Kindergarteners Found With Abnormally High Lead Levels From School Meals, Chinese Authorities Say

For years, authorities have struggled to boost public trust in China’s food quality since the 2008 baby formula scandal.

Children eating at tables with plastic partitions during lunch time at a kindergarten in Yongzhou in central Hunan Province, China, on May 11, 2020. STR/AFP via Getty Images

More than 230 children were found to have “abnormal” levels of lead in their blood after consuming food at their kindergarten in northwestern China, local authorities said on July 8, the latest in a string of food safety scandals that sparked public outrage.

After testing all 251 children at the school, the authorities found that 233 had abnormal lead levels, while 201 of those students required hospitalization, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Authorities in Tianshui city, Gansu Province, blamed the school’s kitchen staff for the incident, alleging that they had added inedible paint to food, according to an investigative report published by CCTV.

Eight individuals connected to the privately run Peixin Kindergarten have been detained, including its investor, referred to only by the surname Li, and the principal, identified by the surname Zhu. They were suspected of allegedly “producing toxic and harmful food,” the report said.

Li and Zhu allegedly authorized the school’s kitchen staff to purchase decorative paint online, which was later diluted and used in some food production, according to the report. Two other individuals were placed on bail pending trial.

Surveillance footage published by state media Xinhua showed a worker purportedly adding yellow powder to the flour in the school’s kitchen.

Investigators found that the lead levels in a tri-colored date cake and a corn sausage bun—samples of the children’s breakfast and dinner—exceeded China’s official safety limit of 0.5 milligrams per kilogram by more than 2,000 times, according to the report.

During the investigation, the authorities seized the remaining paint pigment from the school, which was “clearly labeled as inedible” on the package, CCTV said.

Guo Qingxiang, deputy mayor and head of the public security bureau in Tianshui, suggested that the motive behind using inedible paint to make food look more appealing was driven by marketing strategies, claiming that the school’s investor and principal sought to boost enrollment and profits, according to a separate CCTV report on July 7.

The school could not be contacted for comment.

The authorities’ report did not mention when these paints were ordered or how long the kindergarteners may have been exposed to lead-tainted food.

Multiple state media, including China Newsweek, reported on July 4 that parents said their children experienced abdominal pain, leg pain, loss of appetite, and other symptoms for several months.

Some parents expressed doubts about how local authorities responded to the incident in interviews with state media. The Paper, a state-affiliated outlet, reported on July 4 that many parents brought their children to the hospital in Xi’an, the capital of the neighboring province of Shaanxi, approximately 210 miles from Tianshui. Some explained that in Tianshui, their children didn’t receive proper testing or were unable to obtain written test reports.

The report said that one 6-year-old’s blood lead level was 441 micrograms per liter, significantly exceeding China’s official reference value of 100 micrograms per liter for children. This result, obtained from Xi'an Central Hospital, was more than 100 times higher than the level reported by test centers in Tianshui, the child’s parent told The Paper.

The Epoch Times could not independently verify the claims made by the Chinese media outlets.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that no safe blood lead level has been identified for children. According to the agency, exposure to lead can “seriously harm a child’s health,” leading to damage to their brain and nervous systems and slowing their growth.

Children younger than the age of 6 are “at greatest risk for health problems” from lead exposure, it said on its website.

The Chinese Communist Party has been grappling with a series of food safety scandals that sparked widespread concern.

In July 2024, state media outlet Beijing News reported that some fuel trucks, which were typically used for transporting oil and industrial chemicals, were also being regularly used for transporting cooking oil without undergoing any cleaning process in between. The scandal implicated the country’s major companies, including state-owned grain giant Sinograin, triggering widespread fears that people may have consumed tainted oils.

For years, the authorities have struggled to boost public trust in China’s food quality since the 2008 baby formula scandal, in which tens of thousands of children, mostly infants, developed kidney stones and other illnesses after a Chinese dairy giant was found to have added an industrial chemical—melamine—to the formula powders.