New Zealand Food Safety has stated that an investigation into reports of live flies being discovered in school meals cannot move forward due to insufficient substantive information.
Last month, several reports indicated that NZ Food Safety received a complaint about flies being found in a meal supplied through the government’s school lunch programme.
The government ministry’s deputy general, Vincent Arbuckle, confirmed that they have been collaborating with the Ministry of Education in the initial stages of investigating the complaint to determine the truth.
Meanwhile, Sean Teddy, hautū operations and integration at the Ministry of Education, said, “The Ministry is working with NZ Food Safety, who are looking into the matter to establish the facts.”
In an update, deputy general Arbuckle said the agency has been “unable to progress” in its investigation.
“We made enquiries, but information was not available to substantiate the complaint,” he said.
The revamped Healthy School Lunches programme has faced challenges since its launch, with some schools reporting issues including meals arriving late or not being delivered at all.
Some schools have also raised concerns about receiving “frozen” or “burnt” lunches, with instances of melted plastic found in the meals, leading many children to avoid eating them.
In separate reports, one of the programme’s main providers, Libelle Group, which was contracted to deliver 125,000 meals daily, has entered liquidation. Robert Campbell and David Webb of Deloitte New Zealand have been appointed as liquidators.
Libelle Group is said to owe over $14 million to hundreds of creditors.