Schools cannot be lax about students' food

Although the authorities in Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, have announced the dismissal of the principal and legal representative of the local Changfeng School and slapped a nearly 5.8 million yuan ($816,568) fine on the school's cafeteria after an investigation found it had served stale meat to its students, the punishment doesn't seem to be enough.

According to a news release, the school had contracted its cafeteria's management to a company in August without reporting the contract to the local education department.

Media reports quoted managers of other private schools as saying they don't have to follow bidding procedures when employing people to run their cafeteria.

It is necessary to point out here that a national regulation on school food safety and nutrition management had said that schools should employ qualified contractors in their cafeterias through a bidding process.

Moreover, various levels of education department officials, who are empowered to regulate both public and private schools, need to establish stricter systems so that the school managers who thought they could skip the bidding process are taught a lesson. Education department officials cannot afford to be lackadaisical about any food that's served to schoolchildren.