When poor quality food is included in students' meals
Recently, many incidents related to boarding meals for students in Hanoi have caused a stir in public opinion, causing parents to lose confidence. The peak was when parents simultaneously let their children stay home from school to protest the school's handling plan after the incident.
Accordingly, on the morning of October 20, parents of students at Cu Khe Primary School (Binh Minh Commune, Hanoi) simultaneously let their children stay home from school to protest the school's handling of the incident of food not being guaranteed being put into the kitchen.
According to the incident, during the inspection of the boarding meal on October 15, the school and parents supervised and discovered that the food (squatting eggs) had an unusual smell and was not of good quality.
After the incident, Cu Khe Primary School terminated the contract with the food supplier; at the same time, it announced the temporary suspension of boarding for students on October 17 and expected to serve the boarding work starting from October 20.
However, on October 19, the school announced an adjustment to the boarding plan for students.
Disagreeing with the plan proposed by the school, parents all had students off.
Or before that, on the morning of October 4, some parents suddenly checked the kitchen of Chu Minh Primary School (Quang Oai Commune, Hanoi) and discovered a large amount of phi phi phi luong with signs of acting, saltiness, and odor, contained in plastic pots.
Images of the incident circulating on social media made many parents angry and concerned about the quality of their children's meals. The authorities then stepped in to verify.
The above cases show that food safety supervision in schools still has many shortcomings, posing an urgent need to tighten the process of selecting suppliers, strengthen independent inspection and promptly publicize information.
Interdisciplinary inspection of food safety during boarding meals in 7 communes and wards
Recently, Vice Chairman of Hanoi People's Committee Vu Thu Ha chaired a meeting to review and learn from the work of organizing meals for boarding students in the city for the 2025-2026 school year.
Reporting at the meeting, Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Health Vu Cao Cuong said that at the end of October 2025, the Interdisciplinary Inspection Team organizing boarding meals for students conducted an inspection of the implementation contents in 7 communes: Noi Bai, Quang Minh, An Khanh, Binh Minh, Thanh Oai, Quang Oai, Doai Phuong.
At the same time, the team inspected the implementation of food safety assurance (FS) at ready-made food processing facilities and cooking facilities in schools in the above 7 communes.
As a result, 7 communes and wards have proactively implemented food safety activities in school kitchens; local leaders are aware of their responsibility in ensuring food safety in the locality; have conducted appraisal and evaluation of capacity records of food supply and food ingredients; proactively control the origin of food used in school kitchens...
However, besides units that do well and have models, are active and close in directing implementation, there are still many localities that have not closely followed this content, leading to many violations, including serious violations, causing negative impacts in public opinion as well as the trust of parents.
In response to the actual organization of school boarding meals and the initial inspection results, Vice Chairman of Hanoi People's Committee Vu Thu Ha suggested that Party Secretaries and leaders of localities be responsible for reviewing all stages of organizing boarding meals at units and schools under their management.
The Vice Chairman of the City People's Committee called on schools and parents to actively participate in supervision to ensure safe meals for students; absolutely do not let negativity happen in organizing boarding meals.
In the coming time, the City Interdisciplinary Inspection Team will continue to conduct phase 2 inspections and if violations are detected, they will direct the City Police to investigate and strictly handle them.
