Kindergarten kitchen staff caught on CCTV mixing toxic pigment into brightly coloured children's meals.
A huge food scandal rocked China after over 230 kids were poisoned at a kindergarten in Gansu province. Six employees have been detained and 27 others are being investigated by authorities after the incident at Brownstone Peixin Kindergarten in Tianshui city. The culprit: industrial pigment containing toxic lead, added to food to make it more attractive.
The controversy broke earlier this month when 235 children were admitted to the hospital with symptoms including stomach cramps, vomiting, and even blackened teeth. Blood tests later established that 247 children and several other staff members, including the principal had high levels of lead in their blood.
While most children have since been released from hospital, the Gansu provincial government apologized, terming the incident one of 'deep sorrow'.
For an official investigation report, the principal at the school had directed kitchen workers to add vivid industrial pigments to meals to make them more appealing and bring in more students.
One of the pigments contained lead at a level 400,000 times the legal permissible limit of safety. Although the school used food-safe dyes earlier, the transition was allegedly made for more intense color effects.
The food colourings were bought online, even though they had packaging that said they were 'not for consumption'. Photographs published on Chinese social media site Weibo depicted abnormally brightly coloured meals being served to children, and CCTV was used to affirm kitchen workers adding pigments directly to the food.
It has been labelled one of the worst school food safety scandals of recent years.
The report by the Gansu provincial party committee revealed misbehaviour and dereliction of duty across several layers of management ranging from school officials to public health and governmental authorities.
The local education bureau was criticized for allowing the kindergarten to function without a proper license. It also conceded that no inspections of private kindergartens in the district for food safety had been carried out for more than two years.
Moreover, the Gansu Centre for Disease Control and Prevention was alleged to have violated health protocols while collecting the samples, and so preliminary reports grossly underestimated contamination levels.
The incident has caused public outrage across the country and further demands for increased regulation and enforcement of food safety, particularly in institutions that serve young children.
