Newstalk ZB
The Government is defending its school lunch programme after reports of food safety issues, including students being injured, glass and metal being found in food, and food being undercooked. Associate Education Minister David Seymour is urging people to see food safety incidents around school lunches in a wider context, as Labour raises further alarms about the programme. Data released to Labour under the Official Information Act shows there were 21 food safety investigations into school lunches from May 1, 2024 to November 14, 2025. Seven related to metal contamination, one related to glass being found in a meal, and others related to food being undercooked or being in faulty packaging. An aide memoire to Minister for Food Safety Andrew Hoggard from Ministry for Primary Industries officials said an investigation will open when the complaint or notification relates to food safety or suitability. The aide memoire goes into further detail about a number of complaints. On March 7, 2025, glass was found in a school lunch meal provided by a third party. Metal foil was found in a lunch on March 17, and chicken was alleged to be undercooked in a pasta meal served on March 20. The document also details injuries. It states a child was injured after consuming a meal contaminated with perspex on April 2, 2025, leading to a recall of meals. The day after, a child was injured after eating an overheated lunch. New Zealand Food Safety (NZFS) deputy director-general Vincent Arbuckle said metal contamination in food can happen from time to time, and the agency investigates any complaint about it, including in school lunches. Arbuckle said the agency works with businesses and providers to determine the likely cause and “supports the business to implement corrective actions to reduce the likelihood of recurrence”. “As part of this process of continual improvement, NZFS has supported the School Lunch Collective to implement corrective actions and tighter controls to prevent foreign matter contamination in meals,” Arbuckle said. There has been a decline in complaints related to foreign matter metal contamination since 2025, which Arbuckle said demonstrated controls had been effective in reducing risk. Labour’s education spokeswoman Ginny Andersen said it was “unbelievable” how much of a “flop” the Government’s lunches scheme had been. Andersen claimed there had been a “disastrous track record” of over-heated lunches, bugs in food, and melted plastic appearing in meals. Labour has called for information related to the lunches to be proactively released, saying “parents need that information to know that their children are safe”. Associate Education Minister David Seymour said while these incidents sound disturbing, they were not a breach of the Food Act. “They need to be seen in the context of seven out of 12.9 million meals,” he said, and added he expects the food programme to keep improving. During the period covered by the Official Information Act response, 12.9 million meals were delivered in full and on time. Azaria Howell is a multimedia reporter working from Parliament’s press gallery. She joined NZME in 2022 and became a Newstalk ZB political reporter in late 2024, with a keen interest in public service agency reform and government spending.
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