Food poisoning spurs school menu revamp

Poor storage of meals is believed to be cause, but Egypt government is yet to release full findings of investigation

The Egyptian government has unveiled a plan to change the contents of school meals, offered for free, after food poisoning broke out among schoolchildren in some parts of the country in the last academic year.

The plan includes removing processed cheese from the meals — the suspected culprit behind thousands of food poisoning cases among school children, an education official said.

“The new meal will include 50 grams of enhanced biscuits for each kindergarten child and 80 grams [of biscuits] for primary school pupils, in addition to pieces of plain and cheese pates and bars of halava [sesame sweets] and cakes stuffed with a date paste,” Randa Halawa, who heads the central department for prevention of dropping out from schools at the Education Ministry, said in media remarks this week.

5,000 cases

State-run schools in Egypt’s working-class areas and villages provide free meals for children with the aim of keeping them healthy. But nearly 5,000 school children suffered symptoms of food poisoning including vomiting during the past school year, according to official figures.

At the time, President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi ordered an investigation into the outbreak.

In March this year, the government suspended the delivery of the meals pending an inquiry and instituting a more efficient supply system.

The problem was reportedly attributed to poor storage of meals but the full findings of the inquiry have yet to be made public.

Cash alternative

Some parliamentarians suggested offering cash to pupils instead of the meals — a proposal turned down by a government that is grappling with economic woes.

The new meal system is the result of joint efforts among several ministries, Halawa said.

Halawa said that standards of the meals will be vetted by the governmental Food Safety Authority.

“The [education] ministry has decided for the first time to ban the storage of school meals. They will be supplied to schools on a daily basis. Major supply companies will be chosen for this,” the official added without further details.

The new system will be applied in the new school year due to begin in mid-September in Egypt.

The government has allocated 1.1 billion Egyptian pounds (around Dh229 million) for the school food, according to official reports.