Ensuring food safety and hygiene in school lunch programs.

In the 2025-2026 school year, along with innovation and improvement in teaching quality, ensuring food safety and hygiene for school lunches will also be a priority for schools throughout Quang Ninh province.

School lunch for students of class 1A1, Ha Long Primary School.

Immediately after the opening ceremony, Ha Long Primary School organized a lunch program for its students. Out of a total of 1,547 students, 1,490 registered for the lunch program. Due to the large number of students participating in the program, ensuring food safety and hygiene is a top priority for the school.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong, Principal of Ha Long Primary School, said: The unit providing meals for the school's students is An Phu 2 Ready-Made Meal Processing Facility, located in Bai Chay Ward. The school publicly displays the meal menu to parents and students, changing it daily and weekly to ensure proper nutrition for the children. The school also cooperates with parents to inspect the meal processing facility on a weekly schedule, including food sample retention, checking the origin of food, and inspecting cooking utensils and equipment. Teachers regularly remind and instruct students to wash their hands before entering the classroom, before eating, and after using the restroom.

According to the Department of Education and Training, in the 2024-2025 school year, the entire province will have 394 schools providing lunch services, including: 216 kindergartens, 133 primary schools, 33 secondary schools, and 12 high schools. In the 2025-2026 school year, according to the latest statistics, 217 kindergartens will provide lunch services, reaching 100% (an increase of 1 private school compared to the previous school year).

Food safety and hygiene in school lunch programs is crucial because it directly impacts students' health, intellectual development, and physical well-being. Therefore, this is a consistently important issue for the education sector throughout each school year.

The Board of Directors of Ba Chẽ Kindergarten (Ba Chẽ commune) publicly displays the meal portions and menus for the children so that parents can be fully informed.

From the beginning of 2025 until now, the Department of Education and Training has focused on strengthening measures to disseminate, educate, and guide teachers and students on correct knowledge and practices regarding food safety, preventing food poisoning and foodborne diseases; and ensuring food safety for school canteens and food services.

For educational institutions that provide boarding services but do not have their own kitchens, the Department of Education and Training requires them to contract with establishments that fully comply with food safety regulations. In addition, the Department of Education and Training actively cooperates with local authorities to conduct inspections and checks on food safety in boarding kitchens, food businesses, and catering services within educational institutions.

Notably, in May 2025, the Ministry of Education and Training organized a training course on organizing school lunch programs for primary schools in Quang Ninh province. The course was attended by 397 participants, including administrators, medical staff, and cooks from 176 primary schools providing lunch programs for students throughout the province. Through this training, administrators, medical staff, and cooks at these schools improved their awareness and professional skills in organizing school lunch programs for students.

According to the Department of Education and Training's report, during the past school year, educational institutions in the province basically implemented the directives and guidelines from all levels and sectors regarding food safety and hygiene. Measures were taken to ensure nutritional quality and food safety when organizing meals for boarding students, day students, canteens, and food services for staff, teachers, employees, children, and students in accordance with regulations, such as: maintaining cleanliness of the surroundings; cleaning the kitchen, food processing equipment, and facilities; ensuring hygiene in food processing; purchasing food from reputable sources; strictly adhering to food processing procedures; and conducting the three-step food inspection and daily food sample retention process as required.

Awareness of the importance of disease prevention and ensuring food safety and hygiene among officials, teachers, staff, students, and trainees throughout the education sector has been raised. As a result, the entire province has not experienced any cases of food poisoning or violations of food safety and hygiene regulations at educational institutions.

Lan Anh

Source: https://baoquangninh.vn/dam-bao-vsattp-cac-bua-an-ban-tru-3375496.html