Insecurity of meals for students

SGGP 10/30/2023 12:26 PM

After the discovery of spoiled food in the kitchen of a unit providing meals for boarding students in Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City, public opinion is concerned about the quality of food hygiene and safety (FSH) for students. Current management work still has many loopholes, causing the risk of food hygiene and safety to still exist.

Change supplier and it's done?

On October 26 and 27, Phu Huu Primary School (Thu Duc City) temporarily stopped organizing meals for more than 700 students of the school, after parents reported that the school's food supplier stored food with signs of spoilage and used spices of unknown origin.

Mr. Phan Thanh Phai, Principal of Phu Huu Primary School, said that the boarding work will be reorganized when the school selects a new meal supplier to ensure the safety and health of students. This is the second case of terminating the contract with a ready-made meal supplier in Ho Chi Minh City this school year. In mid-October 2023, Van Don Secondary School (District 4) also terminated the contract with a boarding meal supplier after about 60 students of the school had lunch on October 9 and suffered from stomachaches and vomiting.

Image of chicken feet showing signs of damage, cut from a clip filmed by parents of Phu Huu Primary School (Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City) at a unit providing meals to many primary schools in Thu Duc City.

The only way schools can deal with this situation is to terminate the contract with a catering provider when they discover signs of food safety violations. However, what worries parents is that a catering provider often signs contracts with many schools, even providing meals to many different groups of people (including students, workers, etc.). When they are found to have signs of food safety violations, the supplier will only have their contracts with some schools suspended, but will continue to provide meals to other schools in the same area, even though they use the same food source and kitchen.

Representatives of the Department of Education and Training of Thu Duc City and districts all said that currently, the selection of meal suppliers is under the authority of the principal. The school proactively coordinates with the school's parent representative committee to evaluate the capacity profiles of meal suppliers, thereby selecting a suitable supplier. During the process of organizing boarding meals, the school has a plan to periodically and suddenly inspect meal suppliers to ensure the safety and quality of meals for students.

In fact, inspections are usually carried out by schools 1-2 times per school year, so they cannot fully control food hygiene quality. According to the vice principal in charge of boarding at a primary school in Thu Duc City, inspections are mainly based on paper records, with the two most important documents being proof of food origin and food safety certificates issued by competent authorities to the meal supplier. “Schools do not have the authority to inspect all kitchen activities, including food storage in the supplier’s freezer. This can only be done when there is an interdisciplinary inspection team or a representative of the health agency,” said a school representative.

Concerns about food quality in the cafeteria

Recently, many students of Nguyen Chi Thanh High School (Tan Binh District) reported poor quality lunches because "sometimes the fish was spoiled, other times the beef was hard, the potatoes were burnt on the outside and raw on the inside, causing many students to have stomach aches". Through investigation, the school did not organize a kitchen, so the meals for boarding students were provided by the school's cafeteria. After receiving feedback from students, the school requested the cafeteria to make improvements, however, the quality of the meals still did not meet the students' expectations.

In the same situation, a student at Thu Thiem High School (Thu Duc City) complained: "The rice spoons in the cafeteria are often greasy and sometimes have white spots on the sides due to not being washed properly." Currently, most high schools do not have kitchens at school, but the cafeteria will serve lunches according to students' registration. Parents and students have the choice between eating lunch at the cafeteria, buying their own meals outside, or going home to rest and wait until afternoon classes. Therefore, the number of students eating lunch at school changes every month, the lunch menu includes many dishes according to students' registration, not fixed like in preschool, primary and secondary schools. This leads to uneven quality of dishes.

According to the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City, one of the school health tasks this school year is to ensure nutritional and food safety requirements in organizing school meals. Schools effectively implement nutritionally balanced menus suitable for students' ages. From now until the end of December 2023, the Department of Education and Training will coordinate with the Ho Chi Minh City Food Safety Management Board to organize food safety training courses at schools, and coordinate with the health sector to organize inspections and supervision of food safety work at schools.

In the 2023-2024 school year, Ho Chi Minh City will implement Resolution 04, which stipulates 26 fees and collection levels for services serving and supporting educational activities at public educational institutions. In particular, the maximum fee for boarding meals is set for each grade and level. However, this fee is lower than the fee of many schools in the previous school year. Faced with this reality, schools in the central area of ​​Ho Chi Minh City such as District 1 and District 3 have organized to collect parents' opinions.

Schools cannot charge more for lunch than the regulations of Resolution 04, so to make up for the difference, schools are forced to cut back on snacks or issue coupons for parents to register for additional food for students if needed. Mr. Cao Thanh Binh, Head of the Culture and Society Committee of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council, said that the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council will coordinate with the Department of Education and Training to record the actual implementation in schools to make more appropriate adjustments in the following school years.

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/bat-an-bua-an-ban-tru-cho-hoc-sinh-post711951.html