BEIJING — China has urged schools to involve parents in overseeing food served on campuses, reaffirming the country’s commitment to protecting the health of the younger generation.

Parent oversight committees should be established to ensure parents’ rights to oversee the bidding and purchase of food materials, principals dining with students from the same food, food quality assessment, food safety checks and transparency in spending and revenue, according to a ministry . education document.

Principals are the first to be held accountable for campus food safety and the management of related funds, the document states. Schools should appoint food safety officers, with a dedicated food safety director required for canteens serving more than 500 people, he added.

Schools must conduct a food safety and satisfaction assessment each semester among teachers and students and among parents separately and provide feedback on the results, according to the document.

Last month, parents accused a private middle school in Kunming, southwest China’s Yunnan province, of serving stale meat to students. An official investigation found that the pork in question was substandard due to improper transport and storage.

As public awareness of health increases, food safety has increasingly been a red line in society. In response to the Kunming incident, for example, an investigation was launched on the same day, with the results made public three days later.

In particular, authorities have launched a province-wide campaign to identify and address potential food safety issues on campus.

Law enforcement has also been stepped up. Prosecutors said Wednesday they had brought more than 24,000 related cases to court against 41,000 people between 2019 and 2023.

China has 1,610 national food safety standards, evaluating 340 food categories with 20,000 parameters. There are also over 100 regional standards.

China prioritizes public health, with food safety at the top of its standards agenda, Tian Jianxin, an official in charge of food standards, supervision and evaluation at the National Health Commission, said earlier this month.