A kindergarten owner in China has been sentenced to life in prison after hundreds of young children were exposed to toxic lead when school employees deliberately mixed industrial paint into their food to make meals look more appealing.
The shocking food safety scandal unfolded at Heshi Peixin Kindergarten in Tianshui, a city in northwestern China’s Gansu province, where investigators discovered that 247 children had abnormally high levels of lead in their blood.
On Friday, October 16, a Chinese court handed down prison sentences to six people involved in the incident, including the school’s operator, principal and four kitchen employees.
Li Huifang, who oversaw the kindergarten’s operations, received a life sentence after the Lanzhou Intermediate People’s Court found her guilty of producing and selling toxic and harmful food.
The court also ordered the confiscation of 500,000 yuan, approximately $75,000, of her personal assets.
The school’s executive principal, Zhu Jinglin, was sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined 300,000 yuan, roughly $45,000. Four kitchen workers received prison sentences ranging from six to eight years.
According to Chinese authorities, the poisoning began in May 2024, when school administrators instructed kitchen employees to purchase colorful paint pigments online and add them to certain foods served to children and staff.
The purpose was reportedly to make the meals brighter and more attractive, including for promotional purposes.
However, the pigments contained lead and were never intended for human consumption. Investigators said the packaging clearly warned that the products were not edible.
Despite those warnings, the ingredients were repeatedly mixed into food prepared for the school’s young students.
Among the contaminated items were colorful steamed cakes made with red dates and sausage rolls prepared with corn-based dough.
Laboratory testing revealed extraordinarily high levels of lead in the food.
One sample contained 1,052 milligrams of lead per kilogram, while another contained 1,340 milligrams per kilogram. China’s food safety limit for the contaminant was just 0.5 milligrams per kilogram.
That meant some of the food contained more than 2,000 times the permitted amount of lead.
The scandal came to light in July 2025 after children attending the kindergarten began testing positive for elevated blood lead levels, prompting health officials to launch an investigation.
An initial report identified 233 affected students, but subsequent provincial findings determined that 247 of the 251 children tested had abnormal blood lead levels. More than 20 staff members were also affected.
Authorities tested children at three nearby kindergartens but did not find the same pattern of contamination.
The discoveries triggered widespread public concern and raised serious questions about how a school could repeatedly serve dangerous substances to young children without intervention.
Investigators eventually uncovered surveillance footage showing kitchen workers mixing the pigments into food, helping establish what had happened inside the facility.
The case also exposed problems with local oversight. Authorities investigated officials responsible for education, health and food safety, amid allegations of failures in monitoring and reporting the children’s exposure.
At least 10 local officials faced disciplinary investigations connected to the scandal.
Lead exposure is particularly dangerous for young children because it can interfere with brain and nervous system development. Depending on the severity and duration of exposure, it can contribute to learning difficulties, behavioral problems and other lasting health complications.
Unlike some other food contaminants, lead can accumulate in the body over time, making repeated exposure especially concerning.
Chinese officials said affected children received hospital treatment or nutritional support at home. By late July 2025, most had completed an initial course of treatment, and doctors reported encouraging reductions in their blood lead levels.
However, those improvements do not necessarily eliminate the possibility of longer-term health effects, making continued medical monitoring important.
The Gansu provincial government has pledged ongoing medical assistance and follow-up care for the affected families.
In delivering the October 16 verdict, the court determined that Li, Zhu and the four kitchen employees had violated food safety laws by knowingly introducing toxic, non-food substances into meals consumed by children and staff.
The sentences mark a major development in a case that has drawn national attention in China and renewed concerns about safety standards in privately operated educational facilities.
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