An official investigation has found it is more than likely that the mouldy lunches served to students at Haeata Community Campus had been caused by meals being left unrefrigerated at the school before they were distributed on Monday.

Students from Year 1 to 13 had already received portions of the food when a teacher discovered the meals were off.

The lunches were part of the government funded school lunch programme.

New Zealand Food Safety deputy director general Vince Arbuckle told chrislynchmedia.com, NZFS had a team onsite at the school and Compass today investigating the affected meals.

“We have considered all possible causes. 

We investigated the affected meals with visits to both Compass and the school.

“Our investigation found it is more than likely that the issue arose from human error at the school.

“The deterioration of the affected meals likely happened because they were delivered the previous Thursday, remained at the school without refrigeration, and then were accidentally re-served to students alongside fresh meals that arrived on Monday.

We note that on the day of the complaint there were 15 other schools that received meals from the same distribution centre and we received no other complaints. Our investigation continues. Arbuckle said.

School Lunch Collective spokesperson Paul Harvey said the finding “aligns with our internal checks and with what our teams observed on the day”.

Supplied Chris Lynch Media

Act Party Leader David Seymour welcomed the investigation’s conclusion and said it confirms what he believed from the start.

Seymour said the outcome was “always the likely outcome” and criticised media outlets that accepted early accusations from the school before any evidence had been examined.

“Unfortunately, the likes of RNZ chose to breathlessly report every unverified claim made by the principal without pausing to ask basic questions or wait for the outcome of an investigation,” he said.

He said journalists had a responsibility to apply scrutiny rather than act as a platform for whoever was quickest to comment.

“Journalism is supposed to apply critical thinking, not simply act as a megaphone for whoever is most eager to talk to the media and fits their narrative,” Seymour said.

“When an allegation could damage a company’s reputation, frighten parents, and undermine confidence in a programme feeding thousands of kids, the minimum standard should be to test those claims against the evidence,” he said.

Seymour also directed criticism at outspoken school principal Peggy Burrows who conducted multiple interviews with RNZ, One News, and The New Zealand Herald after posting a safety warning on the school’s website.

Haeata Community Campus Principal Dr Peggy Burrows

“Over the last 24 hours their principal has found time for endless media interviews, attempting to politicise a mistake made by her school and create a controversy to smear others. That is not an educator’s role,” he said.

“The first responsibility of a school is to its students’ learning and wellbeing, not to run a media campaign.”

Seymour said he felt sorry for families affected by the confusion.

“My thoughts are with parents whose children have been affected by this debacle,” he said.

In an additional post, Seymour shared screenshots of RNZ alerts about the incident and said, “Here is the obsessive reporting that all came before the facts were known. I feel sorry for the good journalists at RNZ who are let down by this behaviour.”

The school is no stranger to political activity, previously allowing a Labour MP into the school grounds to interview children about their school lunches, and then posting video content online.

Principal “perplexed” by investigation findings 

Principal Peggy Burrows said “Just to set the record straight, at the moment as principal of Haeata community campus I am interested in looking at a systems failure that clearly occurred yesterday.

“The contract for the provision of school lunches at Haeata community campus is held by the Compass Group.