We Decide the Taste of Our School Meals!

Geumcheon-gu Holds 'Rice Tasting Event' with Residents for Eco-Friendly Rice Meal Supply... Four Selected Companies to Supply Eco-Friendly Rice to Elementary and Middle Schools for Two Years Starting March 2022

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Geumcheon-gu (Mayor Yuseonghun) held the "School Meal Excellent Ingredients Eco-friendly Rice Joint Purchase Tasting Event" on the 11th at 3 PM in the Geumcheon-gu Office auditorium to purchase rice for school meal ingredients.

This event was planned to have actual consumers, such as parents and school officials, participate together to taste eco-friendly rice and directly select suppliers.

To prevent the spread of COVID-19, the event was held on a smaller scale compared to previous tasting events, which had about 150 attendees annually.

Before holding the tasting event, there were difficulties in stably supplying high-quality rice due to ongoing price adjustments between schools and suppliers. Geumcheon-gu has been holding this tasting event since 2011 to resolve such issues.

This year, six companies that passed the first document evaluation and the second on-site inspection participated. A panel of about 40 members, consisting of nutrition teachers, parents, and members of the Geumcheon-gu Eco-friendly Meal Support Review Committee, listened to presentations from each company, tasted the rice, and scored it. The scores were combined with the first and second evaluation scores (document review and on-site inspection) to finally select the top four companies.

The selected companies will sign agreements in December this year to supply excellent eco-friendly rice for school meals. Starting from March next year, rice will be supplied in rotation to elementary, middle, and high schools wishing to receive it by region or through autonomous school contracts for the next two years.

Geumcheon-gu plans to improve the quality of ingredients supplied to schools in the district and establish a stable supply system through regular inspections of overall matters such as compliance with delivery conditions by suppliers, on-site investigations of production sites, and residual pesticide tests as part of post-management.

Mayor Yuseonghun of Geumcheon-gu said, "This tasting event was promoted to stably supply high-quality ingredients to schools in the region," and added, "We will continue to do our best to improve the school meal environment so that our students can grow up healthily."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.