The Palmerstone North Girls' High returned on Friday leftover contaminated whey protein that students used in a science class experiment in April 2013. At least 25 female students drank the milkshake which had whey as additive; fortunately, not one of them got sick of botulism.

Upon learning that the whey they used came from the contaminated batch made in Fonterra's Waikato factory, the school officials met on Friday with representatives of the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health in the campus.

"We met with all the students and have given each one of them a letter explaining to their parents and a Ministry of Health fact sheet. It reiterates that his project finished in April and they aren't at risk, but they needed to be informed," Stuff.co.nz quoted Principal Melba Scott.

The science project sought to learn about the effect of protein supplements on performance. Students created a drink for other students to consumer with about 60 participants. The experiment was a double blind trial in which the milkshake drinkers didn't know if what they drank had the whey protein or none, but the projects organisers knew.

The school requested from Fonterra's Innovation Centre in Palmerston North for the whey, and the centre provided the school a 12 kg bag of whey used in the science project. Upon learning of the incident, which could have worsened Fonterra's damaged brand and image problem had the students acquired botulism, Fonterra CEO Theo Spierings said, "While I realise that agreeing to provide the whey concentrate to the school for their project was well-intentioned, providing product from the Innovation Centre in this way should never have happened. I can fully understand this may cause some anxiety in the school community and on behalf of everyone at Fonterra, I want to say how sorry we are that this has happened."

Due to the botulism scare, Fonterra cancelled the official launch of its free milk programme in 80 Wellington schools initially scheduled on Aug 8, Thursday. The roll out of the programme in the capital city takes place on Aug 12 at Lyall Bay School.

Fonterra came up with the programme not as a crisis PR strategy since it had announced the programme in December 2012, months ahead of the botulism scare. The dairy giant had actually launched the program in 600 schools in the South Island, Waikato and Northland.

The programme has Fonterra staff visiting schools and delivering refrigerators and recycling bins. Each school gets 2,000 160 ml packs of milk weekly given after lunch daily by the milk ambassadors and parent helpers.

Meanwhile, Tonga joined the growing list of nations that banned Fonterra imports and other dairy products possibly tainted by the whey. The country's Ministry of Commerce, Tourism and Labour said the government would not allow the entry of Nutricia's Karicare infant formula beginning Aug 8. The ban is indefinite.

Tonga imported in 2012 from New Zealand 62,798 kg of various food preparation products, including milk for infant use. The tiny Pacific island-nation, however, said it will still have available supply of infant formula from seven other countries where it imports the item.

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