Associate Education Minister David Seymour has labelled the principal at the centre of mouldy school lunch a media ‘frequent flyer’. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour has questioned who is responsible for mouldy mince served to Christchurch schoolchildren, claiming the lunches could have gone off after the food production company delivered them.
Seymour also told RNZ’s First Up that Haeata Community Campus principal Peggy Burrows was a “frequent flyer” with the media andfurther investigations were needed before food group Compass was blamed.
“I regret to say, you’ve just made an assumption about what’s happened here. And as I just said, we’re keeping a very open mind about what’s happened here.
“I also note that this particular principal is a frequent flyer in the media, complaining about quite a range of Government policies, which people have the right to do, but I think people need that context.”
Seymour, the Associate Education Minister and the driving force behind the lunches scheme, claimed it was not clear if it was a mix-up by the school or Compass.
“I need to be clear that there has been no illness. You know, there’s been reporting by this principal,” he said.
But Burrows said the food was delivered daily and any leftovers were removed each day.
Some students ate the meals, provided as part of the Government’s school lunch programme, before a teacher intervened.
But this morning, Burrows said, by about 11pm, fewer than 10 students and one staff member had reported feeling ill.
She said she could not confirm that this was definitely caused by the mouldy lunches.
“But, I mean, it’s pretty horrendous.”
She said at least one parent had said her children would not be allowed to eat the lunches today, despite her relying heavily on the programme to feed her whānau.
The principal said she was “horrified” that Seymour had called her a “frequent flyer” as an advocate for a vulnerable community.
“I am really privileged to hold the position, and I’m in a position where I can articulate what that community often thinks and feels.
“And so, at the moment, I see this as probably the greatest advocacy that we can do for the community at the moment: to highlight how vulnerable it is and how inappropriate this whole situation is.”
In response to the claims that it could have been the school’s fault, she explained how the lunches were picked up and disposed of.
“[Compass] has a van driver who delivers all of the food. It begins delivery at 10am.
“The food is then distributed, and then the waste is put back into the containers that the food comes in, and then all containers are taken straight back to Compass.
“So, the school has absolutely no involvement with the preparation or the disposal of the food. We simply distribute it.”
She said an adult would thoroughly check all lunches today.
Burrows said as soon as teachers realised the food was “mouldy and furry” yesterday, they leaped into action.
“One of the teachers decided that they would have lunch because, of course, we are encouraged to eat the lunches as well,” Burrows said.
Compass Group NZ and Gilmours form a partnership to supply meals under the School Lunch Collective.
Burrows said the Compass Group provided the lunches, but of the two batches provided to the school, only one appeared to have mould.
Massey University Professor of Food Safety and Microbiology Steve Flint said mould could typically form within a few days in room temperature environments or over a few weeks refrigerated.
He said that the food in the lunches, cooked meat and vegetables, would have typically needed to be exposed to the air or had mould spores sealed into the containers for it to have grown mould.
Flint also said that consuming mould was generally safe and it was rare to develop illness, especially mould that forms on cooked meat.
“A lot of people will cut mould off cheese, for example, and eat it, and that’s fine. The risks are low.
“There is a possibility of fungal toxins, but that’s quite rare.
“Mould is really not generally a risk unless it’s producing microtoxins, and only certain moulds do that, and it’s on things like grain, normally and those types of products. But not on a meat sort of type product.”
Helen Hurst, Ministry of Education hautū (leader) of operations and integration, said they were investigating.
“We have been in touch with the school.
“There are no reports of student illness. We have advised the school to monitor students, and any illness is to be reported to [Health New Zealand] Te Whatu Ora.
“We are working with MPI [the Ministry for Primary Industries] on this investigation. No other school has reported any issues with today’s lunches.”
The School Lunch Collective said it was working with the school and MPI to better understand what had happened.
“We take pride in our food quality and know this is something that cannot be compromised.
“Our kitchens are verified and audited regularly by an independent MPI-verified provider, and we follow the Food Act, food control plans and related regulations.
“These measures have been in place since the beginning of the programme.”
Although Compass did not secure the contract to provide school lunches to primary schools, it would still be providing lunches to intermediate and secondary schools next year.