesterday sentenced to 150 hours' community work and two months' community detention after previously admitting charges relating to the possession, sale and disposition of scorpions.

A crop of fruit and vegetable markets and retailers were pulled up after failing to correctly label irradiated tomatoes and capsicums imported from Australia.

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.

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.

The Fonterra contamination scare has claimed its first scalp with Gary Romano, Managing Director NZ Milk Products, resigning with immediate effect.

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.