Recall on milk contaminated with E. coli

Food safety officials today warned people not to consume Happy Valley Dairies milk produced after October 14, because it may contain high levels of E. coli bacteria.

The Tuatapere factory, 101km north of Invercargill, sells its milk to supermarkets, dairies and other shops in the southern South Island.

New Zealand Food Safety Authority (NZFSA) compliance director Geoff Allen said no illness had been reported, and it was unlikely that the bacteria strain involved was the E.coli O157 notorious for killing people in overseas food poisoning illnesses.

Ordinary E. coli bacteria are commonly associated with faecal contamination and can cause gastroenteritis. Normally such bacteria are killed by heat treatment of the milk.

Mr Allen said the company picked up the problem in its own testing, and alerted the NZFSA, which required the recall of batches coded 151008 and higher – the batch date is made up of the day/month/year. Use-by dates on the product are for October 28 and later.

The recall is open-ended, until the NZFSA is satisfied the problem has been solved. Mr Allen said staff were on their way to the factory to help track down how the contamination arose and how it could be prevented from recurring.

Other dairy products produced by Happy Valley Dairies were also being investigated. The company is listed on NZFSA's website as having approvals for collecting milk from its own farm, and for processing the milk with pasteurisation, separating cream, brining cheeses, packing, labelling and cool storage.

-NZPA