Minister of Health: Towards professionalizing the provision of school meals

Ensuring food safety in schools is a particularly important task.

On the morning of June 20, participating in clarifying the contents raised by National Assembly deputies at the question-and-answer session related to the education sector, Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan provided more information on the issue of ensuring school meals and food safety in schools.

Minister Dao Hong Lan emphasized that ensuring food safety for the people in general, especially for the young generation of the country, is a very important task. This issue has always been implemented by the Government 's Inter-sectoral Steering Committee and related ministries and branches with many synchronous solutions in recent times.

Directly related to ensuring food safety in schools, the Minister said that the Ministry of Health and the Ministryof Education and Training have coordinated to implement many specific solutions. These include issuing documents guiding the implementation of the Food Safety Law, decrees and regulations on administrative sanctions in this field.

Minister of Health: Towards professionalizing the provision of school meals - 1

Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan (Photo: VP).

The Minister cited examples such as Circular 8 of 2008 guiding food safety in educational institutions; Circular 13 of 2016 regulating school health work, in which the content related to food safety is also guided very specifically and in detail.

The head of the health sector affirmed that all of the above solutions aim at the highest goal of ensuring meal quality, adequate nutrition and safety for the young generation.

According to the Minister, to achieve this goal, close coordination from many sides is needed.

Every student, teacher, staff and employee in the educational institution must strictly comply with food safety regulations and actively participate in promoting and raising awareness of this issue. In case of food poisoning, timely measures must be taken to ensure the health of students.

Regarding conditions for ensuring food safety in schools, the Minister said that regulations have been fully issued. For schools with boarding or semi-boarding kitchens, the organization of cooking must comply with regulations on facilities, human resources, and processing procedures.

For schools that sign contracts with food suppliers, the supplier must have a certificate of food safety eligibility.

Strengthen inspection and post-inspection of school kitchens and collective kitchens

Regarding inspection and examination work, the Minister said that the Ministry has coordinated with the Ministry of Education and Training and local People's Committees to strengthen inspection, examination and post-inspection. In 2024, the Ministry inspected 354,820 establishments, detected 22,073 violations, handled 9,043 establishments and imposed fines of over 33 billion VND.

"We focus on post-inspection of both school kitchens and collective kitchens, because these are places where if food poisoning occurs, the number of people affected will be very large," the Minister emphasized.

Regarding the causes of food safety violations, the Minister said that there are both subjective and objective factors such as hot weather, unsafe processing procedures, etc. In addition, the provision of school meals also needs to be transparent and clear in terms of quality, quantity and cost.

Citing the opinion of National Assembly Delegate Nguyen Van Than on coordinating with the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises in providing school meals, Minister Dao Hong Lan agreed with the view that it is necessary to professionalize this activity.

"We are ready to coordinate with the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises and the Ministry of Education and Training to implement in a professional manner, ensuring food safety conditions, traceability and food quality," the Minister affirmed.

However, she also pointed out some difficulties, especially in remote areas where facilities are limited. Accordingly, the responsibility of the processing team at educational institutions must be implemented in accordance with regulations.

The Ministry of Health will continue to closely coordinate with the Ministry of Education and Training to fully and clearly implement the responsibilities of each agency and unit in accordance with legal regulations.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/suc-khoe/bo-truong-y-te-huong-toi-chuyen-nghiep-hoa-viec-cung-ung-suat-an-hoc-duong-20250620135515785.htm