Nursery owner in China jailed for life after hundreds of children poisoned

Legenda da imagem: a equipe da cozinha foi instruída a usar tinta não comestível para melhorar a aparência das refeições e atrair mais estudantes, concluiu o tribunal.

A nursery owner and five members of her staff have been jailed after they were found to have poisoned more than 200 children 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 selling toxic and harmful food, according to Chinese state media.

Em julho de 2025, 247 alunos e funcionários da creche foram encontrados com níveis anormalmente altos de chumbo no sangue depois que as crianças começaram a adoecer.

Um relatório sobre o incidente descobriu que os chefs da Heshi Peixin usaram tinta não comestível para “enhance the look” de suas refeições para atrair mais estudantes – apesar da tinta estar claramente marcada como tal.

Nursery executive principal Zhi Jinglin was sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined 300,00 yuan.

Four other members of staff who worked in the nursery's kitchen received sentences of between six to eight years, according to state media.

The court found 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 2,000 times in excess of China's national safety limit.

The investigation into the poisoning 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.

Investigadores descobriram que o red date cake e os corn sausage rolls apresentaram níveis de chumbo de 1052 mg/kg e 1340 mg/kg, respectivamente, ambos muito acima do limite padrão nacional de segurança alimentar de 0.

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.

A China, desde então, publicou um conjunto de diretrizes nacionais para a oferta de refeições nos campus. Entre as medidas está a exigência de que cada nova remessa de alimentos seja testada, e que farinha, arroz e óleo de cozinha sejam adquiridos apenas em pontos de compra centralizados.