New Zealand Food Safety (NZFS) is investigating after another sugar recall notice was issues on Wednesday night.
In a statement on Thursday, the Ministry for Primary Industries said the latest recall was for about 8000 packets of Woolworths raw sugar, sold at Countdown supermarkets nationwide.
The affected products are Woolworths 500g Raw Sugar Lot Codes 21270 – 21306 and Woolworths 1kg Raw Sugar Lot Codes 21270 - 21306.
"If anyone has these products at home they should return them to the place of purchase for a refund," New Zealand Food Safety deputy director general Vincent Arbuckle said.
"We consider the risk to be low, but if anyone has health concerns, they should consult their doctor."
Arbuckle said that New Zealand Sugar Company provided incorrect information to supermarkets which resulted in them releasing the sugar to consumers in error.
"The affected product was subject to a previous recall because of the potential for low level lead contamination," he said.
"Our experts have assessed the risk to the be low based on the levels of lead detected in the sugar and the potential exposure for consumers.
The product was initially recalled on November 4. Two further recalls followed in November after Woolworths NZ and Foodstuffs South Island mistakenly released the product.
Read more about the recalls of both raw and brown sugar throughout November and now December here.
"While the risk from consuming this sugar is low, we have concerns about the way this recall has unfolded," Arbuckle said.
"We expect businesses to run recalls smoothly in the interests of food safety, and that has clearly not happened here. To that end we have started an investigation to identify any issues within the businesses’ recall process."
Arbuckle said the investigation would include asking all companies involved for copies of their records.
But he assured the errors by the companies involved were "isolated incidents and do not reflect on the food recall system as a whole which has served consumers well over time".
"As part of continual improvement, we are working on a series of further regulatory requirements around food recalls. These will strengthen recall systems and improve traceability.
"However, these are big companies and we need to ensure their recall systems remain effective so that these types of incidents do not recur."
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