Ho Chi Minh City enhances food safety standards for over 2.5 million students

With a scale of over 3,500 schools and more than 2.5 million students, Ho Chi Minh City is facing significant pressure in managing food safety within school kitchens. In this context, departments are strengthening coordination to tighten the quality of school meals.

On May 28, Vissan Company held a seminar titled 'Introducing Safe Food Supply Chains' with the participation of management agencies and school administrators. Mr. Bui Chi Tinh, Deputy Director of the HCMC Food Safety Department, emphasized: 'Ensuring transparent and safe food is a key goal, especially for school meals. We will intensify inspections of product origins in canteens and surrounding areas, while providing food safety training for all relevant personnel'.

Ms. Huynh Thi Nhu Trang, Deputy Director of the HCMC Department of Education and Training, shared: 'The education sector is currently developing a specialized software system to manage school meals. This system will provide significant support for monitoring, inspection, and raw material traceability across the entire school system in the city'.

Regarding the 'Green Tick' responsibility initiative, Mr. Nguyen Nguyen Phuong, Deputy Director of the HCMC Department of Industry and Trade, stated that this is a move to improve transparency regarding the origins of ingredients such as meat, eggs, and vegetables. The program is being piloted in certain areas and has received strong consensus from parents. The goal is to expand this model to many schools by the beginning of the next academic year, where parents will act as direct monitors to verify the quality of school kitchens.