We did not modify expiry date: Synlait

John Penno. Photo / Mark Mitchell

A Chinese-controlled dairy company operating in New Zealand, Synlait Milk, is rejecting a claim it changed the expiry date on milk powder exported to Nigeria to extend its labelled shelf life from one year to two.

Nigeria's National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) claimed that a local importer, Carnco Foods Nigeria, deliberately altered the actual expiry date on Synlait milk powder containers to increase the product's shelf life but Carnco said that the expiry date was changed by the manufacturer "to correct a printing error".

But Synlait Milk chief executive John Penno said that the expiry date was changed by an agent who originally bought the milk powder for distribution in China, and Synlait was not involved in the Nigerian deal.

It was part of a much bigger consignment that had to be redirected out of the intended market, China.

"We're aware of this transaction - we like to follow where our product goes," Penno said. "It was redirected with our knowledge."

He said the powder went to the Nigerian market with a two-year shelf life but it had been sitting on wharves in Nigeria so long that it was now past its expiry date and not fit for human consumption.

Asked if the milk powder had a two-year shelf life when it left the Dunsandel factory, Penno said: "Yes, all of our product goes out with a two-year shelf life.

"We did not alter the expiry date, however the primary market required the original documentation to have a one-year shelf life ... when it was moved to the secondary market, there was an alteration made in the market from one to two years.

"It was a change made by the agent," said Penno, who said whole milk powder normally had a life of two years.

Synlait had sold the product to the agent: "It was owned by the intermediary at that point - we had no involvement with the transaction through to Nigeria."

Carnco is battling at the Federal High Court in the country's capital, Lagos, for the release of half the 14 containers of New Zealand milk powder intercepted at the Kirikiri Lighter Terminal in the city.

NAFDAC noticed that the product's "life span information" had been altered and filed an affidavit in the lawsuit that a laboratory analysis found the milk powder to be "expired and unfit for human consumption".

Carnco denied NAFDAC's claim that it deliberately altered the actual expiry date and said the expiry date was changed by the manufacturer to correct a printing error, the Nation newspaper reported.

The agency's affidavit said that seven of the 14 containers "mysteriously disappeared" from the port while samples were being analysed.

- NZPA