It is a fair concern when all a2m infant formula comes from one...

It is a fair concern when all a2m infant formula comes from one big Synlait owned plant. I went to a Synlait presentation a few weeks ago where these kinds of issues were raised and addressed by the Synlait CEO.

It is a big plant too, the infant formula capacity of that Dunsandel plant is around the same as ALL the infant formula plants in Australia combined.

Earthquakes, well they survived the Christchurch earthquake, the story goes that once the operators could stand up they evacuated to the carpark but the plant itself just kept running, it only stopped when the regional power network went black.

Quite remarkable really when one considers there are roads in that area that were once dead straight for miles and now have dog legs.

They have three dryers so the risk of fire is diversified between them, it is a risk for all dairy plants though, that mix of coal fired dryers and powdered carbohydrate. I was told that Synlait were the first to install CO2 monitoring on both the inlet and the outlet of their dryers which provides a higher level of protection.

It has worked too, they have had a fire in one dryer, this new system meant that the fire was extinguished earlier and they were back up to previous production levels within 48 hours.

Contamination, can’t see it as long as all the local farms are supplied by artesian well water systems, no common modes, aside perhaps from the fertiliser they use, well if they even all use the same supplier.