The Government inquiry into Fonterra’s contamination scare could also answer why testing did not pick up a problem at Westland Milk Products revealed yesterday.
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has revoked export certificates for four consignments of lactoferrin manufactured by Westland Milk after high nitrate levels from a cleaning fluid were detected in the product during testing in China.
Prime Minister John Key today said it was «a good question» why testing before the product left New Zealand had not picked up the contamination, which in one batch was almost 15 times the maximum allowed.
The Fonterra inquiry’s draft terms of reference were released yesterday and Key suggested its more-general parts could provide some answers to why the testing here did not pick up the problem in the Westland case.
«Maybe that can get picked up in there just to see generally if the testing is efficient and picking up the issues it should pick up,» he said in an interview on TV3’s Firstline.
He said New Zealand had good testing and high food safety standards but there was a «chink in the armour» somewhere along the line.
The government inquiry into Fonterra’s contamination issue will be headed by Miriam Dean QC and will be run under new inquiry laws yet to be passed.
It will investigate the timeline of events, dating back to May 2012 when the affected whey concentrate was produced, how the testing took place, and how Fonterra and others responded.
It will also look at regulatory and best-practice requirements related to the incident.
It is separate from an inquiry being conducted by MPI as the regulator of food standards and two internal inquiries at Fonterra.
Source: Â Stuff