Sarah Burroughs
From:
Jenny Bishop
Sent:
Tuesday, 2 December 2025 5:50 pm
To:
Karen Lau
Cc:
Vincent Arbuckle
Subject:
SLC Christchurch CPK and Haeata School Site Visit
Kia ora Karen
Please find attached a summary of today’s site visits following the report of mouldy school lunches being served at
Haeata Community Campus.
This has also been provided to the Ministry of Education, DPMC and Compass.
Ngā mihi
Jenny
Jenny Bishop
Director, Food Risk Management
New Zealand Food Safety - Haumaru Kai Aotearoa
Ministry for Primary Industries - Manatū Ahu Matua | Pastoral House, 25 The Terrace | PO Box 2526 | Wellington 6140 | New Zealand
Mobile: s9(2)(a)
| DDI: +s9(2)(a)
| Web: www.foodsafety.govt.nz | Preferred Pronouns: She/Her
under the Official Information Act 1982
Released
1
UNCLASSIFIED
SLC Christchurch CPK and Haeata School Site visit 02/12/2025
Background
At 3.30pm on 1 December, New Zealand Food Safety (NZFS) became aware of a social
media post from Haeata Community Campus, indicating an issue with lunches provided to
students at Haeata Community Campus that day.
Food Compliance Officers (FCO’s) from Food Compliance Services NZFS, appointed under
Food Act 2014 immediately initiated an investigation to establish the facts and ensure any
further risks were managed.
On 2 December 2025 the Officers conducted on site visits to the Compass Christchurch
CPK where the meals are heated and distributed from, and Haeata Community Campus. A
Health Protection Officer from the National Public Health Service also attended the site visit
to the school.
The school has approximately 400 students (Years 1–10) receiving lunches from the School
Lunch Collective.
Investigation
The investigation has confirmed the following timeline and activities:
Thursday 27/11/2025
• Eight heated meal Cambros (boxes designed to keep meals hot) were delivered to
Haeata Community Campus. The meal was Savoury Minced Beef & Potatoes.
• Nine Cambros were collected later that day by Compass. It is unknown if these were
empty or full, it is also unknown if the Cambros were the same ones which were
delivered.
• 15 other schools received meals from the Christchurch CPK and no other complaints
have been received for that days meals.
• The meal with the same recipe code was served on Tuesday (25/11) and Thursday
(27/11).
Friday 28/11/2025
• Haeata Community Campus had a teacher-only day, the SLC did not deliver any
under the Official Information Act 1982
meals. Other schools were open in Christchurch and received school lunches.
Monday 01/12/2025
• On Monday the same meal type - Savoury Minced Beef & Potatoes was provided to
Haeata Community Campus.
• Compass received the complaint at or around 1pm.
• Compass Area Manager picked up the meals from the school.
Tuesday 02/12/2025
Released
FCO conducted a site visit to the Compass Christchurch CPK:
• Frozen meals received the day before use and put in chiller after receipt for
defrosting. Reheating processes start 4am on date of service to schools. Visual
checks occur at delivery and after reheating.
UNCLASSIFIED
UNCLASSIFIED
• There are 44 meals are in each Cambro.
• Delivery drivers have set routes and includes drop off at the schools counter. Around
2pm on the same day, the same driver collects Cambro boxes and check numbers
match. Any meals left in Cambro are thrown out by Compass. Recycling of
containers or meals do not occur.
FCO conducted a joint site visit with a Health Protection Officer to Haeata Community
Campus:
• Haeata Community Campus routinely keeps a Cambro on site to use to deliver meals
to classes. The total number of Cambros at the school at each point in time is
unknown.
• The school have a lunch liaison that sorts through meals each day and distributes
them to the primary classrooms in Cambros.
• On average 4 Cambros are distributed to younger students who eat lunch in their
classrooms. Meals all felt warm.
• The liaison finishes at 12pm, so sometimes the primary teachers and students return
the Cambros to the cafeteria.
• The older students help themselves to meals directly from Cambros kept in cafeteria,
this may include Cambros returned from the primary classes.
• There were 10 – 20 mouldy meals that were identified by a teacher. These were from
the cafeteria Cambros.
Conclusion
Based on current information the likely cause is meals intended to be served to students last
week were distributed to students on Monday 01/12/2025. This could have occurred through
two possible scenarios:
a) A Cambro was accidentally left in the truck on Thursday and distributed on Monday
morning; or
b) A Cambro was misplaced in the school on Thursday and placed on the counter for
use on Monday.
It is more than likely that the Cambro was misplaced and unrefrigerated over the weekend in
the school given the number people involved and areas where it could be misplaced. The
investigation into this matter is continuing.
under the Official Information Act 1982
Released
UNCLASSIFIED
