Is my child really getting enough and safe food at school?

Children's meals that exceed the allowed standards not only harm their health such as obesity, tooth decay, high blood pressure but also form unhealthy eating habits from a young age through school meals.

Catering staff at Be Ngoan Kindergarten, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City prepare food according to one-way kitchen rules to ensure nutrition and food hygiene and safety (photo taken at noon on May 7) - Photo: QUANG DINH

This is a question that many parents with children registered for school meals are always very concerned about.

Recent news about a kindergarten in Ho Chi Minh City buying food ingredients at prices many times higher than the market price, along with using too much sugar and salt, has made parents even more worried.

From a parent's perspective, looking at the amount of sugar and salt used by the above kindergarten, I see that it can potentially pose many risks to children's health.

With 358 students having lunch and afternoon tea on October 24 at school, the food list showed a total of 27 types of spices, vegetables, and foods.

Specifically, the school kitchen uses 8kg of white sugar, 1kg of iodized salt, 3 liters of fish sauce, 2 liters of fish oil, 1.5 liters of vegetable oil, and 28kg of rice.

At noon, the school uses 2kg of powdered milk and 7kg of powdered milk in the morning. That means the amount of sugar and salt that this school gives students is much higher than the education sector's guidelines, which stipulate that sugar should not exceed 15g/student/day and salt should not exceed 3g/day for children under 5 years old.

Children's meals that exceed the allowed standards not only harm their health such as obesity, tooth decay, high blood pressure but also form unhealthy eating habits from an early age.

It can be said that the first thing to welcome is the spirit of the board of directors and parents of the above kindergarten because not everywhere agrees to organize parents to seriously supervise the activities of the school. Thanks to that, unreasonable things have been recorded so that the parties can find ways to overcome and handle them.

Faced with the above situation, many parents hope that schools and authorities will have more drastic solutions.

While waiting for schools and authorities to take specific actions to ensure children's rights and health, transparency should always be the number one priority in all choices and decisions related to the country's preschools.

Although we know that "you get what you pay for", the reality shows that there are still food suppliers with the best quality at the most competitive prices through public bidding. It can be seen that this is the implementation step that the above kindergarten is still lacking.

Bidding not only helps to select reputable suppliers among those that meet food safety standards, but also helps to eliminate "backyard" situations to protect the rights of parents and students.

In addition, parents want schools to coordinate with nutrition experts to create a diverse, balanced menu suitable for children's ages and nutritional needs, minimizing the use of sugar, salt and additives.

The school board can hold regular meetings to listen to parents' opinions and contributions, and sometimes it is also an opportunity to grasp appropriate solutions from professionals whose children are studying at the school.

And once again, the story of the kindergarten above shows the power of increased monitoring and supervision.

Authorities need to have a mechanism to closely inspect and monitor from the stage of selecting suppliers, warehousing, processing to serving meals to children.

Schools should proactively publicize information about suppliers, daily menus, prices and quality control reports in person or online to help parents feel more secure.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/con-toi-co-thuc-su-duoc-an-uong-day-du-va-an-toan-trong-bua-an-ban-tru-20241108230844332.htm