One kindergarten in China had that bright idea of using paint to make a better looking food since the principal and his investor had aimed to “attract more enrollment and increase revenue” with the colorful food. And they used some online paint that contained lead, which was clearly labeled as non-edible.
More than 200 children are being treated in hospital with lead poisoning in north-west China after school chefs used inedible paint to decorate their food.
Eight people have been arrested after tests showed the food samples from a kindergarten in Tianshui City in Gansu province had lead levels that were 2,000 times over the national safety limit.
Investigators found that the red date cake and the corn sausage rolls had lead levels of 1052mg/kg and 1340mg/kg respectively which both exceed the national food safety standard limit of 0.5mg/kg.
Yikes!!!
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/09/china/china-lead-poisoning-tianshui-intl-hnk
I can understand using food coloring to make food more colorful especially since we’re talking about kids. but some regular paint and no one checked the ingredients?!
In any case, after this I don’t think they need to worry much about enrollment.
Interestingly, in 2020 China Adopted new lead paint standards to protect children’s health as per: https://ipen.org/news/china-adopts-new-lead-paint-standards-protect-children%E2%80%99s-health