After a New Zealand’s Fonterra spokesperson stated that none of the batch in question was exported out of China, it appears that there are very real fears that quite large tonnages of the contaminated milk powder have been exported to other countries from their China subsidiary.

Possibly in an effort to reduce the impact, the Fonterra website shows an article that states “All other ANMUM and ANLENE products in the market have been produced using only 100% fully imported milk from New Zealand and are free from any possibility of contamination with melamine from locally sourced milk, and adhere to the strictest New Zealand and international standards”.

However it has now been reported in the China Post that ” One thousand 25-kg bags, or 25 tons, of the milk powder contaminated with melamine was imported into Taiwan in late June by New Tai Milk Products, a branch of the New Zealand-based dairy ingredients company Fonterra.

 The Taiwan Department of Health Bureau of Food Safety, believe that most of the contaminated milk powder that has been sold, went to food processing factories, so could be containating a wide range of food products.

 In moves to get to the bottom of the problem the Chinese government has now said that tests on products from all 109 baby milk companies in China showed varying traces of melamine from 22 companies, and that milk collectors, who gather milk from dairy farmers, deliberately added melamine to make it appear the milk had more protein.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson has also stated that multiple other countries including Yemen, Bangladesh, Burma, Gabon and Burundi have imported milk powder made in China firms which has since been found to be contaminated.

The EU has moved to ban imports of dairy-based food products from China, including sweets biscuits and chocolate, aimed at children or infants amid  the escalating global health scare.

In China over 6,000 babies are ill, three have died to date and around 150 have serious kidney failure after drinking milk powder which had been contaminated with melamine, a toxic substance used in plastics manufacture. 

Fonterra have been critised for being slow to effect a recall of products following large scale sickness attributed to their Anmum brand contaminated milk product in China.

The contaminated product has been supplied from their 43% owned San Lu subsidiary who market the NZ owned Anmum brand under license from the NZ parent company Fonterra Co-operative Group.

In a statement of “what we Stand For”, Fonterra’s website boldly states”. “Dairy is our life’s work. It’s our passion and it’s what we do best.” “We have always marvelled at the simple nutrition of dairy. In an age when you need a chemistry degree to understand food labels, milk is pure milk, providing the building blocks for a healthy life.”
Since New Zealands dairy farmers’ Fonterra Co-operative Group was formed in 2001, they have become the world’s largest dairy exporter with over 11,000 dairyfarmer shareholders. Fonterra exports 95% of their New Zealand-made dairy products to more than 140 countries.