In the 2026 - 2027 academic year, Mường Nhà Primary and Secondary Multi-Level Boarding School accommodates nearly 1,100 students, including more than 600 boarding pupils. Given the large volume of students dining and residing on campus, ensuring food safety is identified by the school as a paramount task tied directly to student care, nutrition, and health protection.

From the very beginning of the school year, the school reviewed the entire kitchen operational workflow, encompassing supplier selection, ingredient reception, food quality inspection, storage, primary processing, cooking, and portion distribution. Food items delivered to the kitchen are rigorously monitored for traceability, quantity, and quality; processing areas and culinary utensils undergo regular cleaning to meet food safety standards. The school also maintains regulatory food sample archiving, proactively mitigating food safety hazards in every student meal.

Lê Thế Hoàn, Principal of the school, stated that alongside food monitoring, the institution formulates age-appropriate menus to ensure balanced nutrition for students as they study, reside, and undergo training. The nutritional support staff is assigned specific responsibilities and strictly complies with hygienic regulations during food preparation. Teachers and boarding supervisory staff also routinely monitor meals and track student health to address emerging issues without delay.

At the Trần Văn Thọ Branch of Mường Nhé Primary Semi-Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities in Mường Nhé commune, nearly 400 semi-boarding students take their daily meals. To sustain safe meals for pupils, the school focuses on stringent control right from supplier selection. Sourcing partners must possess verifiable provenance, satisfy statutory quality criteria, and execute contractual commitments in accordance with regulations. Each time food arrives on campus, designated staff inspect and verify quantities and quality metrics, documenting entries fully prior to culinary processing.

Preliminary preparation and cooking stages are arranged rationally following a one-way workflow principle, mitigating risks of cross-contamination between raw ingredients and cooked dishes. Cooking utensils for each stage undergo regular sanitation; after each cooking shift, kitchen premises are thoroughly tidied and cleaned.

Phạm Văn Khiêm, Vice Principal of Mường Nhé Primary Semi-Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities, noted that the school comprises four branch campuses with over 3,290 students, including more than 1,590 pupils residing and dining under the semi-boarding scheme. Given this large student population, the school places exceptional weight on food safety, exercising rigorous surveillance from supplier vetting, receiving, and ingredient screening to preliminary prep, cooking, tray portioning, and food sample retention; foodstuffs lacking clear provenance or failing quality standards are resolutely barred from the kitchen.

Beyond Mường Nhà Primary and Secondary Multi-Level Boarding School and Mường Nhé Primary Semi-Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities, food safety work is receiving heightened attention across educational facilities. This also represents an explicit directive outlined in Prime Minister Directive No.33/CT-TTg dated August 14, 2026, on strengthening food safety assurance within educational establishments.

Adhering closely to the Prime Minister’s directive, right from the launch of the 2026 - 2027 school year, the Department of Education and Training instructed institutions operating collective kitchens to proactively govern food supplies, strictly executing every protocol from intake, storage, primary processing, and preparation to three-step food verification and sample archiving. Concurrently, schools are directed to maintain kitchen hygiene and elevate the accountability of managers, teachers, and service personnel involved in organizing and serving meals. Through these measures, food safety management is progressively regularized, curbing food poisoning risks and protecting student health.

Cù Huy Hoàn, Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training, affirmed that for semi-boarding and boarding schools, food safety is linked directly to student care, nutritional well-being, and overall educational quality. Consequently, the department mandates that schools avoid treating this as the sole responsibility of kitchen staff; instead, it demands coordinated oversight by administrators, teachers, and relevant stakeholders to monitor food pipelines strictly from incoming supplies until meals are served to students, actively preempting food safety hazards.