Food Smells in Schools: Who's Responsible?

TP - The new school year has only been going on for a few months, but there have been consecutive cases of food poisoning, smelly food, and vegetables of unknown origin smuggled into schools, causing parents to worry about the quality of school meals. The question is, who is responsible for the school meals so that when an incident occurs, it is not enough to just change the food supplier.

Food smells, students get food poisoning

Early in the morning of October 15, parents of Cu Khe Primary School, Binh Minh Commune, Hanoi, in coordination with the school's food safety monitoring team, discovered many bags of peeled quail eggs and meat that smelled strongly. With the naked eye, it was possible to see that thousands of quail eggs had been peeled but were carelessly packed in tied plastic bags. At the meeting with the school and parents afterward, a representative of Nhat Anh Trading and Service Company Limited admitted that the food was transported to the school in a careless manner, not meeting the required conditions. Specifically, the food had not been vacuum-sealed and had not been in a refrigerated container to ensure food quality.

It is worth mentioning that during the food inspection, parents also discovered many kitchen processing tools including knives, graters, and tools for cutting vegetables and fruits that were rusty, which could be seen with the naked eye as not ensuring food hygiene and safety.

Cu Khe Primary School then held a meeting with parents and was forced to switch to a new food supplier. However, parents are still worried about the quality of their children's daily meals.

Also in Hanoi, right from the beginning of the school year, many parents were upset when many types of floating vegetables of unknown origin were "magically" packaged, attached with QR codes to trace their origin as "clean vegetables" by Lien Anh Production, Trade and Service Company Limited located in Son Dong commune and sent straight to school kitchens.

In addition, 40 students from Kim Thuy Primary Boarding School, Kim Ngan Commune, Quang Tri Province were hospitalized due to food poisoning after a meal. Test results from the Pasteur Institute in Nha Trang showed that the braised pomfret meat sample and a student's sample contained Bacillus cereus bacteria that produce intestinal toxins.

Information from the Principal

Regarding the incident of discovering rotten meat and smelly eggs that were almost smuggled into the school, in response to Tien Phong reporter, Ms. Nguyen Thi Nam, Principal of Cu Khe Primary School, said that the day the smelly food was discovered, it was not due to a surprise inspection by parents but was a scheduled inspection agreed upon between the school and parents at the beginning of the school year. “I have instructed staff who discovered unsafe food to “turn around”. And in the 2025-2026 school year, this is the first time parents and medical staff have discovered unsafe food,” she said.

Questioning the management and supervision role of the school's Board of Directors when the kitchen had rusty and unsafe cooking utensils, Ms. Nam said: "The school reminded the company to take out unused utensils, but at the time of the parents' inspection on October 15, the company had not taken out those utensils."

Ms. Nam said that the Board of Directors had an urgent meeting with parents and took full responsibility for the kitchen operations. However, when asked about the school's supervisory role in the food transportation process to the school by an unqualified company (without a thermal container), she only reiterated the content: "All food that is not qualified upon receipt is required to be turned back. As for transportation, there are many reasons, today it is guaranteed, tomorrow it is not guaranteed, depending on the type of food."

Cu Khe Primary School has 1,518 students, about 1,400 of whom register for meals at school every day.

Need to strengthen supervision and clarify responsibilities

From the past food safety incidents, the way schools have handled them has always been to terminate the contract with the food supplier and change to another unit. Meanwhile, food of unknown origin, unsafe food entering schools and being processed into meals has affected the health of students. In fact, there have been many cases of mass poisoning among students.

Parents of students believe that it is necessary to strengthen supervision of the quality of boarding meals and assign specific responsibilities if any incidents occur.

Mr. Tran Van Nam, a parent with two children studying and eating at a boarding school in Ha Dong ward, Hanoi, said that there must be stronger sanctions to deal with those responsible for the boarding school kitchen and at the same time tighten the certification process for units that meet food safety conditions. How can food suppliers take it seriously, not let the safety conditions be just "certificates". "When there is a responsibility, the people involved must be held accountable. The school should further strengthen the supervision role of parents. For example, dividing the schedule, each group of 3-5 parents can take turns going to the school to check the input food to the processing and dividing of meals will be more secure", Mr. Nam said.

At the beginning of this school year, the Hanoi Department of Education and Training issued a "hot" directive on school food safety, which included the following content: Schools are required to absolutely not use food of unknown origin, expired, or spoiled. Each school must strictly implement the "three-step food inspection" process, including checking input materials, checking during processing, and checking before use. Processing and storage tools must be separate for raw and cooked foods, with labels/signs to distinguish. There must be separate cabinets to store and preserve cooked foods and raw ingredients.

Ms. Vu Thu Ha, Vice Chairwoman of Hanoi People's Committee, requested that if any violations related to food safety are discovered, the units must immediately stop providing meals and replace them with other qualified units. At the same time, the responsibility of school principals will be considered if violations occur in kitchen management.

Schools must assess food safety conditions when signing contracts with meal suppliers. In particular, when signing contracts with food and meal suppliers, they must assess food safety conditions.

Hanoi currently has nearly 3,000 schools at all levels, including nearly 2,200 public schools that organize boarding meals for students in the following forms: self-cooking, cooperating with cooking units and providing ready-made meals.

Mr. Tran The Cuong, Director of the Hanoi Department of Education and Training, said that the Department has directed schools to publicize the menu of boarding meals and the origin of food, and at the same time, the head of the school organizing boarding meals for students is fully responsible for food safety at the unit.

Source: https://tienphong.vn/thuc-pham-boc-mui-vao-truong-hoc-ai-chiu-trach-nhiem-post1790146.tpo