Food tracking system to encompass school lunches

Shanghai's food safety watchdog is working with education authorities to include all primary and secondary schools in a food tracking system by the end of this year, local media reported Tuesday.

The Shanghai Food and Drug Administration (SHFDA) aims to use the system to ensure the safety of school lunches, the Shanghai Morning Post reported. The system will allow the SHFDA to trace the source of any unsafe or substandard food that finds its way into a school cafeteria.

"We already have some schools that track their food, and we will eventually expand the system to cover every school," said Shen Weitao, a senior official from the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration.

About 4,000 city schools have cafeterias that prepare their own meals. Another 90 schools order their student meals from 22 catering companies.

SHFDA officials will require school lunch suppliers to keep records about their own suppliers, how much food they procure and when the food expires, the report said.

The information in the tracking system will only be available to food inspectors, Shen said. The SHFDA has no plans to release the information to the public yet.

Along with the tracking system, the SHFDA also plans to require schools to put surveillance cameras in their cafeteria kitchens so it can oversee food preparation. Schools in Minhang, Songjiang and Changning districts have already installed cameras in their cafeterias.

The SHFDA requires that each school install at least four cameras in each cafeteria kitchen.

"Inspectors can watch the cafeterias in real time from their office computers. So can the company owners and the schools. It will discourage the people who prepare the food from disregarding the rules," Shen told the Global Times.