Songpa tops children’s food safety, nutrition

An affluent southeastern district of Seoul was found to have the best food safety and nutritional level for children in the country, a report that surveyed food qualities at schools and other childcare facilities showed Wednesday.

According to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Songpa district reached 78.95 out of 100 points in food safety, about 12 points higher than the national average of 67.54 points.

The finding is part of the government’s first-ever inquiry conducted on food safety at elementary schools last year on three criteria: food safety, nutrition level and awareness. The survey will be carried out triennially, the ministry said.

The areas with high scores were found to have provided frequent nutrition classes while having no food poisoning cases between 2009 and 2012, the report said.

Among medium-sized cities, Taebaek, Gangwon Province, reached the highest with 75.77 points. Cheorwon-gun in the same province also scored the highest among suburban regions with 77.41 points.

Yangcheon-gu in western Seoul, on the other hand, recorded 57.09 points, the lowest among metropolitan city districts. Gimpo in Gyeonggi Province and Ongjin-gun in Incheon also scored low, with 57.41 points and 55.53 points, respectively.

“Regions that did not have any school lunch management centers or those where food poisoning cases occurred tended to have lower scores,” the ministry said.

The full survey results will soon be available online for reference, it added.

By Lee Hyun-jeong (rene@heraldcorp.com)