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/Yonhap

Going forward, food ingredient suppliers found to have delivered products contaminated with foodborne bacteria or falsely labeled with regard to origin will be completely barred from bidding on school meal contracts for up to six months. The aim is to block dangerous or mislabeled ingredients from entering school meal programs at the source.

The Ministry of Education announced on the 18th that a partial amendment to the enforcement decree of the School Meals Act was deliberated and approved at that day's Cabinet meeting, establishing grounds for restricting bidding participation by food ingredient suppliers who violate hygiene, safety management, or country-of-origin labeling obligations.

The amendment is a follow-up measure to the revised School Meals Act, which passed in February and takes effect on the 20th. The revised law allows school principals, when entering into food ingredient purchase contracts, to restrict bidding participation for up to six months or exclude violators from private contracts if a supplier violates hygiene, safety management, or origin labeling requirements; this enforcement decree sets the specific criteria and duration for applying those restrictions.

Under the revised decree, bidding restrictions of one to six months will apply depending on the nature and severity of the violation — including selling hazardous food, selling meat from diseased animals, or falsely labeling country of origin. Suppliers subject to administrative action for violating foodborne bacteria detection standards will face a four-month bidding restriction or exclusion from private contracts.

Suppliers convicted with a fine or heavier penalty for falsely labeling or using potentially misleading origin labels will face a six-month restriction. A six-month restriction will also apply to cases involving the sale of ingredients containing toxic or hazardous substances or contaminated with pathogenic microorganisms, or failure to comply with recall measures for hazardous food.

School principals will be required to take measures to verify, when issuing bid announcements or entering private contracts, whether an interested supplier falls under these restriction or exclusion criteria.

Education Minister Choi Kyo-jin said, "Through thorough management of school meal ingredient suppliers, we have established a legal basis to preemptively block the possibility of hazardous ingredients being supplied and to ensure school meals use ingredients with greater guaranteed quality and safety," adding, "We will continue working to protect and promote the health of growing students, as well as improve the quality of school meals."

The revised enforcement decree takes effect on the 20th, alongside the parent School Meals Act.

                                                                                                              Park Ji-sook