Children were fed baked goods laced with paint that was unfit for consumption.
More than 200 children at a kindergarten were hospitalized with lead poisoning after cooks used inedible paint to decorate food.
The BBC writes about this.
In Tianshui City, Gansu Province, more than 230 children at the private Peixin Kindergarten were hospitalized with high blood lead levels after eating pastries and buns decorated with paint. Test results showed that the food contained lead levels 2,000 times higher than the national safety standard.
Police detained eight people, including the director of the kindergarten, its main investor and cooks. According to the investigation, the kindergarten management ordered the paint online, ignoring the fact that it was clearly marked as unfit for human consumption. After the children fell ill, law enforcement officers found hidden paint residue.
Parents of the children report that their children are complaining of stomach pain, leg pain and loss of appetite, symptoms that began to appear in March. One parent said he had already taken his son to a hospital in Xi'an for examination. The boy now needs treatment and medication for at least ten days.
Chinese state media released CCTV footage of kitchen workers adding dye to food. Tests showed lead levels in baked goods and buns reached more than 1,000 milligrams per kilogram — more than 2,000 times the legal limit of 0.5 mg/kg.
Tianshui Mayor Liu Lijiang said the incident exposed serious shortcomings in the city's food safety control system. Authorities vowed to take action to ensure that such a thing does not happen again.
It is not yet known how long the chefs used the dye in the food, but local authorities have launched a full-scale investigation and those responsible could face prosecution for producing toxic and dangerous food products.
Tianshui Mayor Liu Lijiang said the case had raised widespread concerns among parents and the public about the safety of children's food in schools and called into question the effectiveness of the region's food quality control system.
Let us recall that earlier we wrote about a 3-year-old boy who died in a kindergarten in Rzeszow, Poland . The tragedy occurred because he choked on grapes.
