Chelsea Sugar (also known as the New Zealand Sugar Company) has been fined $149,500 for importing and selling sugar products tainted with lead.
More than 970 tonnes of products were manufactured from sugar contaminated during sea transportation from Australia, resulting in the company recalling thousands of products in late 2021.
Two more recalls were needed when it was revealed incorrect information was provided to supermarkets resulting in more tainted goods being released to consumers.
Yeah it’s a tough one. At the very least the default fine should be higher than the cost of making sure they are complying (as in Chelsea staff in charge of ensuring compliance). But if they were trying to comply and showed their process improvements since the incident then the fine might be appropriate.
I’d guess they lost a lot more money from doing a recall and also from the loss of brand status, there would probably be people avoiding them after the incident.
I dont think product recalls reach enough people to do any harm. most people dont even read the news so they wont know about this.
They have to organise the return and refund of all stock in stores and any in transit which while not being super expensive, could easily be more than the fine. $150k really isn’t that much for a large company.