Safety of food served in Mid-Day Meal program: An in-depth study in upper primary schools of Kolkata

INTRODUCTION: The Mid-Day Meal (MDM) program is the world's biggest supplementary school lunch program and is being implemented all over India for primary and upper primary school students. To continue a healthy program, personal hygiene of food handlers and beneficiaries should be well maintained. OBJECTIVE: This study aims at examining the status of food safety measures including personal hygiene of food handlers and beneficiaries of MDM. METHODOLOGY: An institution-based observational study with cross-sectional design was conducted in upper primary schools (government, government-aided school) in Kolkata over a period of 2 years from November 2016 to October 2018. A sample of 52 schools from a total of 515 schools were then selected by simple random sampling. Analyses were conducted using SPSS software (SPSS Inc., released 2007 SPSS for Windows, version 16.0). RESULTS: Among 52 schools, 53.8% were government-aided schools and 46.2% were government schools. There were significant differences in cleaning practice by cook-cum-helper (CCH) (χ(2) = 4.4, df = 1, P = 0.036), personal hygiene of CCH (χ(2) = 19.01, df = 1, P = 0.000) and beneficiaries (χ(2) = 9.3, df = 1, P = 0.002), practice during serving (χ(2) = 4.4, df = 1, P = 0.036), and use and storage of oils and condiments in MDM (χ(2) = 27.7, df = 1, P = 0.000) between government and government-aided schools. CONCLUSION: School authority should be concerned about maintaining proper hygiene. Adequate facilities and training program must be arranged for CCH to provide a healthy meal.