New Zealand dairy firm Fonterra has apologized for its tainted milk powder scandal.

 

　　Batches of the whey protein from the dairy giant were allegedly found containing toxic bacteria.

 

　　Su Yi has more.

 

　　Fonterra CEO Theo Spierings says Fonterra regrets any distress and anxiety that the scare may have caused.

 

　　"We deeply apologize to the people who have been affected by the issue, to guarantee to you that food safety and safety of the people of China but also around the world is our first and foremost interest. We totally understand that there is concern of parents and other consumers around the world. Parents have the right to know that infant nutrition and other dairy-related products are 100 percent safe."

 

　　He also says Fonterra is committed to China and is working with regulators to address the problem.

 

　　At the same time, the government of New Zealand is stepping into the fray, calling on the company to provide "absolute clarity on the situation."

 

　　New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key,

 

　　"When you've got a company that's our largest company, our largest brand, our largest exporter that is the flagship for New Zealand and your whole business is about food safety and food quality you think they'd take such a precautionary view to these things and say if it's testing for some reason in an odd way that it would just be discarded until they were absolutely sure that it's right."

 

　　Parents say they are worried as imports of milk powder from New Zealand are now banned in China.

 

　　"Domestic brands are no good, and now foreign brands are no good either. I have no idea how to choose. Domestic brands were exposed before, so we drunk imported milk powder. Now milk powder from New Zealand has been exposed, so when we go home we need to discuss it with the baby's mother and father again to see which milk powder we can choose."

 

　　"My baby has just been born, and we have been using this brand because we thought it was a good brand. I felt very angry when I saw the news yesterday, because this could really hurt my baby. As parents, we want our baby to be healthy, so I want to buy milk powder that we can trust. But now foreign products aren't any good either."

 

　　Fonterra is New Zealand's biggest exporter - it sells over 370-thousand tons of infant formula each year to China.

 

　　Around one-third of all the dairy imports here to China this year come from New Zealand.

 

　　For CRI, I'm Su Yi.