Clarifying responsibilities if food poisoning occurs in schools

The Hanoi Department of Education and Training requires that contracts for providing meals and services in schools must clearly state legal responsibilities in case of food poisoning or the provision of unsafe food.

The Hanoi Department of Education and Training has just sent a document to the cultural and social departments of wards and communes; units and schools under the department on strengthening food safety work in the 2025-2026 school year.

Hanoi requests clarification of legal responsibility if food poisoning occurs in the provision of meals for boarding students.

PHOTO: TNO

One of the important contents is the direction on the management of collective kitchens and school meals. Accordingly, collective kitchens must ensure conditions such as design and layout according to the one-way principle; have separate hand washing and hygiene areas for staff, teachers, employees and students; ensure enough clean water for eating and drinking, and processing according to the standards of the Ministry of Health .

Regarding the origin and quality of food, units must ensure that 100% of food has legal contracts, invoices, and documents; clearly stating the origin and source. The Hanoi Department of Education and Training noted that units only import food from establishments with food safety certificates or production and business establishments that have declared their products according to regulations, and do not use food of unknown origin, expired, or spoiled.

Regarding processing and preservation procedures, schools need to strictly implement the "3-step food inspection" process, including checking input materials, checking during processing, checking before use; and storing food samples according to regulations of the Ministry of Health.

Regarding contracts for the provision of meals and services, schools signing contracts with meal suppliers must assess food safety conditions; the contract must clearly state legal responsibilities in case of food poisoning or unsafe food supply; have daily delivery and receipt records, and keep records for at least 12 months.

Each school needs to establish a food safety working group, with the head of the unit (or deputy head) as the head; assign staff, teachers, and employees to coordinate with parents to participate in checking input food, supervising processing, and storing samples...

The school principal is fully responsible for food safety at his unit. If there is a violation or food poisoning, he must be held responsible according to the provisions of the law.

The school is also responsible for seriously evaluating and inspecting food suppliers (including drinking water, milk and dairy products), ingredients, and meals for students.

From this school year, Hanoi has decided to spend more than 3,000 billion VND to support lunch for primary school students in public and private schools. Although parents are very happy, they also want the quality of the meals to be guaranteed, not to let down supervision because of the support.

At the conference to deploy tasks for the 2025-2026 school year, Mr. Nguyen Van Phong, Standing Deputy Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee, requested the People's Committee and People's Council of the city to strengthen inspection and supervision of implementation.

The Hanoi Party Committee leader also advised schools: "Don't let such a humane policy be distorted and become a source of disrepute. Teachers, we all have children. Just as we take care of our children's meals and sleep, we should take care of our students in the same way."

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/lam-ro-trach-nhiem-neu-xay-ra-ngo-doc-thuc-pham-trong-truong-hoc-18525091815310599.htm