Recently, a parent of a student at Jiangxi Xinyu Sixteen Middle School unintentionally captured a video showing cafeteria staff “stepping on food with their feet”, raising concerns about the school’s food hygiene. The video went viral after being shared online.
In the video, a cafeteria worker in uniform stands in a plastic bucket filled with food, using their feet to press down on the ingredients, while another staff member busies themselves nearby, seemingly unfazed by the situation.
According to a report by the Netease account “Jieshi”, parents of students revealed that this was not the first time issues had arisen in the school cafeteria. Previously, students had reported finding foreign objects in their meals, and some had even experienced stomach issues after eating cafeteria food.
Following the exposure of the video, the online community erupted in outrage. Comments such as “How many school hygiene issues have been reported? Why does it always push the limits?”, “Do children eat this every day? How is this school being supervised?”, and “They are simply disregarding the health of the students!” flooded the comment section, with netizens demanding authorities to provide an explanation to the parents.
Under mounting public pressure, the school staff responded by stating, “It is a small external processing factory, not the school.” On January 15, the local education department issued a notice stating that the cafeteria worker involved, Jian, was fired, while the school principal, Liu, and the director of the general affairs office, Fu, were dismissed from their positions.
However, many parents and netizens remained unconvinced. Comments like “Firing them is not enough. What about the things we don’t see?”, “Addressing only what is visible does not solve the problem. What about the unseen issues?”, and “What guarantees the safety of children’s food? Do other schools have similar situations?” reflected ongoing skepticism and concerns.
“Simply firing them won’t solve the issue. Food safety cannot be ignored.” “Do you know why these incidents keep happening? Because the cost of making mistakes is too low.”
On January 16, the incident of cafeteria staff at Jiangxi Xinyu Sixteen Middle School stepping on food with their feet made it to the top trending topic on Weibo.