By Evan Pan
One picture took in secrecy managed to change how Shanghai international students see cafeteria food. The picture, which consisted of two miniature steam buns, a duck leg and a paltry amount of vegetables, was sent into the parent group chat. Not soon after, several parents demanded to have a meeting with the school to explain why the food quality and quantity was so poor.
After some negotiating during the meeting, the parents convinced the principal to host a random check in the cafeteria kitchen. Rotten tomatoes, moldy onions, expired salt, and all sorts of outdated and inedible food lined the floors and shelves of the SMIC kitchen. Soon after the discovery, parents took pictures of the scene and called the police. By then, the damage had already been done.
Many kids have reported food poisoning and constant stomachaches from the food for the past five years, one of them being William Nie. According to his mother, Linda Nie, William had been suffering from stomachaches ever since he arrived at SMIC. At first, his mother thought it was just his personal hygiene. But after five different measures to ensure that his hands were as clean as possible before putting his hands into his mouth had failed to stop his digestion issues, Mrs. Nie knew something has gone wrong. After the incident, Linda was not shocked to find out that many other kids had the same problem as William.
The school later ended its contract with the company responsible for food safety inspections, Shanghai Eurest Food Technologies Services—a brand who created Compass—after four years. Compass, being a multi-billion global food corporation that caters the culinary needs of workplaces and schools all around the world, took another hit from its many complaints of misconduct in schools and other facilities across the world. Many international schools within Shanghai busied themselves in clearing out their kitchens in event of a wave of upcoming food inspections. Concordia students claimed they witnessed hundreds of pounds of food outside the school to be thrown away as the number of rotten food ingredients had already filled up all the waste storages.
On October 22, the headmaster of SMIC Private School, Zhu Ronglin, was removed from his position after nearly twenty-three years in the field as a secondary school principal. Just like that, one food inspection made by a small group of parents changed the direction of international cafeteria food safety.
SAS appears to be clean. There have been no cases of serious food poisoning or noticeable changes in flavor and appearance before and after this food incident. SAS PD also passed a food inspection done by the government as seen near the entrance to the cafeteria. But it is still unclear on how these situations happen and how a school can be safe in these matters.
The school’s main Cafeteria Unit Manager, Jacob, said “we are not allowed to disclose any information about the past few weeks—that is for the government to do. I can, however, assure you that SAS PD had stayed clean for the entirety of its time.”