A nursery proprietor and 5 members of her workers have been jailed after they were discovered to have poisoned more than 200 kids with lead-tainted food.
Li Huifang, who operated the Heshi Peixin Kindergarten in Tianshui, in the Gansu province, was sentenced to life in prison for producing and promoting poisonous and dangerous food, according to Chinese state media.
In July 2025, 247 pupils and workers at the nursery were discovered to have abnormally high blood lead ranges after kids started falling unwell.
A report into the incident discovered that cooks at Heshi Peixin had used inedible paint to “enhance the look” of its meals to entice more college students – despite the paint being being clearly marked as such.
In addition to the sentence, the Lanzhou Intermediate People’s Court also ordered the confiscation of 500,000 yuan (£56,200; $74,700) of Li’s personal belongings, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Nursery government principal Zhi Jinglin was sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined 300,00 yuan.
Four other members of workers who labored in the nursery’s kitchen acquired sentences of between six to eight years, according to state media.
The court discovered the 4 had been instructed by Li and Zhi to add poisonous and dangerous ingredients to food served to kids and workers.
Food samples were later discovered to comprise lead 2,000 occasions in extra of China’s national security restrict.
The investigation into the poisoning started after 235 kids from Heshi Peixin nursery had to be handled for lead poisoning after eating steamed pink date truffles and sausage corn buns.
Investigators discovered that the pink date cake and the corn sausage rolls had lead ranges of 1052mg/kg and 1340mg/kg respectively, both of which far exceed the national food security customary restrict 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 discovered that dozens of provincial officers and hospital workers tried to cowl up the incident by tampering with blood exams and accepting bribes from a nursery investor.
China has since revealed a set of national pointers for the provision of meals on campuses. Among the measures is the requirement for every new batch of food to be examined, and for flour, rice and cooking oil to be bought from centralised procurement factors only.
Source hyperlink
