Proactively ensure food safety in schools - Lang Son Newspaper and Radio and Television Station

- Recently, many cases of food poisoning at schools have occurred consecutively in a number of provinces and cities, causing many parents to worry. Faced with this situation, the authorities in the province have proactively implemented synchronous solutions, including strengthening inspection and supervision to prevent the risk of food poisoning and protect the health of students.

The interdisciplinary inspection team on food safety and hygiene inspected the kitchen of Hoa Sua Kindergarten ( Lang Son city)

The province currently has over 400 schools organizing semi-boarding and boarding meals, serving about 70,000 meals per day. Of which, many schools in remote areas still face difficulties in facilities and human resources. Since the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year, the health andeducation sectors have coordinated to develop and implement a plan to inspect and monitor food safety and hygiene (FSH) at schools across the province. Implementing the direction of the Department of Education and Training (DET), since September 2024, the DET of districts and cities has established 22 teams to inspect 100% of schools that have collective kitchens.

Together with the Department of Education and Training, since the beginning of the school year, the health departments of districts and cities have established 11 interdisciplinary inspection teams to inspect more than 100 school kitchens. The inspections are carried out periodically and suddenly, focusing on schools with a large number of boarding students and mountainous and extremely disadvantaged areas.

Ms. Vy Thi Bang, acting Head of the District Health Department, informed: The district has more than 40 schools that organize collective kitchens. To ensure food safety in school kitchens, every year, we organize and coordinate inspections at these schools. During the inspection, we focus on providing direct instructions on how to store samples, use clean water sources, and preserve food according to the correct procedures. For schools lacking equipment, the coordination department proposes to support essential facilities.

Along with Loc Binh, through inspection, most school kitchens in the area comply well with legal regulations on ensuring food safety from the stage of importing raw materials to processing, preserving, transporting, and storing samples.

Not only conducting regular inspections, immediately after receiving information about school poisoning cases in some localities, from the beginning of March 2025 until now, the Department of Health has directed its affiliated units to review all school kitchens in the area. Mr. Nguyen Nam Dung, Deputy Head of the Food Safety Department, Department of Health said: We have advised the Department of Health to establish an interdisciplinary inspection team to conduct inspections at 3 key schools in Lang Son city, Huu Lung district and Binh Gia during the month of action for food safety (April 15 - May 15, 2025). In addition, we continue to conduct surprise inspections of schools with collective kitchens to promptly prevent the risk of food safety loss in schools.

Hoa Sua Kindergarten (Tam Thanh Ward, Lang Son City) is one of the units inspected by the interdisciplinary team in April 2025. Ms. Ha Thi Tuyet Nga, Vice Principal of the school shared: Every year, after being guided by the inspection teams, the school has proactively overcome and supplemented the one-way kitchen process with full equipment and tools according to regulations. The school has 9 kitchen staff who are professionally trained and have regular health checks. The regular inspections help the school complete the process, ensuring safe meals for children.

Along with the authorities, parents also play an important role in monitoring the quality of meals. This school year, many schools have invited parent representatives to participate in inspections and provide suggestions for improving the processing process. Ms. Le Thi Hoa, a parent whose child is studying at Tan Thanh Primary School (Huu Lung District), said: At the end of March 2024, I was invited to join the inspection team to inspect the school's kitchen. Here, I witnessed the very serious food processing and preservation process, which made me feel very secure.

The work of inspecting and ensuring food safety and hygiene in school kitchens has been and is being focused on and strengthened with the participation of all levels, sectors, functional forces and especially parents. This is a practical solution to help improve the effectiveness of prevention and protection of students' health against the risk of food poisoning in schools.

Source: https://baolangson.vn/tang-cuong-kiem-tra-giam-sat-ngan-ngua-nguy-co-ngo-doc-thuc-pham-trong-truong-hoc-5044763.html