Parents looking to buy infant formula will now find the food behind service counters or be limited to two cans in some supermarkets following a 1080 poison threat, Radio New Zealand reports.
Countdown and Foodstuffs have heightened security at its stores after police yesterday revealed they had spent more than three months investigating a blackmail threat to poison infant and other milk formulas unless the 1080 poison drops stop by the end of March
Prime Minister John Key said the use of 1080 will not stop because of the threat to contaminate infant formula and added that if there was an effective alternative to 1080 to control possums and stoats, the Government would use it.
Countdown's acting managing director Steve Donohue said there will be extra checks in-store before the product is placed on the shelf, and infant formula will be moved to behind service counters or Lotto desks. Random sampling will also be carried out.
“Some of these security measures will mean it takes a little bit more time for customers to purchase infant formula, but together these steps will ensure constant monitoring of the product, either in person or by CCTV,” he said.
Foodstuffs has also introduced more security to make sure formula couldn't be tampered with.
“This means all customers entering a Foodstuffs store will be subject to heightened surveillance and there will be higher security in-store,” Foodstuffs' managing director Steve Anderson said.
“We know that families will want to ensure they have an ongoing safe supply for their children, and we are committed to managing infant formula supply to ensure product is available for all. To facilitate this, for now, we are limiting customer purchases to two tins per customer per product line.”
He added that customers will also be given a Ministry for Primary Industries consumer guide, which has details about how to tell whether the product had been tampered with.