Strengthening inspection at school kitchens
On the afternoon of September 5, at the Online Discussion with the theme: "Ensuring food safety and quality of school meals" organized by Kinh Ton & Urban Newspaper in coordination with the Hanoi Department of Health; Hanoi Department of Education and Training (DET), many opinions on the current status of food safety (FS) and the quality of school meals in schools were given.
The delegates discussed frankly and deeply analyzed prominent issues in ensuring school food safety such as the selection of unit for providing meals, controlling the quality of input materials, processing - distribution - supervision processes, as well as the responsibility of coordination between schools, management agencies, businesses and parents.
In addition, a matter of concern mentioned by many delegates is the food safety safety at restaurants, street stalls, and food carts around school gates - where students are easily attracted but have many potential risks of hygiene, food sources and additives that are not clear.
Many opinions say that there needs to be close coordination between schools, local authorities and functional forces in inspection, supervision and propaganda work, to minimize the risk of food safety loss from the environment around schools.
Ms. Vuong Huong Giang - Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Education and Training - said that in the 2025-2026 school year, for the first time the city will implement Resolution No. 18/2025/NQ-HDND of the City People's Council on regulating the mechanism for supporting meals for boarding primary school students in the area - the city's humane policy for the comprehensive development of the young generation. This is expected to have a positive impact on the quality of school meals by reducing financial pressure on parents, while encouraging almost all primary school students to attend school meals.
On the other hand, regarding food safety assurance (FS), when the scale of boarding meals increases sharply, management requirements must certainly also be increased. Schools must develop a strict meal management process - from service contracts to kitchen implementation.
Another very important thing is the coordination between schools - parents - local authorities in supervision. This is the key to unlocking the lock.
The Department of Education will coordinate with the Department of Health and relevant agencies and local authorities to strengthen inspections at school kitchens, not only ensuring food safety but also preventing the situation of cutting down on students' food rations. The common goal is to improve physical strength and build a safe and friendly school environment" - Ms. Huong Giang said.
Food management around schools is still difficult
Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Health Vu Cao Cuong also said: The city has issued many documents guiding and strengthening food safety in and around schools. Over the implementation period, there have been significant difficulties, such as extracting the origin and source of food for school kitchens.
"The difficulty is that individuals selling food around schools often have many fluctuations, the origin of the food is not clear, even though local authorities strictly punish..." - Deputy Director of Hanoi Department of Health said.
Delegates also shared many good models and practical solutions such as one-way kitchen, periodic publicity of food quality, three-step food inspection, use of surveillance cameras in the stage of receiving - processing meals, tracing the origin of food via QR code, applying technology in managing boarding meals and enhancing the supervisory role of parents.
At the same time, many strategic recommendations have also been made to improve the effectiveness of boarding meal management such as building a transparent interdisciplinary inspection process, enhancing skills training for staff in charge of boarding in schools, as well as creating a legal corridor for parents to participate in supervision effectively and organizationally.
At the seminar, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thanh Loi - Editor-in-Chief of Kinh Thoi & Do thi Newspaper, representative of the Organizing Committee emphasized: "Fod safety in schools, especially the quality of school meals, has a direct impact on the health, physical and mental development of students - the future generation of the country. This is not only the responsibility of the education, health care or local sectors, but also the responsibility of the whole society.
