After New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra admitted on Saturday that batches of dairy products contaminated with bacteria known to cause botulism had found their way to retailers, the company is now trying to limit the damage caused by the public health scare and immediate fallout.

Fonterra is the biggest company in New Zealand, controlling over 90 percent of the dairy industry in one of the world's major dairying nations. The dairy giant's CEO Theo Spierings issued an apology upon his return to New Zealand on Wednesday (7th August); the Fonterra chief executive said the company will launch an internal investigation into the situation. The contamination is believed to have been caused by a dirty pipe at one Fonterra processing plant.

The company was forced to issue a product recall on a massive scale, including apprehending shipments sent to Australia and China, where six major players in the country's burgeoning dairy industry were this week handed down a fine of £93 million in the wake of a price-fixing investigation by authorities. The week in China has not been a good one for Fonterra, which was also embroiled in the price fixing scandal and fined £620,000 (4.5 million yuan).

However, although Fonterra has pointed out that, so far, no one appears to have been harmed as a result of the contamination, and the company has been praised for admitting its culpability and taking swift action, critics have speculated that the contamination could have arisen or gone undetected as a result of corner cutting for financial gain.

Professor Barry Scott of Massey University was highly critical of the company's decision to cut research jobs last year. He told New Zealand's 3News "I find it interesting watching the company [which announced] record profits last year and I wonder if it's moved a little bit to one end of the profit spectrum." The biologist intimated that job cuts at Fonterra, including the closure of its applied microbiology unit last year, may have impacted on the company's ability to respond to the contamination scare.

Fonterra said in response that it had strengthened its food assurance team in the lead up to the contamination and that the research cuts have had no bearing on the contamination.

Theo Spierings announced at a press conference on Wednesday that all contaminated stock had been accounted for and that the danger to consumers is now believed to be minimal. Now the immediate danger is over, attention will turns to Fonterra's reputation and what it can salvage from the debacle.