When pre-made dishes come to school, do you still let your kids eat lunch at school?

Extreme News Reporter Zhan Yu

Recently, Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province implemented central kitchen catering for primary and secondary school students, resulting in problems such as slow meals and poor taste, which triggered public resistance to pre-made dishes and unified catering in central kitchens; In an interview with the media, Jiang Yuanshao, director of the Qingdao Education Bureau in Shandong, clearly opposed the entry of pre-made dishes into the school and asked each local school to build its own canteen, which was praised by netizens.

An investigation by polar news reporters found that policies on school catering vary across the country, and some areas require primary and secondary schools to have canteens. However, in some schools that do not have the capacity to build their own canteens, the use of "central kitchens" to serve meals is a supplementary solution to the problem of students eating (especially lunch). Many of the pre-made dishes that some parents talk about come from the "central kitchen".

Some experts said that the advantages of centralized meals in central kitchens are that the food source is controllable and the dining efficiency is improved, which is conducive to food safety supervision. Because of the cost, central kitchens generally do not take pre-made dishes to accompany meals. In addition, prepared dishes are also divided into types, and prepared dishes that meet food safety standards can be eaten with confidence, and there is no need to change the color of prepared dishes.

The Secretary for Education called for the construction of their own canteens and the discouragement of pre-made dishes entering schools

"I can tell you exactly that this kind of pre-made dish mentioned on the Internet is not used by primary and secondary schools and kindergartens in the city, and we are not prepared to use this pre-made dish."

On September 11, Jiang Yuanshao, director of the Qingdao Municipal Education Bureau, made a guest appearance on the local media "Xingfeng Online" on September 11, and clearly said "no" to pre-made dishes entering the campus. Jiang Yuanshao said that every school in Qingdao is required to have its own canteen, and there must be professional chefs and nutritionists; Schools are required to establish a food safety information disclosure platform, and timely disclose information such as the source of ingredients, processing process, and nutritional mix to parents and society.

After the relevant remarks spread on the Internet, netizens asked all provinces and cities to "look at Qingdao". Many netizens revealed that their children's Chinese food is uniformly distributed outside the school, and some schools have clearly informed parents that it is a "pre-made dish", and they are worried about their children's diet at school.

Jiang Yuanshao, director of Qingdao Education Bureau

Regarding Jiang Yuanshao's remarks, on September 15, a reporter from Extreme News called the Qingdao Municipal Education Bureau for details, but had not obtained permission to interview as of press time.

Pursue and advocate primary and secondary schools to build their own canteens, not only in Qingdao City, but also in many other regions of China. According to public media reports, as of March this year, schools in the compulsory education stage of Wuchang District, Wuhan City, Hubei Province have basically achieved 100% self-built canteens to meet the meal needs of students. At the same time, the district has also completed the construction of "Internet + bright kitchen bright stove" for most primary and secondary schools and kindergartens in the district. A teacher at a primary school in Wuchang District believes that it is far safer to achieve "bright kitchens and bright stoves" in school than to buy unified meals outside.

In Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, as of the end of August 2021, all public kindergartens and compulsory education schools in the city have realized their own canteens, and the distribution of ingredients has also been uniform.

In schools where there is no cafeteria, the "central kitchen" can be used to serve meals uniformly

However, not every school has the means to build its own canteen. Teacher Mai (surname), who has been engaged in education work for many years in a prefecture-level city in Hubei Province, told Extreme News that in many rural village-level primary schools, students generally go home to eat at noon and do not need a canteen; The primary schools in the town basically have the conditions for running their own canteens, and students will be required to eat in the school cafeteria, a Chinese meal of 7 to 8 yuan, but also to ensure hygiene and balanced nutrition. On the contrary, many elementary and junior high schools in urban areas cannot add kitchens and canteens due to land constraints and other reasons.

In addition, Mr. Mai also said that the local market supervision departments have very high requirements for the hardware and hygiene of the school's canteen, and many standards are "hard levers", and it takes a lot of investment to meet the requirements, and it is not easy to build a canteen. In this case, the unified catering of the central kitchen can solve many problems. "If the school does not have the conditions to open a canteen, I personally think that the unified catering of the central kitchen should be the best choice." He said.

Extreme News reporters investigated and learned that in many areas, the "central kitchen" unified catering has become a supplementary feeding mode chosen by schools.

In October 2020, the Education Bureau of Jinan City, Shandong Province issued the Notice on Strengthening the Standardized Management of "Canteen + Catering" in Primary and Secondary Schools in Jinan. The notice said that in addition to the school canteen feeding service as the main guarantee of meal service, various forms of catering and catering services are implemented, including the construction of "central kitchen" multi-point distribution.

In the past two years, the Jinan Municipal Education Bureau has invested 16 million yuan in special funds to implement the lunch catering project. As of March 2023, a total of 549 primary and secondary schools and kindergartens have been distributed in 15 districts and counties in Jinan, covering 318,180 diners.

The polar news reporter learned from the Jinan Municipal Education Bureau that in order to strengthen the management of meal distribution and delivery, each school has set up a catering committee to supervise and inspect the environmental sanitation and food safety of food delivery enterprises, and also conduct regular comprehensive reviews and rectifications.

Meals placed at the door of the classroom

On the 15th, the person in charge of a large local catering enterprise in Jinan told Extreme News that the vegetables in the central kitchen are directly supplied from the source, and the catering processing starts from 6 to 9 o'clock every morning, and the whole workshop is monitored. "We don't have any prepared dishes at all, vegetables don't stay in the warehouse for more than a day, and frozen foods sit for up to a week to make sure the ingredients are fresh."

This year, Fu'an City, Fujian Province issued the "Fu'an City 2022 Education Expansion and Quality Improvement Special Action Implementation Plan", which takes the direct supply of students' after-school service meals to the "central kitchen" as a key content, and invests 18.6 million yuan to build the "central kitchen". In September this year, the city's "Central Kitchen" project was officially put into use. The person in charge of the project said in an interview with the media that from 6 o'clock every day, the work of cleaning, cutting, and disinfecting tableware will begin, and four hours later, the two-meat and two-vegetarian box lunch will be freshly baked and then delivered to the designated school. According to the reporter's understanding, the dishes in many "central kitchens" in Fu'an were made on the spot on the same day, and there was no use of pre-made dishes.

"Whether the child eats at school or not, parents will have doubts, and the key is how to reassure parents." Teacher Jiang (surname changed), a teacher at a primary school in an urban area of Hubei Province, told Extreme News that a few years ago, her school provided lunch services to students through a catering enterprise outside the school after a variety of selections. However, many parents felt that the food was average and the price was too high, and asked to cancel the service. After the one-year contract expired, the school canceled the service, and some parents felt that it was inconvenient to eat at noon, and it was difficult to ensure that they were clean and safe to find a place to eat for their children outside, and proposed to restore the supply of Chinese food. Last year, Ms. Jiang's school added a cafeteria, requiring all students to eat on campus. During daily hours, the school invites parents to the canteen from time to time to observe the processing and production process of ingredients, which slowly dispels parents' doubts and reflects the gradual reduction of dietary problems.

Netizens exposed untimely food delivery

Expert: "Central kitchen" is unlikely to offer prepared dishes

Is there a necessary connection between the "central kitchen" and prepared dishes? The answer is no.

On the afternoon of the 15th, Luo Wen, a national registered nutrition technician and vice chairman of the Student Nutrition Professional Committee of Hubei Nutrition Society, said in an interview with Extreme News that the "central kitchen" can produce pre-made dishes, but according to his understanding, the meals delivered to the school are unlikely to be pre-made dishes.

Rowan introduced that pre-made dishes are roughly divided into several categories. There are clean dishes, such as washed vegetables, cut and washed ribs; There are also semi-processed ones, such as marinated shredded meat in supermarkets, which can be bought home and can be directly put into the pot; There are also fully cooked, similar to bento boxes sold in convenience stores, which can be eaten by simply microwave heating. Many aircraft meals are such pre-made dishes, and even dishes such as Kung Pao chicken eaten by astronauts are pre-made dishes made in advance.

The problem of prepared dishes is mainly that there is no national unified mandatory standard, and its nutritional safety quality research and regulatory protection are insufficient.

Somewhere the central kitchen is serving meals

Rowan explained that the "central kitchen" can indeed produce such fully cooked prepared dishes, but the "central kitchen" cannot use this pre-made dish to supply schools that need meals every day. "Because after the prepared dish is ready, there will be packaging, freezing and other processes, which will cost more than the day, which will not make logical sense."

Rowan said that the "central kitchen" catering he knows is generally divided into two categories, one is to provide clean dishes to schools, which is for smaller schools, kitchen space is limited, and the school can stir-fry fresh after the clean dishes come; The other is the whole chain distribution, the popular point is "box lunch", the fresh ingredients are processed in the morning, burned, fried, stewed, boiled, steamed and loaded into the lunch box, and then the incubator is used, the whole process is tracked and located and transported, and distributed to the school.

Rowan said that now, the "central kitchen" can do very well in terms of safety, cleanliness, efficiency, cost, etc., the only shortcoming is that the taste will not be particularly amazing, and there is a gap with the taste of small stove stir-fry.

(Image source: Internet)

(Source: Polar Eye News)

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