Nitrate contamination in Westland products

Westland says the elevated nitrate comes from traces of cleaning product which was not adequately flushed from the plant.

The consignments were derived from two affected batches of lactoferrin manufactured by Westland at its Hokitika factory. One batch was exported directly to China as an ingredient for other dairy products by Westland, and the second batch was supplied to Tatua and also exported to China.

MPI has been advised by Westland, Tatua and their customers, that a small proportion of the lactoferrin was used in consumer products. Almost all of these products are now confirmed as detained in the supply chain. There was no affected lactoferrin used in products in New Zealand.

MPI acting director-general Scott Gallacher says any food safety risk to Chinese consumers is negligible because the quantities of lactoferrin used in consumer products were very small, meaning the nitrate levels in those products would easily be within acceptable levels.

"MPI, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the companies concerned are working closely with the Chinese authorities on this issue.

"The consignments exported to China were accompanied by official export certificates stating that the product complies with New Zealand and China's regulatory requirements. This was based on testing of composited batches undertaken at the time of manufacturing, which showed no issue. We now know that is not the case and certification has been withdrawn," Gallacher says.

Chief executive Rod Quin says Westland had reported to MPI that two batches of lactoferrin (totalling 390kg) showed nitrate levels of 610 and 2198 parts per million respectively. The New Zealand maximum limit for nitrates is 150 parts per million. The product was initially not identified as non-compliant during Westland's routine testing regime prior to export. All of the 390kg of non-complying lactoferrin was sent to China.

"We immediately initiated a process to find and quarantine all of the product and it has been put on hold," Quin says.
Quin says nitrates are a naturally occurring substance found in such foods as leafy green vegetables. The issue is not the fact that it was present in the lactoferrin powder, but that the 390kg was over allowable levels.

"Food safety is not the issue in this instance because lactoferrin is used as a very minor ingredient in food products. This means that, even if the lactoferrin with elevated nitrates had been added to food, the retail products would still have nitrate levels significantly below allowed limits."
Westland also put a hold on all of its lactoferrin in its own warehouse and started re-testing all individual batches. All other lactoferrin product tested to date has returned results well below the New Zealand nitrates limit. No other Westland products were affected.

"Based on these results and our investigations to date," Quin says, "Westland is of the view it is an isolated incident in the lactoferrin plant only, where traces of cleaning products (which contains nitrates) were not adequately flushed from the plant prior to a new run of product.
"Our investigation is underway to establish the root cause and we have implemented corrective actions so we can ensure this does not happen again," says Quin.