Poisoned food found at German day care
March 28, 2019
German police have launched an investigation after poisoned food was uncovered at a day care in the western city of Leverkusen in recent weeks, authorities said at a press conference on Thursday.
Although employees initially suspected something went wrong at the caterer — lab tests later revealed that the cleaning agents used to poison the food could have come from the kindergarten.
What happened:
- The contaminated food was found on February 12 and again on February 18, police said.
- A kitchen worker noticed a strange, chemical smell coming from the food.
- The meals were not served to the children and were sent back to the caterer.
- According to Rheinische Post, lab tests revealed a pepper sauce was contaminated with detergent.
- A soup also contained alcohol from a heavy-duty disinfectant, the paper reported.
- The day care looks after some 60 children, with 12 adult staff members.
Read more: Germany: Sandwich poisoner handed life sentence
No children harmed
Both police and day care employees emphasized that the children never came in contact with the food, and that they are still investigating how the food was poisoned.
Hans Höroldt, who heads the local protestant day care and kindergarten association, said that the distribution of the food at the day care is now strictly controlled.
"There are no concrete grounds for suspicion against individual people," Höroldt said at Thursday's press conference. "Something like this has never happened in our history before."
Nadja Georgia, one of the heads of the protestant day care, said that they were "outraged" and "shocked" over the case.
Poison may have come from day care: Police suspect the food was intentionally poisoned, and possibly by someone working at the day care. The lab results showed that the contaminated soup contained a cleaning agent used in the day care, Rheinische Post and WDR reported.