August: Fonterra botulism scare false alarm

August: The scare surrounding contaminated whey protein concentrate (WPC) supplied by dairy giant Fonterra was a false alarm, it was revealed in August.

Rather than finding the bacteria that can cause botulism during additional testing, New Zealand's Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) found the agent to be Clostridium sporogenes, which is not capable of producing the toxins that can cause the life-threatening infection.

There are no known food safety issues associated with Clostridium sporogenes, although at elevated levels certain strains may be associated with food spoilage.

Fonterra informed eight customers, including Danone-owned Dumex and Nutricia Australia New Zealand (Nutricia ANZ), that three batches of WPC potentially contaminated with Clostridium botulinum had entered the supply chain, according to our sister site DairyReporter.com​

Nutricia ANZ and Dumex recalled products in New Zealand, Cambodia, Thailand, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, and Singapore.