Principals to keep tabs on meal services

The Ministry of Education has pledged to intensify efforts to improve food safety and meal budget management in schools offering meal services, placing primary responsibility on school principals.

Speaking at a meeting on food safety and meal expense management in primary and secondary schools, a ministry official emphasized that principals must conduct on-site meetings in school canteens, dine with students at the beginning of each semester, and solicit feedback from students and parents on food safety issues every semester.

The ministry is also calling for stricter oversight of food ingredient procurement, delivery, inspection, storage and processing, as well as more standardized management of food services and expenses. It seeks to strengthen the prevention of food safety risks.

To enhance oversight, the ministry requires schools to maintain open channels for teachers and students to report food safety complaints and to establish parent supervision committees for food safety.

Increased investment is also mandated to upgrade school canteen facilities, enhance personnel training, promote the digitalization of food safety campaigns, and improve emergency plans and risk perception systems.

These measures build on the ministry's ongoing efforts to improve food safety and budget management in 167,300 primary and secondary schools nationwide that provide meal services, representing 70.75 percent of all such schools.

In November last year, the ministry issued guidelines specifying responsibilities for schools and education departments, standard operating procedures, and requirements for canteen layouts and equipment.

According to China Central Television, since a nationwide campaign launched in May 2024 to address school food safety and budget management issues, 103 billion yuan ($14 billion) has been invested in improving school canteens. The proportion of schools with internet-enabled transparent kitchens has reached 98.5 percent.

In Chongqing, all school canteens are now connected to internet-enabled transparent kitchen systems, using artificial intelligence to identify 11 common food security risks and provide automatic voice alerts, according to the Chongqing Municipal Education Commission.

In Shanxi province, where 3,472 of 6,086 primary and secondary schools provide meal services to about 1.8 million students, the provincial government has allocated 220 million yuan in special funds for canteen construction and renovation and conducted 18 provincial-level food safety inspections.

"We have hired senior nutritionists to develop four sets of food menus for the entire county to ensure that students have different meals within a week or during the day," said Chen Guomin, director of the education and sports bureau of Linxian county in Lyuliang, Shanxi, as reported by China Education Daily.

Xu Nuo contributed to this story.