Gisborne student ends up in hospital with second-degree burns after hot school lunch ‘splattered everywhere’ as they opened it

Ilminster Intermediate School principal Jonathan Poole said school lunches were so hot a student was left with burns on their leg after trying to open one. Photo / Supplied

New Zealand Food Safety will launch a nationwide investigation after a student at a Gisborne school suffered “second-degree burns” and was taken to hospital after trying to open a hot school lunch.

Ilminster Intermediate School principal Jonathan Poole said the Government-funded cottage pie school lunches served through the School Lunch Collective today arrived quite hot.

Poole said the food inside broke the packaging, and the student struggled to hold the container and it “splattered everywhere” on the child’s leg.

The child suffered “second-degree burns”.

“This child has basically had to be taken to A&E to be looked at, quite upset, and in a bit of pain ... ”

Poole said some meals looked like they could have had plastic melted into them.

Kids delivering the meals to classes were struggling to pick them up to put on trolleys to deliver to classes, he said.

“I’ve got two pretty upset, concerned parents.

“My concern is, when is enough, enough?”

Poole said in his opinion: “They are just not delivering on what they have promised to deliver on.”

Talking about the school’s previous lunch provider, Poole said: “We had a system that was working for us in our school, and now it’s not.”

The school orders 310 lunches a day and about 150 are left untouched.

“We’ve had a lot of kids not eating because of the look of the food, the taste, the smell ... ” Poole said.

“Some students are now bringing their own lunches. The idea was about giving kids a nutritious meal to get through the day ... and [in my view] it is missing the mark terribly.”

Poole said the child’s burns would blister and would have to be dressed for a couple of weeks, preventing them from swimming, which they enjoyed.

A School Lunch Collective spokesperson said they were “deeply concerned” to hear of the incident.

“Our thoughts are with the student and we wish them a speedy recovery. We take health and safety seriously and are talking to the school to see how we can support both them and the student,” the spokesperson said.

“Our people are on the ground and we have started an investigation immediately to see what caused this.”

Associate Minister of Education David Seymour said he was aware of the incident.

“I am deeply concerned and I want to extend my sympathy to the child who has been injured. The ministry is conducting a full investigation to find out why this happened.”

Nationwide investigation to be launched

New Zealand Food Safety deputy director general Vincent Arbuckle said they were notified late this afternoon of a serious incident involving a student being burnt by a school lunch.

“We immediately started an investigation and we will be onsite at the lunch heating facility tomorrow,” he said.

“At the request of the Ministry of Education, we will also widen our investigation to heating facilities used by the school lunch programme nationwide to provide assurances their practices are fit for purpose.

“We are in contact with the Ministry of Education and Compass which has supplied us with initial information.

“In the meantime, Compass has assured us this type of meal will not be served again.”

Arbuckle said all food businesses were required to identify potential risks and have plans in place to manage them.

“The safety of the students is our primary concern. We will be investigating to determine what went wrong in this case and to help prevent it from happening again.”

Multiple complaints about lunches

The Ilminster incident comes after multiple complaints nationwide about the lunches, including the untimeliness of delivery; unsealed containers leaving food open to contamination; burnt food and lunches not turning up.

Seymour reformed the Healthy School Lunches programme last year, saying it would save taxpayers' dollars.

Ilminster Intermediate School principal Jonathan Poole said school lunches were so hot a student was left with burns on their leg after trying to open one. Photo / Supplied

For most schools, the new programme under contractor the School Lunch Collective started rolling out in January, with several schools reporting problems, including parents being asked to pack extra food for their children after some school meals didn’t turn up.

There have also been multiple instances where schools were forced to buy replacement food – such as pizzas, pies, and small containers of teriyaki chicken – because the meals had not arrived on time.

Last year Seymour said the revised programme brought the cost of each meal down to $3 and would, on paper, save taxpayers more than $130 million a year without sacrifices to quality and nutrition.

In Gisborne, some school principals have previously said students were turning down meals out of frustration with repetitive meals being provided for days in a row.

They also raised concerns about the nutritional value and portion sizes of the ready-made meals, plus excessive plastic packaging.