Entering the 2026-2027 school year, the issue of boarding meal safety continues to receive the attention of parents when reflections related to food quality and meals appear at some schools.
In Ho Chi Minh City, the incident at Ho Van Long Secondary School (Binh Tan ward) is an example. On September 14, images of uncooked, still red fried chicken inside were shared by parents, causing much concern about the quality of semi-boarding meals.
On September 16, Binh Tan Ward People's Committee informed about the incident and the school stopped cooperating with the meal provider.
The incident has raised the issue of controlling semi-boarding meals not only in the school's selection of suppliers, but also in the process of receiving, processing, preserving and serving daily food.
So in the process of children eating semi-boarding, what can parents check?
Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper, Ms. Nguyen Doan Trang - Principal of Tran Van On Secondary School said that to ensure the safety of semi-boarding meals, the school sets strict requirements right from the stage of selecting a meal provider.
The school reviews the conditions, standards and related certificates of the food supplier, including documents on food safety and hygiene and related standards.
According to Ms. Trang, in addition to checking records, the school also organizes surprise inspections of the kitchen to control the actual process of supplying and processing food.
Besides food sources, processing and preservation are also stages that need to be concerned about. Tran Van On Secondary School organizes for suppliers to cook directly at the school instead of transporting processed meals from other places.
According to Ms. Trang, this method helps reduce one stage of food transportation, and at the same time, the school is more convenient in checking the processing process at the school.
Meanwhile, not every school organizes cooking directly. Some schools use industrial meals that are processed outside and transported to the school. At that time, the stage of receiving meals, checking food before students use and storing samples needs to be further emphasized.
At Dang Tran Con Primary School, Ms. Pham Thuy Ha - Principal of the school said that the school is reviewing and completing the semi-boarding organization process according to the instructions. For semi-boarding meals, the school uses external units to process and transport meals to the school.
When receiving food, the school must check before giving it to students for use. "When they deliver it, we must check. At the same time, the school will coordinate with parents and parents' representative boards to go directly to the kitchen to observe the processing process," Ms. Ha said.
According to schools, parents can not only reflect when they detect problems but also participate in monitoring boarding activities in coordination with the school.
At Tran Van On Secondary School, parents have a need to check semi-boarding activities without prior notice. When parents come, the school confirms that it is true that parents will arrange guides to the area to be checked.
At Dang Tran Con Elementary School, parents are also facilitated to participate in direct supervision of the supplier. The school board organizes for parents to come to the kitchen to observe the process of processing and producing food.
In addition to checking at the kitchen, parents can also participate in monitoring actual meals at school.
In the context of many parents providing semi-boarding meals to their children, publicizing from the source of ingredients, processing process to actual meals and saving samples not only helps parents have more information but also creates an additional channel to monitor semi-boarding activities.
