The board-commissioned inquiry committee at New Zealand dairy co-operative Fonterra has announced findings of the WPC80 precautionary recall.
Led by a legal team from Chapman Tripp and two independent experts, the inquiry team has suggested 33 recommendations to Fonterra to improve and build on changes already underway to address the issues that led to the WPC80 precautionary recall and had an impact on the co-operative's responses to the event.
It found a number of factors, including a lack of oversight of crucial decisions, problems with tracing potentially affected product and belated escalation of the issue, which contributed to the event earlier this year.
Inquiry team lead Jack Hodder said, "Fonterra is a high quality organisation with talented and dedicated people. The WPC80 Precautionary Recall let them down.
"There were shortcomings in a number of areas, which, compounded by a number of events and co-incidences, converged to create this significant issue.
"Our findings and recommendations do not indicate any fundamental problems within Fonterra. That is not our conclusion," Hodder added.
Fonterra chairman John Wilson said that the board of Fonterra was fully committed to implementing the recommendations made.
"What directors found encouraging is that this Independent report to the Directors has a significant degree of overlap with management's Operational Review, which was made public last month."
Wilson added, "There are no contradictions between the two sets of recommendations.
"Much of the recommended change is already underway, or has already been identified as needing to be changed."
The potential presence of botulism emerged when Fonterra noted that three batches of whey protein concentrate (WPC) made at its Hautapu plant may be contaminated with bacteria that can lead to botulism.
However, it was later revealed that the bacterium present in the WPC was harmless.
