A court found kitchen staff used inedible paint on children’s food, pushing lead levels thousands of times above the legal limit.
A court in China has handed a life sentence to the owner of a kindergarten where more than 200 children were poisoned by food laced with lead.
Li Huifang, who ran the Heshi Peixin Kindergarten in Tianshui, Gansu province, was convicted of producing and selling toxic and harmful food. The Lanzhou Intermediate People's Court also ordered the seizure of 500,000 yuan (about $74,700) of her personal assets, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported. The case was reported in Ghana by The Ghana Report.
Five members of her staff were also jailed. The school's executive principal, Zhi Jinglin, received 15 years and a fine of 300,000 yuan. Four kitchen workers were given sentences of between six and eight years. The court found that the four acted on instructions from Li and Zhi when they added the harmful ingredients to meals served to pupils and staff.
Paint used to make food look better
An official report into the incident concluded that cooks at the school used paint that was not edible to improve the appearance of meals, as a way of attracting more pupils. The containers were clearly labelled as unfit for eating.
The scandal came to light in July 2025, when children began falling sick. Tests showed that 247 pupils and staff had abnormally high levels of lead in their blood. Investigators traced the problem to steamed red date cakes and sausage corn buns, after 235 children from the school needed treatment.
Laboratory results put the lead content of the red date cake at 1,052mg/kg and the corn sausage rolls at 1,340mg/kg. China's national food safety limit is 0.5mg/kg. Some food samples were found to carry lead at 2,000 times the legal ceiling.
Why lead matters
The World Health Organisation (WHO), the United Nations agency responsible for global public health, says lead poisoning is especially dangerous for young children because it can cause severe damage to the brain and the central nervous system. The effects can be permanent.
Cover-up and new rules
Investigations did not end at the school gate. Officials later established that dozens of provincial officials and hospital workers had tried to hide the scale of the poisoning by interfering with blood test results and taking bribes from an investor in the nursery.
Since the case, China has issued national guidelines for meals served on school campuses. Every new batch of food must now be tested, and staples such as flour, rice and cooking oil must be bought only from centralised procurement points.
For Ghanaian parents, the case is a reminder of why school feeding kitchens and food vendors need regular inspection. Ghana runs its own School Feeding Programme serving pupils in public basic schools, where food quality and supplier checks have long been a subject of public debate.
