No risk from DCD in milk

Government officials are proclaiming New Zealand dairy products safe after extensive testing shows the chemical dicyandiamide (DCD) appears to have disappeared completely from milk powder, butter and cheese. The Ministry for Primary Industries says only trace amounts of DCD were found in nearly 2000 milk products tested, showing there is "absolutely no food safety risk whatsoever". It was revealed last month that small levels of DCD - used in two brands of fertiliser - had been found in some dairy products, raising fears that overseas markets could ban imports. The fertilisers were used in spring and autumn on just 5 per cent of the country's dairy farms, mostly in the cooler South Island, for about the past decade. Testing for DCD from those farms' milk products began in June last year. In the 1994 tests, DCD was found 371 times, mostly at concentrations less than 1 part per million, significantly below the European Commission's daily intake level. No DCD was found in the 602 products tested since mid-November. "Our dairy products are safe," the ministry's director general Wayne McNee said on Thursday. The DCD was found predominantly in milk powders, but also in one butter product and 11 cheese products. Some would have been sold in New Zealand, Mr McNee said. The ministry had released the test results to "be as open as we can be with our markets and customers", he said. However, despite the dairy industry knowing of the DCD problem arising as far back as September and it not being announced until months later, Mr McNee said overseas markets only wanted to be informed before the media. He would not elaborate on whether overseas regulators wanted to know as soon as officials here knew about it. Officials here and overseas are now looking to markets to set a minimum standard for DCD levels, so the fertilisers, which have environmental benefits, may possibly be used again. Such standards generally take two to three years to implement. 3news