A lunch served through a school nutrition program in Bihar, India, sent dozens of children to the hospital after staff allegedly gave them detergent powder instead of salt.
Here's what to know
At the state-run Parsa Middle School in Bihar's Nalanda district, students were served boiled rice with a potato-soya vegetable curry before at least 34 of them were hospitalized, The Independent reported. The children said they felt a burning sensation in their stomachs after lunch.
School workers initially gave first aid as several students began vomiting and complaining of dizziness. When their condition failed to improve, they were taken to a nearby hospital. One student told reporters, "Many students fell unconscious after eating the food."
According to headteacher Shailendra Kumar Singh, the trouble began after some students said the meal needed salt. He alleged, "A few children demanded salt, and by mistake, the staff served detergent powder instead of salt."
India's midday meal scheme supplies cooked lunches to about 120 million children across more than a million government schools. The program is meant to improve nutrition, increase enrolment, and reduce dropout rates.
More background
The Independent noted that similar cases have surfaced before. Contamination in a school lunch in Telangana reportedly left more than 20 students ill. Elsewhere, a midday meal contaminated by a dead snake allegedly sickened more than 100 children on April 24, 2025, in Mokama village near Patna.
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What's being done?
After the children reached the hospital with suspected food poisoning, Nalanda civil surgeon Jai Prakash Singh said they were in stable condition. Bihar minister Shravan Kumar, who visited the students, said a detailed inquiry would be conducted to determine how the lapse occurred.
Nalanda civil surgeon Jai Prakash Singh offered reassurance after the scare: "The health condition of all the children is stable. All will be fine."
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