Gilbert Laurenson was preparing breakfast for his young son Elijah when the boy asked what the "brown stuff" was in the bottle of milk to be poured over his cereal.
Mr Laurenson couldn't identify the substance, visible only when the milk was able to settle. He returned it to itsplace of purchase, Countdown Kensington, where staff were happy to replace it with another bottle. But Mr Laurenson spotted the same suspicious substance in Home Brand, Meadow Fresh, and Signature Range milk.
So he sent a photograph of a 2-litre bottle of Signature Range milk containing the discolouration to the Advocate with an email saying: "It looks like mud in the bottom of the bottle. What is it? Melamine, mud, chocolate [I wish] or something more sinister? How does it get past quality control? We need some answers and an independent test done. I just want some decent milk for my kid's Weet-Bix."
The newspaper contacted Countdown and was told to talk to Progressive Enterprises corporate affairs official Luke Schepen. He got a public relations company to call the Advocate and when it was sent Mr Laurenson's picture and remarks - but not his name - the PR firm provided a comment from a Countdown spokesperson saying: "Food safety is our number one priority and we are currently investigating the customer's initial complaint. We aren't in a position to comment further until our quality assurance team has reviewed the sample, which we're working to resolve with the customer."
The Advocate replied, asking how the quality assurance team could review a sample it didn't have and work with a customer who hadn't been identified.
That got Mr Schepen on to the phone, assuring the newspaper it hadn't been brushed off by the PR company.
The Advocate took the bottle to Adele Beazley at the Northland Food Testing Laboratory in Onerahi, who took a sample of milk for testing before the bottle was returned to Countdown as requested.
Ms Beazley gave the milk the thumbs-up and the newspaper then called Paul Jensen, a director of the Fresha Valley milk processing company at Waipu.
Jackpot! Fresha Valley had bottled the Signature Range milk at the centre of the controversy, Countdown had sent the bottle to him and he had identified the sediment as harmless somatic cells which were "a natural component of milk, like cream." Mystery solved.-
