Volodymyr Zelenskyy wraps up his meeting with European and Canadian leaders in London and more healthcare workers are lured to Australia. Video / NZ Herald, AFP
Students at rural Tasman’s Murchison Area School consumed melted plastic due to overheated lunches, prompting a review.
Principal Andy Ashworth called the incident “unforgivable,” and Associate Education Minister David Seymour deemed it “unacceptable”.
The School Lunch Collective apologised, attributing the issue to overheating in convection ovens, and promised corrective measures.
An oven mix-up saw students at a rural South Island school consume melted plastic due to overheated lunches in an incident described as “unforgivable” by their principal.
Murchison Area School principal Andy Ashworth told the Herald it received about 200 pre-heated meals in black plastic containers on Friday — similar to those one might get when buying a microwave meal at a supermarket.
He believed the meal was fish pie of some description, but it was “honestly difficult to tell”.
“What had happened with quite a number of them was the plastic film on the top had actually melted into the top of the food,” Ashworth said.
Plastic film covering lunches provided to rural Tasman's Murchison Area School had melted into the meals. Photo / Andy Ashworth
“It was, literally, melted into the potato stuff on the top, which is horrible, obviously.”
He said most students had spotted the plastic film in the meals, which were discarded after the discovery — but there was an even more shocking discovery when students neared the end of their lunches.
“You got to the bottom of the food and realised that the plastic had actually melted from the inside into the bottom of the food... There were holes in the plastic containers where it had melted into the actual food.
“Kids were eating, in effect, melted plastic either from the top or the bottom. [It’s] disgusting,” Ashworth said.
He said the lunches arrived at the school at 12.30pm and he wasn’t advised of the issues until about 1.45pm, “by which time most of the kids had eaten” so it was “too late to intervene”.
The meals were so hot that holes were left in containers where plastic had melted into the food. Photo / Andy Ashworth
“I could talk about the quality of the food and so on, but putting that aside, the health and safety of our kids eating melted plastic in their school meals... obviously it’s not right.
“The implications of all the toxins and stuff like that is unforgivable and very disappointing.”
He said a complaint was immediately laid with provider Libelle and the School Lunch Collective — to which he reportedly didn’t receive a reply until media inquiries, at which point they apologised and said they would make sure it doesn’t happen again.
“In the nicest sense, I don’t like to moan, but if you don’t moan nothing is changing,” Ashworth said.
A School Lunch Collective spokesperson said it had been in touch with the school to apologise and explain how it occurred.
The School Lunch Collective said that it had apologised to the school and an oven mishap was to blame for the overheating of the meals. Photo / Andy Ashworth
“Our investigation has found that the meals were heated for 30 minutes at 180C in a convection oven. This has caused the lunches to be overheat[ed] as convection ovens are hotter than conventional ovens.
“Going forward, these meals will be reheated at 160C in a convection oven for 20-25 minutes.”
Seymour told the Herald he’d made his view clear that the incident was “unacceptable”.
“The School Lunch Collective has apologised and are now investigating how this happened. I expect the school to receive a full explanation and an assurance that this will not happen again,” he said.
“MPI is aware of the situation and is working with the Ministry of Education to review this incident.”
Ministry of Education hautū (leader) operations and integration Sean Teddy described the situation as “entirely unacceptable”.
“Our food safety advisor is actively working with the School Lunch Collective and MPI to investigate the matter and ensure appropriate actions are taken to prevent this from happening again,” he told the Herald.
“The Ministry takes all food safety issues very seriously. In addition to the immediate actions being implemented, we are seeking a full account of how this occurred.
“While we understand this to be an isolated incident, we are seeking confirmation from the School Lunch Collective to make sure the highest standards of safety are upheld.”
Associate Education Minister David Seymour said the incident was "unacceptable". Photo / Mark Mitchell
Ashworth had voiced his disapproval of the revamped programme several times and had been “really disturbed at the same things as schools around the country — late meals, wrong meals and different meals”.
“We’ve had butter chicken just about every other day and then pies when they run out of food.”
He said the school’s lunches had previously been made at a nearby café, which produced 200 nutritional meals with hardly any wastage.
Under the cost-cutting changes, the meals are now made and frozen in Hamilton — over 800km from the school — and transported to another small, rural Tasman town about an hour from the school where they are heated.
The new provider had also changed packaging constantly, with further problems arising, such as leaking containers, Ashworth said.
“I just hope they can see the light with the considerable pressure that’s coming on them from not just me, but a number of schools and principals and boards of trustees that the system isn’t working.”
‘Manufacturing shortfalls’ sees introduction of ‘flexi-menu’
In an email sent out to schools this morning, seen by the Herald, the School Lunch Collective said “manufacturing shortfalls” had affected both menu availability and variety, and it was expanding its range of meal suppliers to help address these challenges.
It said a new ‘flexi-menu’ had been developed as it worked to increase the variety of meals served.
“When a menu item has flexi-menu in front of it, it means the meal is being provided by a new School Lunch Collective supplier. The flexi-menu will be updated and sent to you weekly so you know what to expect,” the email read.
A school lunch described as "unidentifiable pasta ball and lentils".
The email said as of Friday, the School Lunch Collective had achieved a 96% on-time delivery rate nationwide.
“Some of the new meals require additional preparation or cooking, which briefly affected delivery times, but we are nearly back to our optimal schedule.”
It also said that following feedback on some standard menu items, it would be removing ‘Mac and Cheese Pasta with Ham and Cheese Sauce’ from the menu.
“It will take a couple of weeks for the existing stock to move through the pipeline.
“We are determined to achieve our mission to deliver up to 127,000 balanced, nourishing meals a day to tamariki throughout Aotearoa New Zealand on time, to empower tamariki to learn, grow and thrive.”
Benjamin Plummer is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. He has worked for the Herald since 2022.
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