Cottage pie ‘exploded’ when dropped in school lunch burns incident, principal says

Friday, 7 March 2025

A school student was badly burnt by a hot school lunch on Thursday. It was a cottage pie.

The lunch spilled onto the student’s leg after it ‘exploded’ when dropped because it was too hot to carry.

The principal of the school where the incident happened said the lunches had arrived hot and had burnt the packaging.

A Gisborne student was taken to hospital with burns after a cottage pie school lunch spilled onto his leg in a too hot to handle incident, the principal says.

Ilminster Intermediate School principal Jonathan Poole told RNZ’s Morning Report the lunch arrived in different packaging than usual, which may have contributed to the incident.

“It was a cottage pie, and my understanding again, I believe it’s one of the Wattie’s heat meals,” Poole said.

“It came in different wrapping or packaging than what we’ve been receiving. Usually, we get the tin foil packaging from Compass, and yesterday it was just all plastic.”

Poole suggested the new packaging made the meal harder to handle, increasing the risk of burns.

“When you put something in the microwave to reheat it and it gets to a certain temperature, you know, sometimes the edges of the container are cool and you can hold it there, but the rest of the contents inside was quite hot, obviously,” he explained.

“And I feel like this young man has carried it, but put his hands underneath where the hottest part was, and that’s how he’s dropped it.”

The student was treated at A&E for around an hour.

Lunch ‘exploded’, investigation under way

New Zealand Food Safety has launched an investigation and confirmed they will be onsite at the lunch heating facility.

Deputy Director General Vincent Arbuckle said Compass, the meal provider, has assured them that this type of meal will not be served again.

Poole, told Stuff that the lunch exploded onto the student’s leg.

“The child picked up the lunch and was walking it over to where they were eating. It was too hot, it dropped, it exploded, and splattered all over his leg and basically gave him second-degree burns.”

Poole said the lunches had arrived “quite hot” and that the packaging had broken as a result.

“The way they had come today, the plastic was quite low on the food. Some of the packs had exploded, or the seals had gone inside the boxes today.”

Poole said the incident made him very angry at the time.

“I actually emailed the minister today and I just said ‘enough is enough’.

“To be honest I was feeling quite angry at the time. This shouldn’t have happened. No kid should be having lunch and then get burnt that badly. It was pretty bloody terrible to be honest,” Poole said.

The minister responsible for the school lunch programme, David Seymour, told Stuff he was aware of the incident.

“I am aware of an incident involving a lunch provided by the School Lunch Collective today.

“I am deeply concerned and I want to extend my sympathy to the child who has been injured.

“The ministry is conducting a full investigation to find out why this happened.”

The Education Ministry said it was “very troubled” after learning of the incident.

“This should not have happened and we are working with the school, who is supporting the student and their family,” said Sean Teddy, leader of operations and integration at the ministry.

“The ministry has notified NZ Food Safety and are urgently confirming the details on this incident. A full investigation will be undertaken.

“We extend our sincere apologies to the student and their family for what has occurred.”

The School Lunch Collective has also apologised for the incident, calling it “deeply regrettable”.

In a statement, spokesperson Paul Harvey said their thoughts were with the student and they wished them a speedy recovery.

Harvey said they are talking to the school to see how they can support both them and the student.

“Our people are on the ground and we have started an investigation immediately to see what caused this. As a precautionary measure, we have removed the meal from our menu until the investigation is completed,” Harvey said.

Meanwhile, Labour is calling the incident a “new failure” for the Government and its “shambolic programme”.

Leader Chris Hipkins said “enough is enough” saying the lunch programme was “not safe for students”.

“Every day the lunches offer a new failure for the Government. It’s time for Luxon to show leadership and put someone in charge who will keep students safe, and give them the lunches they need to learn. This is a horrible thing to have happened to a student and I hope they make a full recovery,” Hipkins said.

The incident follows a series of problems with the new school lunch programme, which was first rolled out in January.

The quality of the food itself has been criticised, while there have been multiple occasions when the food did not show up on time forcing schools to buy their own lunches.

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Poole, speaking to Stuff last week, said a delivery of Wattie’s frozen meal fish pies was probably the worst the school had had in terms of food waste. The students were “put off by the smell of it and the look of it,” he said.

New Zealand Food Safety said they have begun their investigation into Thursday’s incident and will be onsite at the lunch heating facility on Friday.

In a statement, New Zealand Food Safety’s Deputy Director General Vincent Arbuckle said they have been in contact with both the Ministry of Education and Compass, with the latter assuring them this type of meal will not be served again.