Shaanxi's Zero Tolerance of School Food and Security

Shaanxi Provincial Market Regulatory Bureau recently issued the Notice of Strengthening Food Safety Supervision during the Autumn Opening Period (hereinafter referred to as "Notice"), which will adopt "zero tolerance" on campus food safety issues.

Notice shows that since this year, various departments in Shaanxi Province have attached great importance to school food safety work, and have taken effective measures to control school food safety risk. However, there are still some problems in some schools, such as the insufficient implementation of the main responsibility of food safety, the mere formality of training and assessment of practitioners and pre-job health examination, the inadequate implementation of post responsibility of practitioners, the incomplete washing of catering utensils, and the inadequate inspection of food materials before processing. At present, there are still some problems in the construction of school canteens, such as non-standard management, non-implementation of responsibilities, etc. The food safety foundation of campus is still weak, and food safety incidents occur from time to time.

The Notice requires that all departments in different regions should concentrate their manpower and efforts to conduct a comprehensive supervision and inspection of all schools and kindergarten canteens in their respective administrative areas, collective meal distribution units providing meals to schools, food operators in and around the campus within a certain range within two weeks before the start of school. Organize schools to investigate potential food safety hazards, focusing on whether the food safety management institutions and systems are sound and efficient; whether drinking water, stored food materials, environmental hygiene are safe; whether the systems of purchase inspection, processing and production, cleaning and disinfection, food sampling, health management of employees, training and assessment are implemented.

Strictly inspect the illegal acts of "three nothingness" food, counterfeit and inferior food, and incomplete cleaning and disinfection of catering utensils around schools. Publicize the supervision information of school administrative license, source of food materials, inspection and sampling, and out-of-school meals, and take the initiative to accept social supervision. Establish a "one household, one file" risk checklist, and set a time limit for rectification of the problems identified, and urge rectification one by one. To the food safety problems found in the school food safety supervision and inspection, supervision and sampling inspection and reporting complaints, with a "zero tolerance" attitude, found together, strictly checked together. If a person is suspected of committing a crime, he shall immediately be transferred to the public security organ for handling.

The Notice proposed that all localities should implement the Regulations on School Food Safety and Nutrition and Health Management issued jointly by the Ministry of Education, the State Health and Health Commission and the State Administration of Market Supervision. Strengthen the main responsibility of school food safety management, and strengthen the job responsibilities of school food safety management personnel and practitioners. To urge schools to strictly implement the requirements of raw material procurement, processing, production, cleaning and disinfection, strengthen water management, and ensure the safety of drinking water. If the city water supply network is used, the terminal water of the pipeline should be discharged before the centralized feeding starts. If there are self-provided wells and secondary water supply equipment, a comprehensive inspection should be carried out to prevent leakage and harmful substance pollution, and the well water should be eliminated and tested when it is put into operation. Self-examination of food safety should be carried out regularly. More importantly, we should popularize food safety knowledge, strengthen students'food safety and healthy diet education, and improve students' food safety awareness and self-protection ability. Schools that use collective catering and distribution units to provide meals should also strictly check the qualifications of catering units.

The Notice encourages conditional counties (districts) to establish school food distribution centers to achieve unified procurement, acceptance and distribution of large quantities of food materials such as rice, noodles and oil. Encourage qualified schools to set up fast inspection rooms or introduce third-party fast inspection agencies to strengthen food safety supervision. Before the end of the year, all school canteens should realize "bright kitchen and bright stove", encourage the construction of "sunshine kitchen" in school canteens, and connect with society through the Internet, so as to realize the real-time and open socialized supervision mode of school canteens. Local governments should strengthen monitoring of school foodborne diseases, focusing on food safety in schools and surrounding areas in rural areas and underdeveloped areas, and timely inform relevant departments of weaknesses and risks found. To organize special training to meet the needs of schools, guide schools to strengthen knowledge education on foodborne diseases prevention and nutritional health, and cultivate students'healthy eating habits and scientific dietary concepts.

Shaanxi Provincial Market Regulatory Bureau, Provincial Education Department and Provincial Health and Health Commission will begin to organize special inspections on school food safety during the beginning of autumn term in Shaanxi Province at the end of August. They will conduct secret interviews on school food safety in Shaanxi Province and notify the problems found.