5 August 2013

Primary Industries Ministry has questions to answer

Parents need clear information about which baby formula is safe in the wake of the Fonterra product recall, the Green Party said today.

“Kiwi mums and dads need to know that the formula they are feeding their babies is safe, and that information needs to be clearly spelled out,” Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said today.

“Information has been contradictory and confusing. The Ministry needs to ensure that correct information is reaching parents,” said Dr Norman.

“Once mums and dads have been given clear information the Ministry has to start answering questions about how this happened.

“There are a number of critical questions that New Zealanders will have of the Ministry to establish if our food safety regulators are being effective.

“Why have our regulatory systems allowed a lag of more than a year between contamination and the public finding out?

“Why do the procedures that MPI has with Fonterra not trigger information sharing when potentially dangerous bacteria are found?

“Has MPI implemented any lessons they learned from the DCD scare earlier this year?

“Is MPI able to adequately deal with these issues that are so important to New Zealand’s economy or are they just scrambling to keep up?

“Lastly, does the unacceptable lag time between the manufacture and the announcement of contamination have anything to do with the Ministry of Primary Industries’ restructuring and staff cuts?

“The DCD chemical in milk scare earlier this year was essentially a drill for this sort of event and it’s not yet clear that our regulators have learned lessons when six months later we have another contamination.

“Once they have made sure that consumers are safe these questions need to be urgently answered. That’s the only way to reassure New Zealanders, and our export markets, that we produce food that we can trust is safe for our kids to eat,” said Dr Norman.

ENDS

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