Source: Radio New Zealand
Haeata Principal Peggy Burrows RNZ / Adam Burns
A Christchurch principal has denied there being a “political agenda” behind speaking publicly about mouldy meals that were served to children.
Students at Haeata Community Campus were served mouldy mince meals through the government-funded school lunch programme, which some of them ate before realising they were off.
NZ Food Safety has said it was more than likely that some lunches provided by Compass Group last Thursday remained at the school and were not refrigerated.
It said the school then accidentally re-served the food alongside fresh meals on Monday.
But principal Peggy Burrows said there was video proof that the meals weren’t left from a previous week.
On Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour accused Burrows of being a “media frequent flier”.
“It will be investigated but I also note this particular principal is a frequent flyer in the media complaining about quite a range of government policies… I think people need that context.”
Burrows told Morning Report, she had no political agenda when speaking about the mouldy lunches and just wanted the “systems failure” looked at.
“I’ve never been a critic, simply pointed and highlighted when issues have arisen. I’m very grateful our school receives those lunches.”
Burrows said NZ Food Safety concluding the school re-served old meals was “very disappointing and totally incorrect”.
“The meals on Thursday last week were delivered about 9.30am and we have that on camera footage there were eight containers, the person from Compass Group came back at 2pm and took the eight containers away.
“At 5am every morning one of our staff goes around the buildings to check everything is fine. There’s absolutely no way that finding can be accurate. We watched the footage together with food safety officers of the eight arriving and being picked up.”
Burrows said she knew they had the visual evidence on tape of what actually happened and did not now how it had been “misreported”.
She said if it was up to her she’d release the footage now, but needed to check with the school’s lawyers before publicly releasing it.
“There’d probably be legal implications for that.
“I cannot understand how three investigators can hear what I heard and then that conclusion is made later in the day. I don’t understand that.”
MPI reiterated it was more than likely the issue arose from human error at the school.
“On the day of the complaint there were 15 other schools that received meals from the same distribution centre and MPI received no other complaints.”
New Zealand Food Safety’s deputy director-general Vince Arbuckle said NZFS had a team onsite at the school and Compass on Tuesday investigating the affected meals.
“We have considered all possible causes.
“We think it is more than likely that the affected meals at the school had been delivered the previous Thursday, remained at the school without refrigeration, and then were accidentally re-served to students alongside fresh meals delivered on Monday. This would explain the deterioration of the meals.”
One of the meals that was served up to students on Monday. Supplied / Haeata Community Campus
In a statement, Paul Harbey – a spokesperson for the School Lunch Collective, which represents Compass Group – said one of the heated containers the meals were kept in was left behind at the school on Thursday.
“There were nine Cambro [food storage] boxes of the savoury mince and potatoes meal delivered to Haeata Community Campus on Thursday 27th November, however records show only eight were returned to us.
“One Cambro box has sat at ambient temperatures at the school since that date.
“[On Monday] more than 73,000 lunches of the same recipe were served nationwide, with no concerns raised by any other school.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
