Xinhua News Agency, Tianjin, May 20 (Reporter Shao Xiangyun, Zhang Jianxin, Liu Weizhen): "Now you have a heavy learning task, and it's time to grow up, and you have to eat enough to eat good school meals or not." This is the "nagging" that many parents often talk about. However, sometimes the result is the child's response that "school meals are really not delicious".

"The ingredients are monotonous, and the taste is bad..." The reporter found in some places that the "complaints" about the "campus meal" in primary and secondary schools are endless, and the waste caused by not eating is also common. Students often complain, and parents are worried. Why are the "campus meals" in primary and secondary schools constantly available?

How many obstacles can the "campus meal" overcome if it is not delicious?

The Report on Food Waste in Urban Catering in China once showed that in some areas, the waste of boxed food for primary and secondary school students accounted for about 1/3 of the supply. The reporter's field visit also found that the "campus meal" is not an exception. Many parents and children suffer a lot, not because they are too picky, but because the food is really "not delicious". The reporter learned that the "campus meal" of primary and secondary schools in many places is mainly provided by the school canteen or off campus enterprises. Many parents and students are not very satisfied with the "campus meal".

——The food doesn't fit. "The school lunch tastes bad. The children in the class don't want to eat it, but the school doesn't allow parents to bring snacks for children." A student's parent in Guiyang complained. When visiting a middle school, the reporter found that after lunch, there were many leftovers in the lunch boxes. "The oil and salt were very heavy, and the children said they didn't like it," said Tian Chuchu, the parent. Some parents have to send their children to the surrounding "small table" because they are not satisfied with the school food and have no time to cook.

——Nutrition is hard to judge. The reporter's visit found that the types of "campus meal" ingredients in some schools were relatively monotonous, and there were basically no coarse grains and fruits. According to the recipes of some schools, children eat more diced chicken and chicken chops for lunch, but less fish and shrimp. "My school is dominated by boarders, and students usually eat three meals at school. However, the canteen has a limited variety of meals, often providing only tomato scrambled eggs, stir fried meat, stir fried potato shreds, cabbage and other kinds of food. The canteen usually does not supply fruit and milk to students in senior high school, but only gives students in junior high school a small cup of yogurt every day." Ren Sheng, a middle school teacher in Hubei Province, said.

"At present, the lack of food diversity of 'campus meal' and the low intake of children's fruit and coarse grains are common problems, and the nutritional status of primary and secondary school students still needs attention." Xin Peng, director of the Nutrition Department of the Non communicable Diseases Prevention and Control Room of Tianjin CDC, introduced.

——The ingredients are uncontrollable. A staff member of a catering enterprise revealed to the reporter that the cost of food materials of some enterprises that provide "campus meals" only accounts for 50% or even less of the meal cost due to the expenses of manpower, logistics, rent and other expenses. In addition, the limited food standard makes the cost of food materials more limited. The reporter found that in some big cities, some school meals are only six or seven yuan, and the higher cost is about fifteen yuan. "This is the price of the meal, which is the cost of the ingredients. What can children eat?" Huang Jing, the parent, sighed.

Why do some "campus meals" not taste good?

In addition to parents and students' complaints, many schools and catering enterprises often find themselves in a dilemma. "Campus meal" is not suitable for primary and secondary school students, why on earth?

——The contradiction of distribution is difficult to solve. Mr. Lu, who is running a catering enterprise, said that his enterprise usually starts to make lunch between 6:00 and 8:00, and delivers meals to schools before 11:00. Due to cost considerations, many catering enterprises choose to rent workshops in the suburbs, which means long distance and time for distribution, and it is difficult to guarantee the taste and temperature of meals. "It takes several hours from making to packing, boxing, shipping, and finally distributing to each child. How can the taste be good? Children always say that the school lunch has been stuffy." A student's parent said.

"If the boxed rice is kept for too long, the taste and taste of the food will be affected. In addition, the stability of vitamins B and C is not strong, and if it is heated repeatedly, it is easy to lead to the loss of nutrition," said Xin Peng.

——It is difficult to promote and implement nutrition standards. Several experts said that although some places have launched more detailed "campus meal" nutrition guidelines and local standards, many places still have problems such as difficult to promote and not detailed, and the relevant institutions that formulate industry standards have no force to promote the implementation of catering enterprises.

In addition, many catering institutions lack professional nutritionist guidance. "As far as we know, at present, more than 60% of the catering enterprises in the country do not have full-time nutritionists, and some enterprises do not even employ part-time nutritionists, so it is difficult for children's nutritious meals to be truly nutritious." Wang Qingxia, president of Beijing Student Nutrition Meal Association, said.

——The cost rises, but the food standard is difficult to rise. Mr. Lu said that the company had more than 40 employees. After the outbreak of the epidemic, for the sake of epidemic prevention, the enterprise needed to send more staff in several links. "The cost of food materials and logistics has risen, and during the epidemic period, enterprises have to purchase epidemic prevention materials, which will cost tens of thousands of yuan more every month." Mr. Li, the head of a catering enterprise in a city in the north, said frankly that at present, employees' wages account for about 30% of the enterprise's turnover, and factory rents also cost about 400000 yuan every year, "The wool comes from the sheep, and the cost of manpower and logistics is rising, so the cost of food materials will certainly be affected." However, the food standard of many schools has not changed for many years. A headmaster told the reporter that the school's food standard had not been adjusted for 13 years, mainly because some parents were worried about the rise in food costs.

Let children not only eat well, but also eat well

The nutrition and health of teenagers are related to the physical condition of children in adulthood, and the "school meal" of primary and secondary school students closely affects the nerves of society. Industry insiders suggest that we need to work together to make children eat well at school.

At present, the "central kitchen" mode is a good choice. According to Yang Yunta, director of the Education Comprehensive Security Center in Dongli District, Tianjin, Dongli District introduced three catering enterprises through public bidding to pilot the "central kitchen" operation mode in eight school canteens. Intensive procurement of "central kitchen" food materials, centralized processing and production of semi-finished products, sealed cold chain distribution to the school cafeteria, and standardized processing by the cooking robot or on-site staff, students can eat delicious hot meals in time, saving transportation time, and taste has also been improved. The entrance rate of ingredients increased by 4.5 percentage points under the condition that the students' meal standards remained unchanged.

"After the implementation of the 'central kitchen', the canteen staff will be uniformly allocated by the central kitchen, the staff costs will be subsidized by the government, the water and electricity costs will be borne by the school, the gas costs and kitchen supplies will be borne by the 'central kitchen', and more than 70% of the meal fees paid by students can be used for food materials. The school can also put forward opinions on the ingredients and nutrition distribution of the enterprise in a timely manner, which not only reduces the cost, but also makes it easy to trace problems. " Shang Junxin, headmaster of Lize Primary School in Dongli District, Tianjin, said.

Who decides whether it is delicious or not? Several interviewed experts said that they could establish and improve the collaborative evaluation mechanism and relevant management regulations of relevant departments, schools, students and parents for catering enterprises, and formulate clear regulations and reward and punishment systems for catering enterprises to promote the benign development of the industry. In the long run, food nutrition safety education and training for catering industry employees can be strengthened, and catering enterprises are required to equip nutritionists to improve the quality of the talent team.

Both the government and schools must consider the public welfare of catering in primary and secondary school canteens. "It is suggested that the government should increase investment to ensure the quality of food materials by reducing taxes and strengthening supervision for relevant enterprises," said Wang Qingxia.

More importantly, practical industry standards should be formulated and implemented. Wang Qingxia believes that relevant departments can strengthen cross regional communication, promote the relatively complete nutrition standards introduced by some places to more regions, and carry out "localized improvement".

"It is suggested that the education department and relevant authorities should improve the nutrition level of 'campus meals' and ensure that catering enterprises make good use of the local standard of the nutrition guide for student meals," said Xin Peng, "Schools, parents and catering enterprises need to enrich the variety of food materials, provide children with at least 12 kinds of food every day and 25 kinds of food every week, ensure that children eat fruits and vegetables, coarse grains, meat, poultry, eggs, milk, etc., and shorten the processing time to ensure children's nutrition and health." (Some interviewees in the article are pseudonyms)

Share to let more people see