At the centre of the investigation is thaumatin, also known as ingredient 957 – an intensely sweet protein extracted from the katemfe fruit of West Africa.
The natural sweetener is scarce and expensive, costing about $600-$800 a kilogram wholesale, according to an industry figure who spoke to the Herald.
Testing of multiple batches of what was thought to be thaumatin has revealed sucralose.
Sucralose is an artificial sweetener manufactured from sugar and costs a fraction of thaumatin: about $35-$55 a kilogram wholesale, according to an industry source.
Thaumatin is used by manufacturers who want to market products as natural and sugar-free.
It’s been used in low-calorie drinks and flavoured waters, yoghurts, ice creams, milk alternatives, puddings, protein powders, nutritional supplements and sauces, including sweet chilli sauce.
One food manufacturer said the implications for New Zealanders extend beyond which sweetener was used, and into why the thaumatin wasn’t tested when, or before, it arrived in the country.
Another told the Herald that food manufacturers “need to ensure each batch is what it says it is. If you sold bread with gluten to someone with coeliacs they could get very sick”.
Food company Azelis, which has headquarters in Belgium, laboratories around the world and an office in Auckland’s Parnell, sent a letter to Kiwi manufacturers in August saying it had imported and sold sucralose labelled as thaumatin.
The Herald asked Azelis how this happened.
Wes van Tonder, managing director of Azelis New Zealand, said the company does “not manufacture, repack or relabel the material” and that it was alerted to the issue by a customer.
He said its investigations to date “identified a discrepancy … between the product we ordered and the one we received from our supplier”.
Van Tonder would not say how many kilograms of the substance Azelis sold in New Zealand or to how many separate customers, but did confirm the material was sourced from Australia.
The company was also asked whether Azelis tested the substance before on-selling it into the New Zealand food supply.
Van Tonder said there are times when additional testing is required but in this case the product was assessed against supplier documentation “indicating it met the expected specification”.
In its letter to customers, Azelis said the thaumatin it had sold was more than 99% sucralose.
“We have now received analytical results for all five batches submitted for testing,” Azelis said in the letter, seen by the Herald.
“The results obtained confirm that the product supplied as Thaumatin T200X does not align with the expected composition of thaumatin.
“Despite repeated requests, we have not received sufficient information from the supplier to resolve key aspects of our investigation, including confirmation of the product’s manufacturing source.
“We have continued to keep New Zealand Food Safety (MPI) informed of our findings.”
Former Azelis customer Jonathan Birrell, founder of NZ supplement brand Xplosiv, told the Herald “the villain will probably be the person that Azelis bought it from, but the responsibility falls on Azelis”.
“Azelis probably bought it genuinely believing it was thaumatin, but I was surprised something being sold on that scale hadn’t been properly tested to confirm it was actually what they thought it was.
“That’s part of why you pay more to buy through a distributor. You’re not just paying them to source an ingredient overseas and sell it on. You’re paying for them to do the checks, make sure the ingredient is what they say it is, and take responsibility for what they’re supplying.”
Birrell told the Herald he tracks all his ingredients from arrival to finished product, including origin, paperwork, batch numbers and testing where required.
“Separate to all of that, Xplosiv alone spent $63,063.52 with two independent testing companies across June, July and August, testing finished products.
“If we’re making a claim about what’s in a product, we want to be able to prove it.”
Birrell said most of the companies he had seen affected by the thaumatin issue had corrected their labels, and been open with customers.
“I think they deserve credit for that. Problems can happen in a supply chain. What matters is what you do when you find out. Be honest with the customer, fix it and do the right thing.”
Bodo Lang, professor of marketing analytics at Massey University, told the Herald consumers deserve to trust the information on food labels as they carry physical and psychological risk.
“Foods are special products – because we ingest them. People really want to know what they are putting in their bodies. Any statement that is false about that is highly regrettable.
“And it shouldn’t be unreasonable for a food manufacturer here to trust a reputable distributor from Europe. At that level you need to be able to trust that person has done their homework. These are big global brands – they can afford to test.”
Lang said his message to the Government would be that New Zealanders must be able to have confidence in ingredient labels and the food supply – particularly when trust has already been shaken by the NZ Muscle scandal.
“Branding is not just for end consumers – but also business to business. Businesses don’t have infinite resources so they need to trust that the business they are buying from delivers what it says it does.
“At some point somebody should have done some testing and there’s a supply chain failure here and at some point, someone needs to take responsibility.”
Formula Foods is a locally owned ingredients company based in Christchurch and another affected Azelis client.
For nearly 40 years Formula Foods has helped NZ businesses develop new food products, refine existing ones, and supply flavours, colours and ingredients for locally produced foods and drinks.
General manager Bob Olayo told the Herald: “Formula Foods purchased thaumatin in good faith from a long-established supplier and relied on the specifications, certificates and quality documentation provided with the product”.
“When concerns were identified, Formula Foods worked with the supplier, customers, MPI regulators, local labs and even universities to investigate the issue as rapidly possible, trace affected material and manage the required response.
“Our focus throughout has been on understanding the facts, supporting affected customers and meeting our obligations.”
It is the first time in nearly 40 years that Formula Foods has received a product that was not what it was meant to be.
New Zealand Food Safety is the branch of MPI responsible for the sector and deputy director-general Vincent Arbuckle confirmed the regulator was investigating.
“New Zealand Food Safety (NZFS) is looking into a matter regarding the use and labelling of a sweetening ingredient,” he said.
“We would like to assure consumers that this is not a food safety issue but is rather a ‘truth to label’ matter” he said.
The brands Clean Nutrition, Nothing Naughty, and Vitaco Health (which manufactures Musashi) have posted statements to their websites informing customers a sweetener supplied to them certified as thaumatin was instead sucralose.
They did not name their supplier and the Herald has sought comment from them about whether it was Azelis.
According to MPI, the distributor of a product holds the legal responsibility to ensure the food they are bringing in is “safe and suitable”.
The Government doesn’t see thaumatin as a high-risk food, so it doesn’t routinely test it at the border.
MPI told the Herald a similar approach is taken by food safety regulators around the world.
Instead, it is the importer’s job to check paperwork, including official safety documents from the overseas supplier, such as a Certificate of Analysis, to prove the ingredient is safe and clean before selling it to food companies.
New Zealand Food Safety told the Herald that alongside border checks, it also:
Carries out targeted monitoring and surveillance programmes, investigates complaints.Responds to international food safety alerts.Can require importers to undergo additional verification where there are concerns about the safety of imported food, or compliance with food safety requirements.
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