Photo: Screenshot from Sina Weibo

Multiple people and officials from a middle school and local government departments in Kunming, Southwest China’s Yunnan Province have been dealt with in accordance with laws and regulations after the school was found to provide stale and smelly pork to the students, which has sparked uproar on the social media.

According to a statement released on Saturday by the information office of Kunming government, a joint investigation group organized by local authorities found the school canteen of Yunzi Changfeng Middle School in Guandu district provided substandard pork slices, which became spoiled due to improper transportation and storage. The statement also revealed inadequate oversight by the school of the operating qualifications and management of its canteen’s contractor. Appropriate actions have been taken against the school, the company involved, and the responsible units and personnel in accordance with laws and regulations, Xinhua News Agency reported on Sunday.

On Wednesday, parents of students at the school complained online that the school canteen provided spoiled pork slices to students, China Central Television (CCTV) reported.

On the same day, a joint investigation team was formed by multiple government departments, including the local market watchdog, education and public security organs in Guandu district, to investigate into the food safety issue at the school. Through investigation, the authorities found that the pork slices provided at the school canteen had spoiled due to improper transportation and storage, with volatile basic nitrogen exceeding the standard levels, which were identified as substandard food, according to the statement.

The investigation found that the batch of pork involved came from the pigs slaughtered on Wednesday, with complete quarantine and quality certificates. However, after the pork was processed into slices by machine, they were improperly stored and transported for hours, such as being packaged in double-layered plastic bags, stored in the plastic bags for nearly four hours, and then randomly left in the canteen for five and a half hours, without cold chain transportation or refrigeration, resulted in the pork becoming spoiled and foul, according to CCTV.

With regard to the figure “2015” printed on the imported frozen beef, which was suspected by parents as an expiration date of the food, the authorities said that it was actually the registration number of the overseas production company, rather than the production date of the food. The production date of this batch of imported frozen beef was May 2024, with a shelf life of two years, the statement said.

According to the investigation, the school canteen’s contractor Yunnan Runsheng Property Services Co was found to be operating without the required qualifications and had not updated its business scope as required, while the school failed to fulfill its responsibility for food safety management and did not conduct adequate oversight of its contracting company.

According to the statement, the middle school, the company involved, relevant units and officials were dealt with in accordance with laws and regulations. The school principal and legal representative were removed from their positions. The school was fined 100,000 yuan ($14,082) for selling unqualified food.

The school canteen contractor was ordered to cease operations for failing to apply for changes to its business scope and had 460,000 yuan in illegal income confiscated, along with a fine of 5.68 million yuan. The company was also ordered to rectify its wrong actions regarding the sale of unqualified food and was fined 100,000 yuan.

Moreover, the director and deputy director of the education and sports bureau of Guandu district, and the deputy director of the district’s market supervision bureau were suspended from their duties pending investigation.

According to CCTV, the Changfeng school is a private middle school established by Yunnan Jinnuo Education Investment Group in 2016. Yunnan Runsheng Property Services Co holds an operation license and a food business license but the scope of its business license only includes two items: the sale of pre-packaged food and the sale of bulk food. It is not qualified to provide catering services.

Following the incident, the market supervision bureau and the education department in Yunnan have launched a comprehensive inspection and rectification campaign on campus food safety across the province on Friday to address problems including schools’ failure to uphold their primary responsibility for school food safety, poor management of contracted operations in school canteens and unqualified centralized meal providers from outside the schools.

Global Times