On Wednesday, Nguyen Thai Vinh Nguyen, the head of Thu Duc Department of Education and Training, announced that a total of 160 kindergartens, primary schools, and secondary schools in the city have initiated a practice of sharing images of their school lunches with the department. This measure has been implemented as an effective mechanism to ensure quality control of the meals served to students.
Nguyen mentioned that if parents express dissatisfaction with the food quality, we will be equipped with data to facilitate comparisons and assessments.
In a significant change, Thu Duc City has become the pioneering locality within Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) to introduce a new requirement. The city is now requesting that pictures of daily meals be submitted to the education department, marking a departure from the previous practice of personnel conducting announced or unannounced checks at the kitchen.
Le Thi Kim Ngan, the head of Phuoc Thanh Primary School in Thu Duc City, expressed her support for the request. In addition to sharing the photos with the department, the school will also send them to parents.
According to her, implementing this measure would provide parents with a greater sense of reassurance. It would also enable them to make a direct comparison between the menu items and their children's actual meals, allowing any issues to be promptly reported if something goes awry.
In an attempt to address the issue of student meal management in Thu Duc City, a recent decision was made. Concerns regarding the quality of school meals have been raised by numerous parents since the start of the academic year. Last week, six schools in Thu Duc had to halt their lunch services as parents discovered spoiled chicken meat at the food provider's facility. Additionally, in early October, parents from Phuoc Long B kindergarten expressed worries about their children's meals, citing expensive purchases made by the school.
Schools are ensuring that their lunch programs adhere to the regulations set forth by the Ministry of Education and Training, the Ministry of Health, and local authorities. They have the option to either prepare the meals internally or outsource the task to professional food providers.
The food must possess valid food safety certificates, and it is crucial to regularly monitor their quality, freshness, and temperature. Additionally, cooked food should have samples stored for a period of 24 hours to enable further examination in case any issues arise.
