Outsourcing no excuse for mouse-head food

Days after a student at the Jiangxi Industry Polytechnic College found a mouse head in his canteen meal — and was told by his college and local market supervisors that it was an edible duck neck before higher authorities confirmed it was a mouse head — another mouse head was found, this time on a canteen plate in Xiushan Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, in Chongqing municipality.

This time the local market supervisors were quick to confirm that it was a mouse head. However, the hospital responded saying they don't run the canteen; a third-party beverage company was providing the services.

While a third-party contract should never be an excuse for a college or hospital to shrug off responsibility in such cases, its existence confirms the need to regulate such outsourced services. Running a canteen is no child's play, so colleges or hospitals outsource the job to professionals sometimes, but their responsibility should not be limited to signing a contract and paying the money.

Colleges, hospitals, companies or other agencies that outsource the responsibility of running their canteens should all bear in mind that food safety remains their responsibility even after outsourcing the task and they still need to take proper supervision measures.

In the Jiangxi case, the local authorities have vowed to punish those responsible for wrongdoings, including college authorities and members of supervisory departments who failed in their duty. That should ring the alarm bells for all agencies doing similar duty.

Ever since the Jiangxi incident, several domestic toy factories have been making toys with a duck's body and a mouse's head as a sarcastic reminder of what happened in the canteen there. It's time the sarcasm teaches all those who are responsible a much-required lesson.