Taipei school lunch provider feeds children week-old leftover soup

台北學校午餐供應商為孩子們提供一周前的剩湯

Soup recycled as food waste finds way back into classroom after a week


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The school lunch provider at Taipei’s Lixing Elementary School, Shang Chiang Foods Limited (上將食品有限公司), has been suspended after mistakenly delivering week-old leftover soup to a classroom on Monday (Dec. 19).

The incident was made public when a parent took to social media to share her anger. Laura Liu (劉冠吟), Huashan 1914 Creative Park’s Chief Development Officer, quoted her daughter’s teacher in a Facebook post: “Due to the kitchen’s mistake, last week’s leftover soup was delivered as today’s lunch’s soup, it was truly a huge oversight… Ding Ding (丁丁, Liu’s daughter) was very clever, she did not get the soup because she thought it was smelly.”

Liu wrote, “The food waste bin broke through rounds of defense, making its way into the kitchen, onto the lunch cart, and was distributed. Is the food waste bin Messi? Nothing could stop it!”

Liberty Times cited the school’s Principal Huang Kuo-ting (黃國庭) as saying after the leftover soup was delivered to classrooms on Monday, two students consumed a few mouthfuls before realizing the taste was off. The students reportedly did not feel any discomfort.

The school held a meeting to discuss relevant penalties and whether to terminate its contract with the lunch provider.

In another report, Liberty Times wrote that according to the school’s investigation, the lunch provider had recently changed up its lunch delivery staff assignments, which led to a mistake during the food waste recycling process.

The Taipei City Government Department of Education was cited as saying that starting Wednesday (Dec. 21), the lunch provider will be suspended from operating at the school until it passes the Department of Health’s inspection. Additionally, the lunch provider must receive the school’s approval on its food safety and health improvement report and standard operating procedure for lunch delivery.