After complaints about portion sizes and school canteens: water, meals and sanitation will be inspected in Mykolaiv schools
Schools in Mykolaiv have begun checking children's meals
From 18 September 2026 large-scale inspections of the organization of children’s meals began in the schools of Mykolaiv. The control measures are being conducted in execution of the instruction of the Prime Minister of Ukraine. This was reported by the Main Department of the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection in Mykolaiv Oblast.
The main purpose of the inspections is to find out whether educational institutions comply with sanitary requirements, food safety and quality rules, and whether proper conditions for pupils’ meals have been created.
Specialists will check the sanitary and hygienic condition of school food units, the conditions for storing products and compliance with required temperature regimes. They will also separately monitor technological processes during food preparation and whether food unit staff follow personal hygiene rules.
Inspectors will also check how the drinking regime is organized in schools and whether the food children actually receive corresponds to the approved menu. The conformity of actual portions to the declared menu will be one of the control points.
A separate direction of the inspections is laboratory research. Specialists will take samples of drinking water to determine its quality and safety. Ready meals will be checked for energy value, i.e., caloric content.
In addition, for bacteriological studies swabs will be taken from equipment, kitchen utensils, dishes, work surfaces and the hands of food unit workers. In this way they will check not only the food itself but also the conditions in which it is prepared and served to children.
The inspections are planned to cover all general secondary education institutions in Mykolaiv that operate in-person or in a hybrid format. After violations are found, special attention will be paid to their prompt elimination.
Earlier we wrote:
- Large bags “for takeaway”, smaller portions and buns for 20 UAH: parents noticed possible violations at a Mykolaiv gymnasium
- Children don’t like it: 3,337 pupils refused free hot meals in Mykolaiv
- One bid and a contract for 6.9 million UAH: how much juice was purchased for children in Mykolaiv
- Mykolaiv region received 187.5 million UAH for free student meals
- In the Mykolaiv region, over 40 schools daily post photos of dishes on Khvylka
