Expired and untraceable foods, dirty kitchens, rodent excrement, foods other than those provided for in the supply contracts: after the controls of the Nas, seven canteens were closed and two tons of food seized
Expired foods or lacking traceability and proven indications, kitchens in precarious sanitary conditions, mice and parasites, foods other than those provided for in the supply contracts. The first results of the monitoring of control conducted by the Carabinieri del Nas in Italian canteens, started at the beginning of the school year, at the request of the Ministry of Health, are disheartening: a kitchen in three, among those inspected (81 out of 224), presented irregularities.
Seven have been closed for "serious hygienic-structural situation". Two tons of food, including fish, meat, cheese, fruit, vegetables, oil, bread, were seized because their origin was not traceable, they were stored in inadequate environments and often they were also expired.
In three months of checks, the carabinieri of the Nas have raised penalties for more than 576 thousand euros: 14 criminal violations and 95 administrative offenses against national and EU regulations were challenged. In all, they are fifteen people reported. Accused of fraud and defaults in public supplies, failure to comply with contractual obligations assumed by catering companies when they won tenders, holding food in bad condition and failing to apply safety measures in the workplace.
The Minister of Health, Giulia Grillo, speaks of «A horror movie: "Nightmares and nightmarish kitchens can not be tolerated. As a mother and minister it makes me indignant to think that on the tables of our children, at school, they can end up excrement, mold or foods of dubious origin. Today, those working in the canteen sector know that there are clear rules to follow and all the means to guarantee traceability and correct conservation of food. For this we can not allow the indifference of those who stipulate well-defined contracts and then makes the smart or worse. Even more so when the health of the little ones is at stake and vulnerable: children ".
Among the critical situations reported by the Nas, the closure of school activities in a large school complex in Rome, due to the widespread presence of weeds and rodent excrements, until the restoration of the minimum hygiene conditions. In Taranto, three directors and executives of a Vicenza catering company were reported, which managed the canteen service of schools in a Municipality of the province of Brindisi, for having given to the students meat of Polish origin instead of Italian, unlike the contract. In Lecce, the manager of a canteen service was denounced and the owner of a bakery, which supplied the catering company, because sandwiches for children contained insects.
