File photo. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
The Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) has investigated 17 food safety complaints in the School Lunch Collective's lunch programme in term one of this year, 12 of which are ongoing investigations.
That's the same number in term one as was investigated by MPI across seven years under previous iterations of the programme.
The Ministry of Education receives initial reports of food safety incidents, complaints and queries from schools and escalates these up to New Zealand Food Safety (NZFS) when there is significant public interest or food safety concerns.
Education officials said they are taking a more stringent approach to referring food safety incidents up to MPI to assure parents and schools their concerns are taken seriously.
In some cases, they are referring food safety complaints up to MPI that would not have been escalated under the previous programme.
Associate Education Minister David Seymour said some of the issues were escalated "out of an abundance of caution", and that incidents including "clumpy sauce in a meatball meal, a stray chicken bone, and frozen buns", would not have been raised with NZFS under the old programme.
MPI and NZFS have concluded five of the investigations - they include a student in Gisborne getting burnt due to an overheated lunch, melted plastic in food, broken seals on food, and special dietary meals being mislabelled.
MPI would not provide details for most of the ongoing 12 food safety investigations, but one concerned a student biting into a bit of glass, and another getting a minor burn injury to their mouth on a hot lunch.
Milson School Principal Tracy Thorn said she was still awaiting the outcome of her complaint into the piece of glass, found in a nachos lunch in early April.
Thorn was originally told the piece - which she estimated was 1.5cm by 1cm - was perspex plastic, but this week the Ministry of Education confirmed to her it was tempered glass.
RNZ has seen an email confirming that.
Thorn said the year 6 student went to the dentist after having tooth and jaw pain, but did not require further treatment.
She said she and other staff at the Palmerston North primary school then went through the other provided lunches to make sure no other objects were in them.
"I'm really looking forward to what they are going to come back with and how that happened. They said they pulled everything from the production line when that happened."
Thorn said following that incident, in early April, another child found a piece of glad wrap - about 2cm by 3cm - in their provided sandwich - which she also complained to the Ministry of Education and Compass about.
She said she had also made complaints about dietary requirements for students being inaccurately labelled.
She said the number of food safety incidents was "shocking".
The pictures show the lunches the Whangarei school received with their packaging already coming off and burnt. Photo: Supplied
"It feels like all of the standards have slipped and actually it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter, it's just a mislabelled lunch, or it's just a little bit of plastic, we don't know where that's came from, or it's a piece of plastic that's just from glad wrap - no stress.
"If that's a five-year-old that's had that bit of plastic and swallowed it and got stuck in their windpipe and died, well that's worst-case scenario."
NZFS deputy director-general Vincent Arbuckle said there were no reports of illness identified through the investigations, and staff were overseeing "improvement actions" by the School Lunch Collective.
He said they had identified the cause of the issue in the 12 current investigations.
"We take all school lunch complaints seriously as students are a vulnerable population."
Food safety improved - minister
Seymour said food safety had improved under the new scheme.
"In the first term of the new programme, there were 63 food safety complaints, queries, and incidents. Just 17 of those were referred to New Zealand Food Safety."
Minister David Seymour eating lunch at the launch of the revamped school lunch programme. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
He said most of the issues referred to NZFS were made under an abundance of caution, and would not have been raised under the previous programme.
"Examples of meal incidents which would not have been raised with NZFS under the old programme include clumpy sauce in a meatball meal, a stray chicken bone, and frozen buns," Seymour said.
The Ministry of Education received 63 food safety complaints, incidents and queries in term one of 2025, compared to 35 in term one last year.
Seymour said looking at the total average of food safety complaints made to the Ministry of Education last year, the programme was performing better than it had been.
"In 2024, the third year of the old programme, there were around 340 food safety complaints, queries, and incidents across the whole school lunches programme. That's an average of 85 per term in 2024 under the previous iteration.
"It seems that we are reporting more and still performing better based on these figures. If the teacher you talked to was shocked by 63, I'd be keen to know what she thought about 85."
Seymour said he immediately contacted Milson School after the incident, and he was confident the issue had been well handled.
"The School Lunch Programme is continuing to succeed despite its harshest critics, namely RNZ, who continue to breathlessly report on it even when there is nothing new for them to actually report on."
Officials taking a 'stringent approach'
Sean Teddy, Ministry of Education leader of operation and integration, said officials had taken a more "stringent and proactive approach" to identifying and escalating food safety issues.
"This reflects our responsibility so students receive safe, nutritious meals and to maintain public confidence in the programme.
"In some cases, matters that may not have previously triggered a referral to NZ Food Safety under the Ministry for Primary Industries have been escalated out of an abundance of caution," Teddy said.
He said the ministry wants parents, students and schools to know their concerns are being taken seriously and that the food provided by the School Lunch Collective meets community expectations and health and safety standards.
In a statement, Compass spokesperson Paul Harvey said The School Lunch Collective was working closely with FSNZ to assist in the investigations.
"We have been quick to act on the different recommendations made. Since taking over the Libelle production kitchen, we have been working to ensure the facilities' systems and processes continuously meet the required standards.
School lunch provider Libelle Group has been placed into liquidation. Photo: RNZ / Louise Ternouth
"So far, we have served more than 5.5 million meals to tamariki around the country."
Harvey commented on one of the other current investigations, about a reported hot meal that caused a minor mouthburn.
"We were sorry to hear that a student was hurt after swallowing hot food.
"We take health and safety seriously and have spoken to the school to see how we can support both them and the student and prevent it happening again."
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