Watties forced to dump tonnes of food after blackout

One of New Zealand's largest food processers, Heinz Wattie's, has had to dump thousands of cans of product ruined in the power cut which blacked out huge areas of Napier and Hastings early yesterday.

Heinz Wattie's had to dump thousands of cans incompletely cooked due to the loss of power.

And it may have to dump thousands more as a result of an intensive testing programme aimed at ensuring only safe product goes on to the market.

Heinz Wattie's Hastings operations manager Neville Cameron said it would take a week to fully assess the loss.

Because of the power cut — which also blacked out 20,000 Hawke's Bay homes and businesses — some product in the company's cooking retorts, one of which holds tens of thousands of cans at a time, was either over-cooked or under-cooked.

The under-processed product was being dumped automatically, he said. Holes were punched into the cans and they were taken to the Hawke's Bay regional tip.

Other product would be incubated for seven days and checked before a decision was made on its future.

Mr Cameron said the company was also hit hard in September when storm damage to high-voltage transmission lines blacked-out Hawke's Bay for more than six hours.

Losses from yesterday's power cut were likely to be higher because more lines were running to cope with the height of seasonal production.

Heinz Wattie receives no compensation for the losses.

The reason for the blackout was to be discussed at a special meeting between Hawke's Bay Network and the national lines company Transpower in Hastings today.

- HAWKE'S BAY TODAY