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A by-product of Fonterra's waste is now being sold to some of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies.
Inhalation grade lactose, which is not needed in the processing of cheese, is the dairy industry's second largest product in Europe and the sixth largest globally.
Around 45,000 tonnes of high grade lactose is produced each year and it all starts in Taranaki using milk produced in the North Island.
"[It's] processed here on site, we extract the protein and then send to Kapuni to be made into lactose and pharmaceutical products," says Fonterra Whareroa hub operations manager Mike Corbett.
Twenty years the ingredient was destined for the bin.
"The pharmaceutical business for Fonterra is adding a significant value in a lactose stream," says Fonterra Kapuni site manager Donald Lumsden.
Now, a third of every medicine tablet made contains lactose that produced in Taranaki.
The ingredient has attracted Dutch pharmaceutical giant DMV, who in 2006 paired with Fonterra to develop the product into the global market worth $US800 billion.
"We're still growing because we put a lot of effort in making sure we can supply our customers with the highest quality reliability and expertise in this area," says inhalation grade lactose site manager Anita Scott-Dekker.
Inhalation grade lactose is typically used in tablets for cholesterol and stomach ulcers and the contraceptive pill, and is also used in asthma inhalers.
