The introduction of "Responsibility Green Stick" into school meal management is expected to help control food from input to processing, increase traceability when incidents occur, thereby contributing to ensuring meal safety for students.
On August 21, at the deployment of the "Responsibility Green Stick" application in meal quality management at educational institutions in Lai Thieu ward, Mr. Nguyen Nguyen Phuong - Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Industry and Trade said that the city has a large population but limited production land fund. Most of the food and foodstuffs must be imported from abroad and other provinces and cities, making supply management a difficult problem.
According to Mr. Phuong, currently the city has 399 industrial meal suppliers, 2,525 school kitchens, 752 collective kitchens and about 13,000 service business establishments. With a large number, management agencies find it difficult to control everything if they only rely on inspection and sanctioning activities.
Meanwhile, businesses also have a psychology of fear of being penalized, suspended or closed, which may lead to coping, only meeting requirements during inspection. Therefore, according to Mr. Phuong, there needs to be a new approach, which increases the responsibility of businesses and creates a mechanism for the market to participate in quality control.
In the distribution system, about 12 modern retail systems are required to control quite strictly, so goods entering supermarkets are generally better controlled. However, traditional channels are still difficult to manage. Three wholesale markets currently concentrate about 60-70% of the goods of traditional distribution channels before being sent to many places. Therefore, if goods sources are controlled well right from these wholesale outlets, it will create great efficiency.
From the above reality, the "Responsibility Green Link" is built in the direction of encouraging businesses to publicize production processes, applied standards and quality commitments. When businesses violate, the sanctions applied will create pressure for suppliers to maintain quality instead of just chasing cheap prices.
The program does not aim to create monopoly for some suppliers but opens up opportunities for all businesses to meet requirements. When distribution systems share information and apply sanctions, violating businesses may lose the opportunity to supply to the entire system. This is considered a way to create pressure from the market for businesses to proactively maintain quality" - Mr. Phuong said.
From there, expanding the "Responsibility Green Stick" into school kitchens is considered the next direction. According to Mr. Tran The Phong - Vice Chairman of Lai Thieu Ward People's Committee, the program will be studied and applied to food suppliers for schools, especially kindergartens, to control the quality of meals for students.
When an incident occurs, traceability from the input stage, processing process to meals delivered to students will be more convenient. At the same time, linking the responsibility of the locality with the program helps management agencies easily control and monitor cooking establishments and food suppliers in the area.
It is expected that the Ward People's Committee will assign the Culture Department and the Health Station to proactively advise and develop plans to deploy to schools, collective kitchens and canteens. Culinary establishments and canteens will be required to register for "Green responsibility tick" according to the city's content and the departments and branches that have implemented it.
Previously, Ben Cat ward (HCMC) also coordinated with the Department of Industry and Trade to organize training and deploy the model with the participation of representatives of schools and catering establishments in Ben Cat, Hoa Loi, Chanh Phu Hoa and Long Nguyen wards.
