China nursery toxic food sentencing ended with a life prison term for Li Huifang after Heshi Peixin Kindergarten in Tianshui in Gansu province was tied to lead-tainted food that left 247 pupils and staff with abnormally high blood lead levels. The Lanzhou Intermediate People's Court also ordered the confiscation of 500,000 yuan of her personal assets.
The case moved from a poisoning incident in July 2025 to a criminal sentence that reached beyond one nursery. Investigators found that 235 children had to be treated for lead poisoning after eating steamed red date cakes and sausage corn buns, and food samples later showed lead at levels far above China's safety limit.
Lanzhou court sentencing
The Lanzhou Intermediate People's Court sentenced Zhi Jinglin, the nursery executive principal, to 15 years in prison and fined her 300,000 yuan. Four other members of staff received prison terms of six to eight years, reflecting a wider criminal finding that the food served to children and staff had been deliberately contaminated.
The red date cake and the corn sausage rolls were found to contain 1052mg/kg and 1340mg/kg of lead, against a national limit of 0.5mg/kg. That means the samples were roughly 2,000 times over the standard, a scale that turns a kitchen practice into a criminal record rather than a routine food-safety failure.
Heshi Peixin Kindergarten in Tianshui
Investigators found that chefs at Heshi Peixin had used inedible paint to improve the appearance of meals in order to attract more students. The court found that the four kitchen staff had been instructed by Li Huifang and Zhi Jinglin to add toxic and harmful ingredients to food served to children and staff.
Lead exposure is especially dangerous for young children because it can severely damage the brain and central nervous system, according to the World Health Organization. In this case, that risk reached dozens of families connected to one nursery, and it forced a national response after the criminal verdict.
China campus meal rules
Officials later found that dozens of provincial officials and hospital staff attempted to cover up the incident by tampering with blood tests and accepting bribes from a nursery investor. China later published national guidelines for the provision of meals on campuses after the case, leaving school operators with a new compliance standard and parents with a clearer benchmark for what should not happen in a child-feeding setting.
How many children and staff suffered lasting health effects from the lead exposure is not answered in the public record cited here, but the sentencing has already fixed responsibility on Li Huifang and the staff around her while the broader review of campus meal oversight continues to shape the fallout from the July 2025 poisoning incident.
