Fonterra's board did the right thing in recalling whey product it believed was contaminated with a bacteria that could cause botulism.

That's the view of Bay of Plenty Fonterra farmer Steve Baily after today's final report from an independent inquiry into the company's whey protein concentrate incident last year.

Fonterra recalled whey product it believed was contaminated with a bacteria that could cause botulism.

'In many ways it was probably not a hard decision for Fonterra board members to make,” says Steve, who is also Federated Farmers' Bay of Plenty dairy spokesperson.

'Given the information they had at the time, lives could have been at risk. They acted in the interests of safety, but it was a decision which cost the company millions of dollars.”

In the end the botulism bacteria was not found in the whey product, but the recall cost Fonterra millions of dollars and China placed a temporary ban on the import of their products.

Danone, the parent company of infant formula maker Nutricia took legal action against Fonterra and the dairy giant was fined $300,000 in the Wellington District Court for causing a food-safety scare.

Approximately 1000 tonnes of consumer product was affected by the recall across seven countries, but no cases of affected consumers were reported.

'At the farm level we are acutely aware that from pasture to plate, we are in the food business and we are all working to produce high quality, safe dairy products,” says Steve.

In response to the release of the inquiry report Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited Chief Executive Theo Spierings says: 'Food safety and quality are our number one priority.

'At the time of the recall, we did what was right based on the evidence we had. It was subsequently confirmed that the recalled WPC80 did not present a health risk.

'We have co-operated fully with the Government inquiry team during its investigation. The report reaffirms many of the findings of our own operational review and the board's independent inquiry undertaken last year.

'It highlights once again that New Zealand's dairy food production and safety systems are as safe as any in the world.

'We welcome the report's acknowledgement of the programme of work Fonterra has underway to further strengthen our approach to food safety and quality.”

Minister for Primary Industries, Nathan Guy, says the rigour and conclusions of the report, as well as the actions of key players since the incident, should further strengthen confidence in New Zealand's world class food safety system.

The second report of the independent inquiry, headed by Miriam Dean QC, looks at how the potentially contaminated WPC entered the New Zealand and international markets, and how this was subsequently addressed.

'This is a very robust piece of analysis which makes some valuable recommendations for all parties involved,” says Nathan. 'I am pleased a number are already in place or are being implemented.

'In addition to the funding provided by Government as part of its response to the inquiry's first report, we will be providing $7.9m over four years for MPI to strengthen its core food safety regulatory and operational capability.

The report recommends, amongst other things, that MPI works to finalise its single scalable response model and undertake regular exercises and simulations.

'We accept these recommendations and work is already well-advanced in these areas,” adds Nathan.

'All parties involved in this incident have learnt valuable lessons, and have become stronger and better prepared for any future issues. We are aware of significant changes Fonterra has made to its processes and systems following the incident.”