Don't eat meat? What about a meal at the hospital or school?

It appears that meatless meals are to be available in the form of elimination of certain elements of meals, without replacing them with alternatives. The Ombudsman is asking for the Health Minister's position.

The issue of the quality of meals in hospitals has been a subject of interest to the Ombudsman for many years, as reflected in numerous speeches by Ombudsmen of the fifth, sixth and seventh terms. In particular, the Ombudsman pointed to the importance of the regulation of the Minister of Health defining the requirements applicable to the conduct of mass catering in hospitals. 

The statutory delegation for regulation is Article 72(6) of the Food and Nutrition Safety Act. As an argument for using this authority, the Ombudsman pointed to the results of an audit by the Supreme Audit Office as to meals in hospitals in a 2018 speech. It showed numerous irregularities. Its general conclusion was that the quality of meals did not meet the health needs of patients.

In the course of already several years of correspondence, the Ombudsman has encountered refusals from successive ministers, citing the optional nature of the authorization in Article 72(6) of the Food and Nutrition Safety Act. 

During the previous parliamentary term, work was underway to modify this delegation. The amendment bill formulated an obligatory statutory delegation for the minister responsible for health to regulate the requirements applicable to the operation of collective catering of the closed type, which would include, among others, units of the educational system, hospitals and nursing homes.

Attention is drawn to the position of the Supreme Medical Council on this project. It was pointed out that the provision of an adequate standard of food is an integral part of the treatment process, and that the provision of an adequate standard of food in hospitals should in the future be indicated as a patient's right.

However, the bill did not see enactment, and the delegation in Article 76(6) of the Food and Nutrition Safety Act remains unfulfilled. At the same time, the Ombudsman noted efforts to improve the quality of meals through the "Good Meal in Hospital" pilot program.

The delegation of Article 76(6) of the Food and Nutrition Safety Law allows for the definition of requirements applicable to the provision of food not only in hospitals, but also in other closed-type mass catering establishments, including widely understood educational institutions.

In the opinion of the ROP, it would also be advisable to issue an appropriate regulation with regard to the latter. In addition to issues related to the formation of healthy eating habits, other issues are also gaining importance in this case. The younger generation is undergoing worldview changes, with an increasing number of students opting for various types of meat-free diets. Signals from NGOs, however, indicate that these students are encountering problems in enjoying wholesome meat-free meals in educational institutions. This is supposed to be due in particular to the fact that meatless meals are available in the form of eliminating certain elements of meals, without replacing them with alternatives.

The ROP is aware that the general rules of nutrition in educational institutions are regulated by Article 52c of the Food and Nutrition Safety Act and - the regulation issued on the basis of its paragraph 6, which specifies the "basics of the menu" that should apply to nutrition in these institutions. Leaving aside the fact that the current form of this regulation does not eliminate the indicated problem, there are serious doubts as to whether the regulation, in terms of its § 2(2)(6)-(8) (where the "basics of the menu" are specified), does not exceed the scope of the authorization under the cited provision of the Act.

Indeed, according to this authorization, the Minister of Health was authorized to: 1) determine the groups of foodstuffs to be sold to children and adolescents in educational institutions (i.e., what "may be available" in educational institutions), and 2) determine the requirements to be met by foodstuffs used in the mass nutrition of children and adolescents in educational institutions. These elements are implemented in §1 and in 2(1) and 2(2)(1-5) of the regulation, respectively.

In the ROP's view, determining what foods (meals) and with what frequency are to be served as part of mass nutrition in schools is not within the authority of Article 52c(6) of the Law. This is all the more indicative of the need to use the optional authorization of Article 72(6) of the Food Safety Law. Indeed, in the regulation issued on this basis, within the framework of the "requirements applicable to the conduct of nutrition" and "having regard to nutrition standards and health requirements," it is already possible to specify such menu bases, including with regard to guaranteeing the needs of people on meatless diets.

RPO Marcin Wiącek is asking Health Minister Izabela Leszczyny for her position and for information as to the actions taken.

Source: RPO