Vietnam implements digital map to monitor school food safety

Lao Cai province is piloting the SchoolFoodSafe Map, a digital platform designed to enhance transparency and safety in school meals. The initiative aims to provide parents with the ability to monitor food origins and processing procedures for nearly 200,000 students served by approximately 1,600 collective kitchens across the province.

The platform, hosted at schoolfoodsafe.laocai.gov.vn, integrates GPS coordinates for educational facilities, allowing users to access daily menus, supplier information, and contact details. It digitizes the three-step food inspection process and food sample storage, replacing traditional paper-based logging to improve data traceability and management.

Separately, health officials have issued warnings regarding the risks of low-quality food packaging. During a recent seminar, Bui Duc Lap, Deputy Director of the Food Safety Administration under the Ministry of Health, noted that improper packaging materials, including those made from uncontrolled recycled materials containing heavy metals, pose significant threats to public health.