Recall means the company wants you to bring back a product because there might be a problem.
The dairy company, Fonterra, has recalled 8,700 bottles of cream. The company said that anyone in the Upper North island buying Anchor or Pam’s cream with a ‘best before January 21st’ date, should take it back to the shop for a refund. Fonterra is worried that it could be contaminated with E.coli bacteria.
Some E.coli are harmless while others cause food poisoning. Supermarket staff said that they have not heard of anyone who was sick from the cream. It is possible this is a false alarm. However, Fonterra feels it is safer to recall the cream.
In August, Fonterra thought that their milk powder used for baby formula was contaminated. However, Fonterra later found this was a false alarm. The milk powder was quite safe. Now the French company Danone, which buys Fonterra’s milk powder to make the baby formula plans to sue Fonterra for nearly NZ$500 million. Danone had to recall the baby formula and lost a lot of money.
Vocabulary
- refund – get your money back
- contaminated – not clean, not pure
- harmless – cause no harm, will not make anyone sick
- false alarm – an emergency warning which is a mistake
- baby formula, infant formula – special milk powder similar to mother’s milk
- sue – to go to court for money
Questions
- 1. If Fonterra is not sure if the cream is contaminated, was it a good idea to recall the cream as soon as possible?
- 2. “Harmless” means no harm. Can you think of other words with the suffix “-less”? What is the opposite of each one?
- 3. Can you think of other occasions when there is a false alarm?