Why do we have to wait until the problem of washing pots and mops is solved before it is exposed?

A wok, which was supposed to hold three meals a day for the children, was instead used to clean the mop. It sounds ridiculous, but it actually happened. Recently, the incident of “using a wok to wash mops in a kindergarten cafeteria in Nanjing caused multiple children to vomit collectively” has attracted public attention. After a local investigation, it was reported that the responsible persons of the kindergarten and related departments have been dealt with.

It is hard for normal people to imagine how a cooking pot can be used to wash a mop? The reason why such a scene deeply hurts the public is not only because of the unacceptable misconduct in the kitchen, but also because it happened in a special place like a kindergarten canteen. Children in kindergarten are at an extremely critical and sensitive stage of physical development, and their tolerance for food safety risks is much lower than that of adults. A dirty cooking pot or a contaminated meal may have more serious consequences for children.

What is even more unforgettable is that for more than two months after many children developed vomiting and other uncomfortable reactions, the kindergarten did not receive any response from the parents’ requests for verification. A former health teacher and canteen safety officer at the kindergarten said that he had repeatedly reported internal violations in the canteen, but had not been rectified. Three days after leaving his job, he chose to report publicly through WeChat Moments. This has to make people ask, since the risk has been discovered, why has it not been paid attention to and rectified in a timely and effective manner? In reality, some problems and hidden dangers have not gone undiscovered, but have been magnified through repeated cover-ups and delays. Problems that could have been solved in time gradually turned into greater risks. For campus food safety, truly effective management is to deal with risks in a timely manner and eliminate hidden dangers before they enter children’s cooking pots.

It is also worth reflecting on the fact that public opinion exposure cannot be the final step in promoting problem resolution. If no one continues to pay attention and report the problem, will parents be informed in time? Campus food safety cannot rely on every accidental exposure. A mature governance system should allow problems to be discovered internally, allow reasonable feedback to be transmitted smoothly, and allow risks to be resolved before they expand.

An accountability session cannot replace a governance upgrade. The kindergarten cafeteria is connected to the health of children and also carries the simplest trust of parents. Once this trust is betrayed, it is extremely difficult to rebuild. Behind the canteen is not just a meal, but also parents’ confidence in the entire kindergarten and even the entire campus’s food safety system. In this incident, the relevant responsible personnel were dealt with, which reflects the adherence to the bottom line of campus food safety. Accountability is not the end, but filling the shortcomings of the system is the goal. What campus food safety needs is a closed loop in the process, with channels for identifying problems, tracking of the rectification process, and inspection of the implementation results. Only by focusing on daily work and resolving risks at the front end can we truly protect the “safety on the tip of the tongue” of children.