School lunch programme: Unknown matter found in brownie as Seymour defends meals, complaints decrease
David Seymour is defending the Government’s low-cost school lunch programme after revelations “unknown” foreign matter was found in a brownie that came with the meals.
The Associate Education Minister said there were similar issues with the previous Government’s programme and New Zealand Food Safety has reported a “marked decrease” in school lunches complaints.
Data released to Labour under the Official Information Act showed there were 12 food safety investigations into the lunches from November 24, 2025 to May 1, 2026.
Investigators looked into reports of glass, metal, plastic and tinfoil in various lunches and complaints of undercooked meals.
Labour education spokeswoman Ginny Andersen said she was particularly concerned by a vegetable brownie containing an “unknown” foreign matter.
“It’s just unbelievable how much of a flop the Government’s cheap school lunches have been,” Andersen said.
“The Government can’t even figure out what’s in the veggie brownie being offered to children. How are parents meant to have any confidence in the quality of food that they’re being given?”
New Zealand Food Safety said the brownie was externally sourced and Seymour said it may have been sold in many different places.
“Clearly there is a concern here, but it is a general food safety issue that the Healthy School Lunch Programme was affected by but did not cause,” he said in a statement.
“Labour need to admit that there were similar issues when they ran the scheme, the difference now is we’re saving $120 million a year that today’s children won’t need to repay in debt in the future.”
New Zealand Food Safety deputy director-general Vincent Arbuckle said foreign objects could occasionally enter meals from source ingredients, during production, handling or processing.
Arbuckle said in a statement the foreign matter found in the brownie was categorised as unknown, because at the time of the complaint, it could not be identified.
“During the investigation, it was determined that the foreign matter was likely (though not confirmed) to be packaging from an ingredient used during production. The manufacturer has put in place corrective actions for foreign matter control.”
Like all food businesses, the School Lunch Collective (SLC), which is contracted to provide the school lunches, is required to have plans to identify risk and minimise the possibility of this happening.
Arbuckle said when a foreign object had been found in the lunches, New Zealand Food Safety (NZFS) had worked with the company to determine the likely cause and to implement “corrective actions” to prevent it from happening again.
“In 2026, NZFS has seen a marked decrease in food safety complaints related to meals provided by the SLC. This includes a decline in complaints related to foreign matter contamination.”
Andersen said Labour would release further details on its school lunch policy in its fiscal plan, which is being released after the Pre-Election Fiscal Update.
Azaria Howell is a multimedia reporter working from Parliament’s press gallery. She joined NZME in 2022 and became a Newstalk ZB political reporter in late 2024, with a keen interest in public service agency reform and government spending.