Organization of School Catering in the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation within the Activities Implemented by Rospotrebnadzor in the Federal Public Health Promotion Project

Background: The necessity of close supervision of school nutrition by the Arkhangelsk Regional Office of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor) is well justified by high local diet­related disease rates generally exceeding the national averages. Such supervisory measures can be successfully supported by parental control over school meals.

Objectives: Comprehensive assessment of the organization of hot meals for schoolchildren in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation (on the example of the Arkhangelsk region) as part of the implementation by Rospotrebnadzor of measures under the federal project “Strengthening public Health”.

Methods: We applied hygienic, sociological, and statistical methods of research; prepared meals were tested for quality and safety using instrumental methods of chemical and microbiological analyses. Parental control and monitoring of school feeding within the framework of the National Demography Project were carried out in compliance with ethical standards.

Results: Laboratory test results showed a five­year decrease in the proportion of prepared meal samples with poor microbiological parameters from 4.0 % to 1.4 % and of those with lower calorie content – from 2.6 % to 1.9 %. The coverage of first to fourth­year schoolchildren with hot school meals increased by 8.5 % and reached 99.5 %, while in fifth to eleventh graders it decreased by 9.2 % to 73.6 %. We revealed that only few pupils had two school meals a day. Rospotrebnadzor officials encouraged and promoted parental control over the quality of school nutrition and instructed parents and students on principles of healthy eating.

Conclusions: The control and supervisory measures carried out indicate a positive dynamics of results in terms of quality and safety of school meals. At the same time, the shortcomings in the organization of nutrition (low coverage of students with two meals a day, reduced coverage of hot meals for older age groups) identified during parental control measures indicate the need for monitoring and rapid response measures to improve the organization of hot meals for schoolchildren in order to prevent diseases caused by the nutritional factor.

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