The problem of schoolchildren's health remains relevant today. Doctors continue to note a high percentage of chronic diseases acquired in school age. And among them, the leading place is occupied by diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. Experts see the main reason for this not only in the lack of knowledge among children and adults about healthy eating, but also in the low level of qualifications of school catering staff, and the poor provision of canteens with technological and refrigeration equipment.Continuing the topic of school meals and school food centers, I propose another article about the poisoning of schoolchildren in May and how school meals are organized in Moscow schools.



Author Svetlana Mikhailova
May 11, 2012

The May holidays turned out to be anything but festive for some. For example, for schoolchildren from Tula who ended up in the hospital with a diagnosis of acute intestinal infection. As an audit conducted by the prosecutor's office showed, the cause of the disease was flagrant unsanitary conditions in the school canteen. And this situation is typical - in most cases, mass poisoning of students occurs due to the neglect of sanitary and technological standards by catering staff. Moscow schoolchildren, however, are still “holding on” - but it is unknown how long the children’s health will last, considering what is happening with food in many schools in the capital.

Two districts can be called the most problematic - ZAO and SZAO. This is where complaints about disgusting food in school canteens most often come from. For example, school No. 64. Parents of students speak about the children's menu like this: “It's really disgusting! Slimy pasta with a stone cutlet, in which there is 2 times more breading than meat. And the meat, apparently, was taken by that homeless-looking woman who is called a catering department employee.” At school No. 811 the situation is no better: “Even my unspoiled children refuse to eat what is proudly called curd pudding in the 811 school menu! And cauliflower soup is like chowder for vegetarian dogs! It may be healthy, but when done by our chefs it’s inedible!”

Such comments can be quoted endlessly - parents have been expressing their dissatisfaction for a long time and, unfortunately, to no avail. They address their claims to KShP "Konix-Shkolnik", State Unitary Enterprise Food Combine "Shkolnik" and KShP "Logarithm" - companies that very tightly "occupied" educational establishments these two districts. Moreover, according to rumors, all these companies are controlled by the same person. And, if you dig a little deeper, it turns out that the low quality of nutrition is quite understandable. Judging by the reviews of people who worked at these enterprises, the situation there is unbearable - salaries are minimal (and even those are delayed), as a result, the staff is extremely unqualified.

“Well, they dispersed competent chefs and cooks. There are Tajiks and Uzbeks at the car washes. Dishes are not washed. They don’t speak or understand Russian. What kind of quality can we talk about? Because they don’t know how, they are not familiar with SanPiN,” this is how employees of the former ShBS Kuntsevo, who could not stand such working conditions, speak about working at Koniks-Shkolnik.

The only skill that the management of the plants managed to master perfectly was the art of inflating prices. That is, buy cheaper and sell more expensive; the food factories of the State Unitary Enterprise “Shkolnik”, “Konix-Shkolnik” and “Logarithm” do an excellent job with this. After all, the main thing in this matter is to know among the suppliers of products for the school table those with whom you can negotiate well. And the best thing, of course, is to buy from yourself.

For example, the main supplier of Konix-Shkolnik is an enterprise of almost the same name - Konix LLC. As a result, prices for the most popular products (eggs, bread, milk, pasta) turn out to be twice as high. In what proportion the food supplier and food supplier share the profit, one can only guess. But the food does not get better from such mutual offsets.

Not only the price, but also the quality of the products purchased by school food factories raises questions. Why don’t children, for example, even want to eat cutlets or sausages, because at home they usually go “with a bang”? However, most likely, loving parents, when buying sausages, are not guided by the principles of “what is cheaper”, and take sausages made not according to specifications, but according to GOST - they must contain at least 50% meat. But for school feeding factories, the “best” is the cheapest, not the highest quality. Sausages made according to specifications will also work here - 10% meat, 30% animal fat, skin and poultry meat, the rest is protein-fat emulsions, protein stabilizers, etc. And you want the children to have a tasty meal? The same goes for meat. For student meals, only chilled meat can be used, not frozen. But this is usually ignored. But freezing allows you to hide signs of spoilage of the product and supply stale meat to the children's table at the price of fresh meat.

The quality of products purchased by school food factories is such that not only parents, but also the employees themselves, and not only of the above-mentioned factories, complain about it. Here, for example, is what one of its employees thinks about the products purchased by the VITO-1 plant: “I’m afraid to even give this kind of meat to my dog, but this is what she feeds her children.”

After this, the extremely harsh reviews from the parents of those same children are no longer surprising: “It’s impossible to eat this food! This is waste! Frozen fruits, moldy bread, fish fingers and other semi-finished products worst quality. The children don’t eat anything, they go hungry until 3 o’clock in the afternoon, and sometimes until the evening.” Complaints about low-quality products and the use of semi-finished products for the “pets” of this plant are not uncommon; “The kitchen is pre-cooked. The food is tasteless, cold, and very often prepared from semi-finished products. Children refuse to eat this, out of 20 servings only 10 remain on the table. It’s a pity the money spent by parents on something that you don’t always want to call food,” is how those who have had the chance to try them evaluate the “culinary delights” from the VITO-1 plant.

It is not surprising that few school food suppliers are willing to open their kitchens to prying eyes - both literally and figuratively. The workshops where dishes are prepared, warehouses, refrigerators - all this remains “behind the scenes”. Before my eyes - only ready-made meals that are delivered to school canteens. And go prove what they are made of.

Of course, the companies listed are not the only suppliers violating the terms of multimillion-dollar government contracts. Since January 2011, catering in educational institutions in Moscow has been provided by 23 enterprises that received this right on a competitive basis. And inspections by the Department of Education and the State Inspectorate of the City of Moscow on the quality of agricultural products, raw materials and food show that their work often turns out to be, to put it mildly, of poor quality. Thus, “typical shortcomings” are considered to be the lack of the necessary package of documents for the product; the presence in canteens of products not intended for feeding children and products with expired expiration dates; deviations from the menu; insufficient range of buffet products... One of the most common violations is unequal replacement of dishes. For example, instead of complex vegetable side dishes, children receive mashed potatoes, and instead of potatoes, rice or pasta.

Among the “fined” companies are Moscow Schoolchild LLC, Koniks-Shkolnik LLC, KShP Logarithm LLC, Preschool Nutrition Plant LLC, VITO-1 LLC...

The State Unitary Enterprise “Perovsky Shkolnik” particularly distinguished itself by managing to leave children even without bread - as an audit showed, at school No. 478 the State Unitary Enterprise not only supplies an insufficient number of servings of ready-made meals (168 servings out of 178), but also almost halved the bread supply standards - 4770 kg instead of the required 7160 kg). Also at this school, fruits and snacks were not included in the menu; the range of the buffet turned out to be extremely limited - only confectionery, juice and drinking water. Needless to say, a meager diet. At the same time, it turned out that some canteen workers did not have information in their health records about the availability of vaccinations, including against dysentery.

The situation is no better in kindergartens - food is supplied to them by the same enterprises, and if schoolchildren at least have a choice (buy something in the buffet or have a snack after school at home), then kindergarteners have to either eat what was prepared from poor quality food from unqualified cooks, or go hungry all day. The result is gastrointestinal disorders, allergies, etc.

Each prosecutor's inspection reveals in children's kitchens preschool institutions numerous violations of sanitary and hygienic standards. In March alone, after inspections of Moscow kindergartens, 17 cases were initiated. For example, in kindergartens No. 125 and 763, food department workers did not follow the rules for washing kitchen utensils, product quality control was carried out with violations, and to top it all off, the cooks used leftovers for cooking - that is, they essentially fed the children yesterday’s leftovers. IN kindergarten No. 1960, violations were identified in the design, equipment, maintenance of the catering unit, food storage, and sanitary maintenance of the premises. The rules for storing food for children are not observed everywhere. For example, rotten vegetables were found in kindergarten No. 776, and in kindergarten No. 328 the storage temperature conditions were not observed. And in kindergarten No. 701, plus the staff did not have the habit of undergoing medical examinations in a timely manner...

And this list can be continued endlessly. No one controls the quality of both the incoming products and the dishes going to the children’s table; personnel with invalid health certificates; yesterday's lunch as today's breakfast; poorly washed dishes; dirt in the catering unit... Unfortunately, for the nutrition of schoolchildren and preschoolers, this situation is not an exception, but rather the norm, although can this be considered normal? However, from the point of view of an unscrupulous supplier - probably yes. Why change anything if no one has died yet? And you can ignore “little things” such as allergies, chronic gastrointestinal diseases or the risk of contracting dysentery.

More details:

Every parent wants their child to be provided with high-quality, balanced school meals that take into account the needs of a growing body associated with growth, development, changes in environmental conditions, and the increased physical and emotional stress that children experience at school. Due to this main question The problem that arises among parents is the quality of school meals and its cost. What determines the prices for paid meals in the school canteen? Who is responsible for the quality of fresh and finished products? Is it possible to refuse paid meals if its quality is not satisfactory? Is it legal for the school administration to force a child to eat in the school cafeteria? A lawyer answers these and other questions to Letidor Ksenia Pechenik:

• Issues of the quality and cost of children's nutrition have always been acute, since the life, health and efficiency of the mental and physical activity of a growing organism directly depend on this. This explains the numerous nature of regulations governing nutrition issues at both the federal and regional levels. At the federal level, these issues are regulated by the Law “On Education”, the Law “On the Sanitary and Epidemiological Welfare of the Population”, the Law “On Quality and Safety food products", Federal Law dated June 12, 2008 No. 88-FZ "Technical Regulations for Milk and Dairy Products", Federal Law dated October 27, 2008 No. 178-FZ "Technical Regulations for Juice Products from Fruits and Vegetables", Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated May 5, 1992 No. 431 “On measures for social support large families", Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of February 28, 1995 No. 221 "On measures to streamline state regulation of prices (tariffs)."

At the regional level, in relation to Moscow and the Moscow region, these issues are regulated by the Moscow City Law “On the Quality and Safety of Food Products” dated May 24, 2000 No. 13, the Comprehensive Program of Social Protection Measures for Moscow Residents, annually approved by the Moscow Government, the Moscow City Law “On Social support for families with children in the city of Moscow" dated November 23, 2005 No. 60, the Production Control Program, the purpose of which is to create conditions at school for the organization and implementation of high-quality and balanced nutrition for students, etc.

However, the abundance of regulations has little effect on the quality of nutrition in most Russian schools. The fact is that the price of school meals consists of the cost of food, rent, utility bills, staff salaries and taxes, as well as overhead costs, equipment repairs, purchase of equipment, etc. In this regard, the menu of a modern schoolchild in the school canteen today has reached the minimum acceptable threshold of sanitary and epidemiological standards. Organizations that enter into municipal contracts with schools for the provision of catering services are forced to simplify children's diets, saving on fruits, dairy, and meat products. As a result, there is an increase in dissatisfaction on the part of parents with the quality of baby food and complaints about high prices.

What to do if parents are not satisfied with the quality of their child’s food at school? Is it possible to refuse to eat in a paid school canteen?

• Issues of food quality are regulated by the Sanitary and Epidemiological Requirements for the organization of meals for students in general education institutions, primary and secondary institutions vocational education SanPiN 2.4.5.2409-08, approved by the Chief State Sanitary Doctor of the Russian Federation on July 23. 2008, Sanitary rules“Organization and conduct of production control over compliance with sanitary rules and implementation of sanitary and anti-epidemic (preventive) measures” SP 1.1.1058-01, approved by the Chief State Sanitary Doctor of the Russian Federation on July 10, 2001, Sanitary and Epidemiological Rules and Standards “Organization of Baby Food” SanPiN 2.3 .2.1940–05, approved by the Chief State Sanitary Doctor of the Russian Federation on January 17, 2005, Sanitary and epidemiological requirements for trade organizations and the circulation of food raw materials and food products in them SP 2.3.6.1066-01, approved by the Chief State Sanitary Doctor of the Russian Federation on September 6, 2001, and also numerous GOSTs, including: GOST R 50647-94 “Public catering. Terms and definitions", GOST R 51074-2003 "Food products. Information for consumers", GOST R 51740-2001 "Technical conditions for food products. General requirements for development and registration", GOST R 50763-2007 "Services Catering. Catering products sold to the public. Are common technical specifications", GOST R 53105-2008 "Catering services. Technological documents for public catering products."

For the purpose of quality control of raw and finished products, a rejection commission must be created in each school, which includes doctors and representatives of the school administration and the supplier. They are responsible for what product your child receives. In addition, schools often create commissions to control the organization of nutrition, which includes high school students, teachers and parents.

If you encounter obvious violations of sanitary standards in the school cafeteria, you have the right to file a complaint with the Rospotrebnazdor authority in your region. The complaint must indicate the time, place, the exact address the school in which a violation of sanitary standards was discovered, what they were, as well as the requirement to conduct an inspection and bring the perpetrators to justice as provided for by law. Grounds for appeal may include recorded facts of the presence of insects, rodents, animals both in food and in food preparation areas, dirt in the catering unit or service hall, food poisoning resulting from eating in a school canteen and other violations of sanitary standards. For violation of sanitary and anti-epidemic requirements for catering for the population, the school administration will bear administrative responsibility as provided for in clause 6.6. Code of Administrative Offences.

If the actions do not affect the quality of food, then remember that you can always refuse paid school meals. The fact is that not a single regulatory legal act, including the Law of the Russian Federation “On Education,” contains norms stipulating the obligatory paid school meals for students of municipal public schools. educational institutions. Neither teachers nor the school administration, represented by its director, can force your child to eat in the school cafeteria.

Often, class teachers or school administration request a certificate from a medical institution stating that the child is not recommended to eat in the school cafeteria due to the presence of a gastrointestinal tract disease and, as a result, a special diet. This is illegal. So how to correctly write a statement about refusing meals at school? You just need to write an application in free form to the school director that you are ready to provide the child with food yourself and ask not to force him to eat in the school canteen.

Not whims at all

Many children refuse to eat lunch in school canteens and kindergartens. Ekaterina ANUFRIEVA, a resident of Novosibirsk, said: “My daughter is in second grade. And she practically doesn’t eat at school, because she doesn’t like porridge with water, unsalted stewed cabbage and unsweetened compote. Of everything that is offered in the canteen, she only eats pastries. We have to pack food for her from home so she can have lunch.”

Parents are also concerned about how natural the products are?

Nikolai TYAMIN, a deputy of the Novosibirsk Council of Deputies, said: “A month and a half ago we opened hotline, which in a short period of time received more than 300 calls from parents who were concerned about the quality of products in kindergartens and schools.”

In Novosibirsk, most educational institutions prepare breakfasts and lunches in their own canteens; in some, ready-made meals are brought from food factories. There are three of them in the city, one private and two municipal - in the Leninsky and Kalininsky districts. But who monitors the quality of the products is unclear. Deputies of the Novosibirsk City Council and social activists found counterfeits in the cereals and salads of one of the school canteens.

Alexander BURMISTROV, a deputy of the Council of Deputies, said: “In 2015, together with the Siberian Federal Center for Healthy Nutrition, we checked what children were fed in one of the city’s schools. As a result, 20% of foreign components were found in the sausage that was on the table. Vegetable fat was found in butter. Meanwhile, its regular use can lead to deterioration of health and the appearance of various diseases.”

Rospotrebnadzor also finds violations in the organization of child nutrition. During inspections of educational institutions, portions are often found to be underweight. It turns out that the guys are not getting enough daily vitamins and microelements. For example, after inspections in 2015, the department found out that in most kindergartens in the city, children are served portions that are smaller than the norm. For this reason, children received less milk by 15%, fish by 29%, meat by 15%, cheese by 44% and sour cream by 23%.

However, kindergarten directors have an explanation for why this happens. They unanimously say that children simply do not eat large portions and some of the food has to be thrown away. And with a lack of funding, this is an unacceptable waste.

Evgeniy FEOKTISTOV, Chairman of the Oktyabrsk public district organization of the workers' trade union public education and science of the Russian Federation, explained: “Educational institutions simply do not have enough funds to buy the required amount of products. In 2014, Novosibirsk adopted a standard according to which parents pay 80 rubles per day for 4 meals a day for a child in kindergarten. And although the cost of food has increased significantly over the past 2 years, nothing has changed in paying for children’s meals.”

On condition of anonymity, the director of one of the kindergartens in Novosibirsk admitted that there is a catastrophic lack of money to feed the children and parents themselves are already offering to buy additional fruits and juices for the groups. They calculated that at current prices it should cost at least 150 rubles to feed one child per day.

In order to resolve acute issues with nutrition in schools and kindergartens, a working group was created, which included deputies of the Council of Deputies of the city of Novosibirsk, representatives of the mayor's office and public activists.

Unfortunately, there are a number of problems in this area. Almost a quarter or 24.4% of schoolchildren in the region are not provided with hot meals due to the lack of appropriate conditions (suitability of the school building), as well as due to parents’ refusal to feed their children in the school canteen, who instead eat in the buffet. Many children complain that the food in school canteens is not tasty, and therefore they prefer to take something for a snack from home, from the buffet, or refuse to eat at all.

According to the press service of the Rospotrebnadzor Office for Kurgan region, the decrease in the number of students who eat at school at the expense of parental funds is associated with the low solvency of parents, the increase in the cost of parental fees due to rising food prices. In addition, the menu is compiled based on the available amount Money on the organization of nutrition, and not on the physiological needs of children for nutrients and energy. The supervisory authority also notes other unpleasant facts:

• supply of products that do not meet requirements regulatory documents on quality and labeling due to the lack of proper control on the part of both food suppliers and responsible officials over their acceptance by the customer (educational institution);
• insufficient level of training of school catering workers in the region modern technologies cooking;
• lack of proper medical control over catering due to the absence of a medical worker in each school.

- A significant factor in the prevention of diseases associated with catering in schools is the quality of ready-made meals according to microbiological indicators. In 2017, the proportion of studied samples of ready-made dishes that did not meet hygienic requirements for microbiological indicators was 3%, noted Svetlana Khomko, press secretary of the Department.

Of great importance in the formation of the harmonious growth and development of a child are such components of organized nutrition as the calorie content of the diet and the vitamin C content in artificially fortified dishes. Over the course of 2 years, the proportion of studied samples of ready-made meals that did not meet hygienic calorie requirements decreased by 3.4%. The rate of unsatisfactory tests for the addition of vitamin C is almost at the level of 2016 - 4.5%.

The main violations in the organization of nutrition are incorrect documentation of nutrition control; violation of the rules for storing food during the preparation of ready-made dishes, as well as reducing portions; violation of the rules for artificial C-vitaminization of drinks; lack of an approved menu developed in accordance with the established procedure; failure to meet nutritional standards (shortage of poultry meat and cottage cheese, fruits and juices), untimely replacement of worn-out utensils, failure to comply with the conditions for collecting and storing daily samples.

The figures speak eloquently about the situation with school meals: in 2017, 913 cases of administrative offense were initiated against the perpetrators, and fines were imposed totaling more than 3 million 800 thousand rubles. 172 cases were brought to court. To the heads municipalities 282 submissions were made to eliminate the causes and conditions that contributed to the commission of an administrative offense.

Everyone quoted “Ekaterinburg resident Maria, who spoke on her Facebook page.” True, the link was only on the 360 ​​TV channel, but it is impossible to find such a post there. At least in the public domain.

Moreover, what outraged the public most of all was not the fact itself, allegedly described by Maria, but her proposal to present the situation.

And then curses began to fall on the school, the director, as well as calls to burn everything, distribute axes to the children, etc. At the same time, no one still knows the opinion of the other side and its vision of the situation. Even with the Moscow region channel 360 TV at the Yekaterinburg school, no one began to talk.

Because nutrition rules in all schools in the country should be the same, I called the director of Moscow school No. 1287 Inessa Bokhonskaya to find out how such issues are resolved in their canteen. Here's how she commented: “Any school is really interested in children choosing dishes from the school canteen menu. The main reason: all these dishes, products, utensils, etc. undergo strict control. And the menu is compiled on the basis of a huge list of requirements of SanPiN (sanitary and epidemiological rules and regulations) and Rospotrebnadzor for baby food. And strictly balanced according to all criteria. And if suddenly, God forbid, some child gets poisoned at school, we can always test these products and find the cause. But if a child brought food from home and treated someone to it, it is more difficult to establish the cause. However, we do not prohibit students from bringing lunchboxes from home, and they are free to sit at tables with other students. We just communicate with their parents in advance and agree that they are fully responsible for the quality of this food. Nobody’s rights are infringed upon; not a single child was morally harmed. There were no cases of poisoning either. If you want, you can come to our dining room and see for yourself.”

We accepted the invitation and will definitely do a report on the school canteen. In addition, we decided to check the cries that the school director allegedly makes money from school food and is therefore concerned that every student is a regular customer. The situation was clarified by Regina Lukachevskaya, commercial director of the company Foodline, which supplies food to children's institutions: “School directors have nothing to do with this money at all. Tenders are being held for companies that organize meals in schools. And the payments are made by the accounting departments of the education departments; the director does not see this money and does not have access to it. Schools only provide information about the number of children and the number of beneficiaries.”

As for the school in Yekaterinburg, the information that was spread by the media, without much interest in its authenticity, is now being verified by the prosecutor's office.

We hope it will shed some light on this confusing story and a report will be published. If, of course, the glaring facts are confirmed.