Control from food sources to meals
Boarding meals are an essential activity for students. Just one link in the food supply chain that has problems can affect students' health, disrupting the organization of boarding. Therefore, food safety needs to be controlled throughout from supply to meals, instead of just checking when food has reached students.
According to Mr. Cao Duc Khoa - Principal of Nguyen Du Secondary School, the school identifies food safety assurance for boarding students as a particularly important stage, which must be proactively controlled in advance.
The school organizes 2 sessions/day of teaching, almost all students use semi-boarding meals. Some students with health characteristics or food allergies can be proactively prepared separately by their families.
To ensure safety, the school selects reputable meal suppliers, and at the same time organizes for parents to participate in appraisal and inspection of conditions before signing and implementing. Experienced and professional parents are also facilitated to participate in inspecting issues related to meals.
However, according to Mr. Khoa, choosing a suitable supplier is only the first step. Control must be maintained daily, from the transportation and preservation process to when meals are delivered to students. "Prevention and preparation are very important, it is impossible to let incidents occur before starting inspection and handling. Then the school will fall into a passive position," Mr. Khoa said.
According to Mr. Khoa, supervision needs to be maintained regularly, and should not be subjective when the supply unit has operated stably. Daily inspections help schools promptly detect problems that may affect the safety of students' meals.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Thao (Binh Dong ward) shared that for parents of boarding students, what is of concern is not only the quality of each meal but also the food control process at the school. The inspection needs to be carried out from the food source, the processing stage to when the meal is delivered to students so that parents can feel secure in sending their children.
Mr. Tran Cong Thang (Binh Chanh commune) said that if an incident occurs causing the school to temporarily stop the semi-boarding meal, parents will have difficulty arranging work and picking up and dropping off their children. Therefore, in addition to the incident handling plan, the school needs to prepare a replacement plan so that the semi-boarding organization is not interrupted.
Do not let an incident disrupt semi-boarding
Talking to Lao Dong reporters, Mr. Ho Tan Minh - Chief of Office of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training, said that the Department of Education and Training coordinates with the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Food Safety to strengthen management, and at the same time requests schools to develop many scenarios to proactively respond when incidents occur.
According to Mr. Minh, the plans are not only for prevention but must have practical operational capabilities. When problems occur, the school must assess and implement them immediately, not allowing the organization of semi-boarding meals to be interrupted, affecting students and parents.
Mr. Minh emphasized that the plan must be "correct and realistic". If plan 1 cannot be implemented, there must be plan 2, plan 3 to switch to immediately.
In particular, when a food supplier encounters problems, the school must have a replacement plan available. According to Mr. Minh, there are many food suppliers on the market, so it is impossible to let a unit encounter problems causing students to stop eating semi-boarding for many days, parents have to quit their jobs or change their pick-up and drop-off schedules.
The control process must also be carried out throughout. Right from the time the food is brought into the school, it is necessary to control the supply and origin. During the processing process, the school continues to supervise the implementation of the process. When the meal is served, it is necessary to check portion sizes, dishes and conditions related to food safety.
According to Mr. Minh, the responsibility of the head of the school must be put first.
