PM puzzles - why was Fonterra whey not discarded?
It's something CEO will have to answer ... one day, PM says.
While couching his criticism in careful language, the Prime Minister has raised the issue of whether Fonterra has been cautious enough in its approach to testing.
“The first starting point is that happened. There are stories about the dirty pipe but I don’t know quite how that works in their process,” John Key said on TVNZ’s Breakfast this morning on day three of Fonterra's botulism scare.
“Secondly, there are quite a lot of unanswered questions.
“This whey product was produced in May, 2012. Apparently it showed up something in its testing but clearly not enough to make Fonterra say you can’t use that product,” the PM said.
“Now there may be very good reasons for that – I don’t understand that – but when you’ve got a company that’s our largest company, that’s our largest brand, our largest exporter, that is the flagship for New Zealand, and your whole business is about food safety and food quality, you’d think they’d take such a precautionary view to these things and say if it’s testing for some reason in an odd way, it should be discarded until they’re absolutely sure it’s right
“Now that’s something the chief executive will have to answer one day.”
Fonterra CEO Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings was travelling to China on Saturday morning as the news broke. He has been quoted in press statements but has yet to front publicly (Fonterra says he will give a press conference in China later today).
The Prime Minister was also asked on Breakfast if he would personally travel to China.
Mr Key said while he could reassure the Chinese, that would be of little use.
“It’s not what the government thinks, it’s what the consumers think,” the PM said.
Sixty staff have been working around the clock since Fonterra informed the Ministry of Primary industries on Friday afternoon.
NBR staff
Mon, 05 Aug 2013
Mon, 05 Aug 2013
© All content copyright NBR. Do not reproduce in any form without permission, even if you have a paid subscription.
PM puzzles - why was Fonterra whey not discarded?
31297