Kindergarten kitchen a house of horrors

Tongxin kindergarten in Wuhu, East China's Anhui province reportedly allowed students to be served meals cooked with musty raw rice and rotten chicken legs. Beijing News comments:

The raw rice was so musty that its color had turned green and it was full of worms. And the frozen chicken's production date was sometime in 2017.

After some children told their parents on Sept 18 that they were served "smelly chicken legs" in the kindergarten, the parents insisted on "inspecting" the kindergarten's kitchen. And when the guards didn't allow them to enter the kindergarten, they climbed over the wall and witnessed the nightmarish scene in the kitchen.

Surprisingly, other cupboards in the kitchen were stacked with normal rice. On Sept 19, the local food and drug administration said they had already sent the food for laboratory test. And on Sept 23, the local police detained the headmaster, surnamed Liang, who could face criminal charges.

In another kindergarten run by the same headmaster, the situation was equally bad. There were molds on the steamed bread stored in the refrigerator, the kitchen was as very dirty with cockroaches and worms moving freely around.

If Liang is found guilty, he could face long imprisonment and a high fine.

Musty rice produces aflatoxin, a highly carcinogenic substance which could damage the liver. Some parents have already complained online that their children suffer from liver ailments, which is yet to be confirmed. But the possibility cannot be ruled out.

What if the parents had not climbed over the wall and entered the kitchen? Did the local food and drug administration officials neglect their duties? These questions must be answered, so as to prevent similar cases in the future.