When we talk about school canteens, choruses of complaints often arise from students and families: as long as we are dealing with overcooked, tasteless, cold food, it remains within the scope of “I like it or I don’t like it”, but when on the plate they find expired foods and even insects, public health is in danger. With the start of the new school year the Nas Carabinieri, in agreement with the Ministry of Health, have started carrying out checksn numerous school canteens throughout the national territory to verify compliance with the requirements established by law. The activities, which will continue throughout the school yearhave so far affected more than 700 school canteens of all levels, both public and private, from nursery schools to high schools and universities. The checks revealed that in almost 1 in 4 canteens (around 170) irregularities were found.
In most cases these concerned hygienic-structural deficiencies, such aspresence of mould, insects and mouse droppings, and authorizations, such as the lack of traceability of food or the omitted presence of any allergens (requirement considered essential to prevent possible reactions in children, more fragile subjects).
In general, 225 administrative or criminal violations were ascertained and fines of 130 thousand euros were imposed. In the most serious cases, for five managers, referred to the judicial authority, the seizure of cooking points and pantries was ordered, as well as 350 kilos of food, which were in a poor state of conservation, without traceability, expired or with irregular labelling. .
In particular, the NAS in Treviso in an educational center for children found the absence of authorization to provide the school canteen service and the failure to register for health. Administrative seizure was ordered for the entire facility, which handled children aged between 2 and 6 years.
In a nursery school in Pescara, however, the decision was made to immediately suspend activities, based on the serious hygienic-sanitary and structural deficiencies of the premises and the lack of authorization to activate the canteen.
In Caserta the owner of a company in charge of providing food for canteens was reported for fraud in public supplies. In fact, it was ascertained that the company’s label was illicitly affixed to meal trays produced by other companies.
He told Ansa Nas lieutenant colonel Gianpaolo Greco: «These are routine activities for us. We want to convey this message, to be careful because the controls are there and will be there. In order not to create alarmism, I underline that the checks we carried out were aimed at structures in which we believed the lack of requirements was possible thanks to reports from the local health authorities or citizens, who I ask to continue to inform us of situations that are not up to standard”. The colonel underlines that «the panorama gives back a generally healthy picture but with pockets where deficiencies, especially hygiene and health, remain and this is uniform throughout the national territory. However, I want to say that compared to the past there is greater awareness of control activities.”
