Need to ensure publicity and transparency for school milk

1 - Scientific basis: science has proven that the golden age of a person's life, the foundation for improving physical resilience - mainly height - 86% is developed during preschool and primary school age - from 2 to 12 years old.(is age)continuing the golden period of the first thousand days of life in the mother's womb0 to 2 years old)

2 - Practical basis of school milk looking to the world: Japan, right after the end of the war, faced with countless difficulties, but with a long-term vision of resources for the country, they immediately issued the School Milk Law. After only a few decades, the image of short Japanese people, often called "dwarf Japanese", is no longer there, when the average height of young Japanese men has now reached 171.5cm. And many countries in the world have a School Milk Program for this golden age. The closest to Vietnam is Thailand, which has a School Milk Program. And when King Rama IX passed away, children drew his portrait themselves, to show their gratitude when he introduced the School Milk Program to children and chose farm fresh milk to implement this program. Faced with the reality of food safety issues, our country is ranked in the group with the highest cancer growth rate in the world, and height has only increased by 3 cm since 1993, the height of young Vietnamese men is currently only 163.7 cm, 13.1 cm lower than the standard of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the average height of Vietnamese women is 153 cm, 10.7 cm lower than the standard.

And the countries that have implemented the School Milk Program mentioned above, the foundation is entirely made from fresh milk. Some countries use fresh milk supplemented with micronutrients, some countries do not supplement anything but use only fresh milk. And I want to say, not only school milk, but in the world, in developed countries, 97% of milk for consumers is pasteurized or sterilized fresh milk, only 3% of powdered milk is used to make formula milk, mainly for infants and the elderly.

The health of the community, and especially our children, has always been of concern to the Party and the Government, as demonstrated by the issuance in 2011 of the "Overall Project on the Development of Physical Strength and Stature of Vietnamese People for the 2011-2030 Period" (Project 641) and by 2016, it was officially approved by the Prime Minister's Decision 1340/QD-TTg on the National School Milk Program and Decision No. 5450/QD-BY.Tof the Ministry of Health prescribes theg standardbasic for school milk. Why is it that such a humane program - every day of delay means losing the rights of children - when provinces and cities have just made a decision to allocate budget capital to support the School Milk Program, there is such a stir and skepticism mixed with anxiety?

Ms. Thai Huong - Founder of TH Group

There is a reason for everything and I think it falls into two streams of thought:

- Firstly, there is concern about the quality of school milk and the incomplete understanding of the significance of the School Milk Program for children's physical health and stature;

- The second line of thought is transparency:

+ Transparency in criteria describing the quality of school milk cups;

+ Transparency in selecting suppliers (bidding or based on criteria for designation depends on each locality; it is not really the issue, but transparency in selecting suppliers to ensure the capacity to provide school milk as prescribed) or to create a playground for profiteering groups while justifying the benefits for children from precious budget capital.

Both of these streams of thinking need to be satisfied.

The School Milk Program is a revolution in school nutrition., which hasis revolutionarythendifferent from the current one, so when implementing it, it is necessary to propagate and achieve full awareness of the whole society.i. DIn particular, the two groups that need to be understood most deeply are parents and teachers who directly care for children at this age.

The School Milk Program requires two main resources:

- Fresh milk resources:This is the crux of the program. Success or failure depends on this point;

Department of Animal Husbandry - Ministry of Agriculture and Rural DevelopmentfitAccording to the announcement, Vietnam has produced over 960 million liters of fresh milk a year (approximately 1 billion liters of milk) including farms and farmers. If the School Milk Program is implemented nationwide, with more than 12 million children participating 100%, 1 glass of 180 ml milk per day, 5 days a week, then 9 months of school (according to the School Milk Project) will only need about 400 million liters.

Thus, there is no shortage of fresh milk resources, but to participate in the School Milk Program,small dairy farmerneed to be instructed on food safety issues such as food, milking process, veterinary process, and when participating in the School Milk Program, the milk of the farmers will become a link (like a subcontractor) - that is, providing input materials for businesses (school milk suppliers) - those are businesses with farm capacity, organizational capacity, and distribution.

These suppliers must provide specific instructions on quality standards for farmers to avoid the disaster of farmers having to dump milk a few years ago: when advertising is needed, milk businesses consider farmers as their milk resources, but when the price of powdered milk drops sharply, they say that farmers' milk is dirty (see an article titled "Transparency and the duplicity of farmers dumping milk" written on February 9, 2015). Farmers really need to master this process, if they cannot do it alone, they will join businesses to wholeheartedly accompany them to consume and provide guidance on science, technology, and standard processes, so that no one can oppress them.

TH Group's dairy products participate in the "School Milk" program.

To have a truly complete glass of fresh milk, it is necessary to ensure the indicators that have been described, but the most important thing is still the production process. For easy understanding, I will describe what a standard glass of fresh milk is: what kind of ration is this cow fed to ensure the best micronutrients when giving milk, what is the process of care and veterinary care, is the process followed so that when milking there are no antibiotic residues that are not allowed to be left over, blood and pus are not mixed, the microclimate zone does not penetrate,...?

-Financial resources: during the process of launching the National School Milk Program, through a survey, I found that 90% of mothers are spending money to feed their children milk every day, the remaining 10% have 4-5% only meeting half of the need, and 5-6% are mothers who cannot afford to buy milk for their children at all. Therefore, we have proposedsentencefinancial“bmother of society”: including budget capital, philanthropists,grandmaMother has the means,… to help the above 10%.

Nghe An is a poor province that has done this very well, then I think other provinces can do this too, when we convey the true meaning of the School Milk Program and are transparent and clear.then“Nothing is impossible, if our wishes are legitimate.”

From experience in Nghe An, I have drawn conclusions for all provinces to refer to:

- Firstly, it is necessary to widely propagate the meaning of school milk: to increase height and physical strength for children in the golden age (preschool and primary school - from 2 to 12 years old). And all children, poor or near-poor, are cared for by society, especially the Party and the State, and shown to drink milk equally. This is the main meaning of the School Milk Program. And another meaning is that when children benefit from the School Milk Program after growing up, they will show gratitude and appreciation to society and to the country. They will have the spirit of voluntarily serving the country.

- Second, the production process of school milk cups must be transparent, especially the origin of the input material, which is fresh milk.

- Third, to implement the School Milk Program, it is necessary to establish a Steering Committee for the School Milk Project, with key members such as:Provincial and municipal leaders;Health service;Department of Education and Training;Fatherland Front, Parents Association… participate according to their functions. For example, the Department of Health has the role of monitoring the criteriaabout the quality of the glassSchool holidays have been issued by the Ministry of Health.,organize training for teachers to implement the program, the Department of Education and Training implements the project, including propaganda to parents and teachers, preparing facilities for milk storage; the Fatherland Front, Parents Association togetherin the implementation monitoring board and jointly promote to all subjects participating in this program.

- Finally, something that concerns all components of this project:In my position, I focus on making a glass of school milk with all my heart and soul of a mother, then the project will be successful.

TH "School Milk" comes to students in the mountainous areas of Nghe An province

School milk cups made from fresh milk have the following benefits:

- Firstly, it is necessary to supplement all the amino acids, especially essential amino acids, to provide energy and nourish the child's body at this golden age to improve physical health, especially to maximize the child's height; and the mother will be completely assured to participate in the program without hesitation.

- Second is to reduce trade deficit (Vietnam annuallyentergateway tothan$1 billion milkflour), encouraging domestic dairy production and farming effectively and sustainably on one's own land, maximizing the country's soil and climate conditions. That is a way to develop sustainably for Vietnam's livestock industry.

Finally, why do I mention it's just fresh milk, not reconstituted powdered milk? More info:

- A glass of fresh milk has been scientifically proven to contain more than 18 amino acids, including all 9 essential amino acids and many important nutrients, including protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals..

- A glass of powdered milk is also made from fresh milk, but has been spray-dried to evaporate the water and retain the dry substances in the milk. The technology uses heat to evaporate water, so of course, micronutrients that cannot withstand heat such as vitamins and amino acids are also denatured or destroyed..

Students of Chau Hong Primary School, Quy Hop participate in the "School Milk" program of TH Group

Liquid milk mixed from powdered milk is just to convince consumers that it is also a form of fresh milk because fresh milk is better than powdered milk.Therefore, there has been a confusion of concepts over the past decades under the name "sterilized milk" while sterilization is just a technological measure. The Ministry of Health has issued the National Technical Regulation QCVN 5-1:2017/BYT for liquid milk products, distinguishing 4 groups of liquid milk:

+Fresh milk (pasteurized/sterilized whole fresh milk, pasteurized/sterilized whole skim milk, pasteurized/sterilized fresh milk, pasteurized/sterilized skim milk),

+Reconstituted pasteurized/sterilized milk.

+ Pasteurized/sterilized mixed milk.

+Condensed milk and sweetened condensed milk (condensed milk, sweetened condensed milk, condensed skim milk with added vegetable fat, sweetened condensed skim milk with added vegetable fat).

Consumers need to be informed about all forms of liquid milk – this is something consumers have a right to know. There should be no excuse to use liquid milk (remixed powdered milk) and supplement some micronutrients to increase height, becausethose substancesFresh milk itself is enough, only when businesses use reconstituted powdered milk do they need to supplement it.more.

I wrote this letter to express the concerns of a mother who understands what kind of glass of milk is good for her child, and when I lead TH Group under the brand name TH true MILK, a brand of clean fresh milk and products completely from nature, always openly and transparently fighting for the standards for glasses of milk and with a mindset: we accept to fight not to stand on the podium of glory but to bring true values ​​of life to ourselves, our families and society, where health is being destroyed every day and every hour due to: greed and indifference.

The above are shares, considered as gifts for children and mothers, do not lose the rights of your children but participate.ProgrammeSchool milk, but whenmotherEven those who personally sign the application form to participate in the School Milk Program must fully understand and fight to ensure that the school milk is in accordance with the standards issued by the Government and the Ministry of Health through Decision 1340/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister and 5450/QD-BYT of the Ministry of Health.

If it is not done so, it is not called the School Milk Program but a "commercial program to sell milk to schools".

Best regards,

Hanoi, 02:17 am October 1, 2018