The Green Party is calling on Fonterra to release minutes that the company says show it did not support allowing small levels of melamine in milk powder.
Sanlu general manager Tian Wenhua, sentenced to life over her role in the Chinese contamination scandal, says she acted on a Fonterra-supplied document stating that a small level of melamine was acceptable.
The New Zealand Herald reports that a board member designated by Fonterra, which owned nearly half of Sanlu, gave her information saying some melamine was allowed by provisional European Union standards.
Fonterra says it did supply the document, which was one of many the company had searched the world for, seeking information about melamine, but when the document in question was given to Sanlu the company was told explicitly that the only acceptable level of melamine was zero.
It says there are minutes recording the conversation with Sanlu executives but it won't make them public.
'Many questions remain unanswered'
Green Party food safety spokesperson Sue Kedgley says Fonterra must release the minutes for the sake of its own credibility.
Six babies died after drinking contaminated milk, she says, and many questions remain unanswered.
Mr Ferrier declines to name the director who supplied the document, saying he remains confident that they acted appropriately.
Fonterra chairman Henry van der Heyden has rejected a suggestion Mr Ferrier should be sacked, saying he did everything he could to mitigate the risks of manufacturing in China and the board has complete faith in him.
