China bans New Zealand milk powder on fears of botulism contamination

China has halted import of all milk powder from New Zealand over fears of botulism - a type of potentially fatal food poisoning that can lead to paralysis - after its main exporter Fonterra discovered a strain of bacteria in some of its products that can cause the disease.

In a statement Friday, Auckland-based Fonterra, the world's biggest exporter of dairy products, alerted regulatory authorities and customers of a quality issue involving three batches of the company's whey protein concentrate produced at its Hautapu plant in New Zealand.

The company had identified eight companies in China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Saudi Arabia where the contaminated whey protein concentrate have been exported.

The affected product contains Clostridium, a genus of bacteria which has the potential to cause botulism. It is believed tht a dirty pipe in the processing plant could have caused the contamination.

Botulism, a potentially fatal disease can cause paralysis, respiratory and intestinal problems.

In a further release today, Fonterra confirmed that other dairy products that do not contain whey protein are not affected which include whole milk powder, skim milk powder, fresh milk, yoghurt, cheese, butter and other spreads and ultra high treated (UHT) milk.

Fonterra said that the company's eight customers including its animal feed subsidairy NZAgBiz have completed a thorough inventory of feed materials and announced recall of affected products.

There have been no confirmed reports of any illness linked to consumption of the affected whey protein, the company said.

New Zealand's trade minister Tim Groser described the Chinese decision to ban the products as "absolutely appropriate".

Demand for foreign milk products have been growing in China in recent years. Many consumers are buying more expensive foreign infant milk formula because of their concerns over the quality of Chinese products after the baby-milk related scandals that occurred in 2004 and 2008 and also subsequent revelations of high levels of toxic contents in milk products.

New Zealand's $9.4-billion annual dairy trade has come under threat following the food safety concerns.

China gets about 90 per cent of its $1.9-billion milk powder imports from New Zealand and according to economists a prolonged ban could result in shortage of infant formula in the country.

China's consumer watchdog General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, identified four companies that had imported potentially harmful products from Fonterra.

The list includes French dairy giant Danone's subsidiary Dumex, the Wahaha Group one of the country's largest beverage producers, Coca Cola's Chinese subsidiary and Shanghai Sugar, Tobacco and Alcohol Co, a state-owned enterprise.

Coca-Cola which received about 4,800 kg of whey protein said that it has used only 25 kg in some products which are being recalled, and the balance quantity of the concentrate has been quarantined.

The products of three of the customers Wahaha, Coca-Cola and Vitaco are safe to consume because of the way they are manufactured, Fonterra said yesterday.

Fonterra's managing director of NZ Milk Products Gary Romano said, ''Our technical teams have been working closely this weekend with Coca-Cola, Wahaha, and Vitaco and have established that the process used to manufacture their products would kill the bacteria that was in the affected whey protein concentrate.''

China has also banned milk powder products from Australia, as some of the contaminated whey protein concentrate was exported to the country before being shipped to China and other countries.

Russia, although it is not one of the countries which imported the contaminated product, has also banned all New Zealand dairy product imports.