Nursery owner in China jailed for life after hundreds of children poisoned
She and five staff members were found to have used the inedible paint in meals to make them look more appealing.
Nursery owner in China jailed for life after hundreds of children poisoned
Kitchen staff were told to use inedible paint to improve the appearance of meals and draw in more students, the court found.
A nursery owner and five staff members have been jailed after being found guilty of poisoning more than 200 children with lead-contaminated food.
Li Huifang, who ran the Heshi Peixin Kindergarten in Tianshui, in Gansu province, was sentenced to life in prison for producing and selling toxic and harmful food, according to Chinese state media.
In July 2025, 247 pupils and staff at the nursery were found to have abnormally high blood lead levels after children started falling ill.
A report into the case found that chefs at Heshi Peixin had used inedible paint to "enhance the look" of its meals to attract more students, even though the paint was clearly labelled as such.
Along with the prison term, the Lanzhou Intermediate People's Court also ordered the seizure of 500,000 yuan (£56,200; $74,700) in Li's personal assets, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Nursery executive principal Zhi Jinglin was sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined 300,00 yuan.
Four other nursery kitchen staff members received prison terms ranging from six to eight years, according to state media.
The court found that the four had been instructed by Li and Zhi to add toxic and harmful ingredients to food served to children and staff.
Food samples were later found to contain lead at 2,000 times above China's national safety limit.
The poisoning investigation began after 235 children from Heshi Peixin nursery had to be treated for lead poisoning after eating steamed red date cakes and sausage corn buns.
Investigators found that the red date cake and the corn sausage rolls contained lead levels of 1052mg/kg and 1340mg/kg respectively, both far above the national food safety standard limit of 0.5mg/kg.
Lead poisoning is "particularly harmful to young children" and can "severely damage the brain and central nervous system", according to the World Health Organization.
Officials later found that dozens of provincial officials and hospital staff attempted to cover up the incident by tampering with blood tests and accepting bribes from a nursery investor.
China has since issued a set of national guidelines for providing meals on campuses. Among the measures is a requirement that every new batch of food be tested, and that flour, rice and cooking oil be bought only from centralised procurement points.