Seocho-gu Daycare Center Meal Quality to Improve Further

On the 20th at 2 PM, 'Seocho-gu Daycare Center Food Ingredients Joint Purchase Project Briefing' Held at Seocho-gu Childcare Support Center

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Seocho-gu (District Mayor Jo Eun-hee) will hold the 'Seocho-gu Daycare Center Food Ingredients Joint Purchase Business Briefing' on the 20th at the Seocho-gu Childcare Support Center to improve the quality of meals for infants and toddlers at daycare centers and provide healthy and safe food for daycare centers.

The district announced recruitment from December last year to early January this year to promote the joint purchase project of food ingredients for daycare centers, and plans to select the final participating companies for the joint purchase of food ingredients after document screening and the final evaluation on the 20th.

The selected joint purchase companies will sign a bulk contract with the Seocho-gu Childcare Support Center for food ingredient supply and individual contracts with each daycare center, providing fresh food packaged in small quantities tailored to the diverse needs of each daycare center for one year starting from February.

Through this, each daycare center can efficiently manage food ingredients and leftover storage, enabling safer management of infant and toddler meals.

The district plans to induce voluntary competition among suppliers to improve the quality of meal ingredients, conduct on-site inspections of suppliers regularly, and hold periodic meetings to continuously check field feedback.

Additionally, public daycare centers are required to participate in the joint purchase, with 80 public daycare centers expected to participate this year. The district plans to actively encourage private and home daycare centers to participate in the future, further expanding participation in the joint purchase of food ingredients.

The district has been publicly recruiting and operating companies supplying meal ingredients to all daycare centers in the area since 2011 to increase parents' trust in the quality and safety of daycare meal ingredients and to resolve opaque transaction practices such as rebates and poor quality meals and snacks.

District Mayor Jo Eun-hee said, “We will provide healthy food for children, create a childcare environment where teachers can focus on childcare without worries, and operate meal suppliers transparently so that parents can send their children to daycare centers with peace of mind.”