On the 17th, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, and the State Food and Drug Administration issued a notice, deciding to jointly carry out a special rectification action for school food hygiene and safety.


The notice requires that during the special rectification campaign, all regions should conduct comprehensive inspections of school canteens, on-campus food stores, restaurants, food supermarkets, self-provided water supply systems, and secondary water supply systems at all levels and types of schools in accordance with relevant laws and regulations. Special emphasis should be placed on key inspections of rural boarding schools. The inspection focuses on: the acquisition of food hygiene licenses for canteens, food stores, and restaurants; the health examinations of food employees; the implementation of relevant food hygiene and safety management systems and measures, supervision and management of contracted canteens, and the qualifications and access requirements for canteen contractors; the implementation of hygiene systems and requirements for food procurement, storage, processing, and tableware disinfection; the implementation of canteen security systems; and the disinfection, testing, and compliance of self-provided water supply and secondary water supply systems.


The notice emphasizes that all localities, led by the education department, should promptly formulate work plans with strong operability in accordance with the actual situation, quickly organize and carry out investigation and rectification work, and complete the self-inspection of schools and the supervision by local education, health administration, and food and drug regulatory authorities by the end of November this year, to ensure that the investigation and rectification work is solid and effective.


The notice points out that local health administrative and food and drug regulatory departments at all levels should conscientiously fulfill their duties of supervising food and drinking water. For any problems found during inspections, they should order schools to rectify within a specified time limit and conduct follow-up inspections on the rectification situation. Education, health administrative, and food and drug regulatory departments should issue notices of criticism to localities and schools that fail to effectively investigate and rectify issues, or fail to implement rectification measures. For those with effective work measures and outstanding achievements, they should summarize experience and promote it.


It is reported that the Ministry of Education, in conjunction with the Ministry of Health and the State Food and Drug Administration, will conduct spot checks on the implementation of special investigations and rectifications across various regions from December to January next year.