A total of 233 children from Peixin Kindergarten had high levels of lead in their blood, more than 200 of whom were treated in hospital, after the students consumed a school lunch containing inedible paint in north-west China.
Samples from the food showed that lead levels were 2,000 times over the country’s national safety limit.
Putting lead in the food
The principal had reportedly requested kitchen staff to buy the paint online, according to a police statement announcing the arrest of eight people. The paint had been used on a red date cake and a sausage corn bun.
Investigators found that the red date cake and the corn sausage rolls had lead levels of 1052mg/kg and 1340mg/kg.
The paint had been marked unsafe for human consumption, police confirmed.
Only 18 of the kindergarten’s 251 students were unaffected, according to a statement by authorities.