Strengthening Safety Management of School Meal Ingredients in Anyang, Gunpo, Uiwang, and Gwacheon

The Anyang-Gunpo-Uiwang-Gwacheon Joint Meal Support Center is taking a commemorative photo with participants after discussing safety management measures for school meal ingredients.

The safety management of school meal ingredients supplied to 87 schools in Anyang City, Gyeonggi Province, will be strengthened.

The Anyang-Gunpo-Uiwang-Gwacheon Joint Meal Support Center announced on the 18th that it recently held a meeting on safety management measures for processed foods following seafood used in school meals at the meeting room on the 2nd floor of the Joint Meal Support Center.

At the meeting, the Anyang-Gunpo-Uiwang-Gwacheon Joint Meal Support Center agreed to expand radiation inspections on processed foods related to the discharge of radioactive contaminated water, such as salt, processed seafood products (fish cakes, seaweed, fish cutlets), and traditional fermented sauces.

Radiation inspections will have set inspection cycles by item: for salt (raw water, raw materials), inspections will be strengthened from once quarterly to once monthly; for processed seafood products and traditional fermented sauces, inspections will increase from once annually to once quarterly. Additionally, inspection results will be published on the center’s website and shared with schools, education support offices, and local governments.

Furthermore, continuous discussions will be held regarding the introduction of a traceability management system for systematic safety management of ingredients, checking the application status of the expiration date labeling system to be implemented from 2024, and the production of product description materials.

Park Mijin, director of the Anyang-Gunpo-Uiwang-Gwacheon Joint Meal Support Center, emphasized, "We will work harder to secure the safety of ingredients by strengthening management and supervision from raw materials to finished products for processed foods, which account for a large proportion of school meal ingredients, and to alleviate the concerns of students and parents."

Currently, the Joint Meal Support Center has been conducting the ‘Processed Food Joint Purchase Supplier Recommendation Project’ since 2016 to ensure that safe processed foods can be used in all 172 schools across four cities.

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