The expert explained the danger of falsification in school meals

Often in school canteens, students are given pork and chicken instead of beef, or collagen fat, soy and offal are added to cutlets. However, replacing expensive meat with cheaper ones can have a detrimental effect on children's health, Yulia Malevannaya, general director of the Research Institute of Functional Nutrition, warned in an interview with Izvestia.

Out of place: the court "planted a bomb" for free meals for schoolchildren

Contractors were allowed to spend on chefs' salaries a federal subsidy aimed at elementary school students' breakfasts.

"Beef in medical and baby food is a key source of heme iron and high—quality protein with a complete amino acid profile. Pork and chicken (especially the cheap categories) contain an excess of saturated fats. When beef is taken from a child at school or a patient in a hospital, replacing it, for example, with pork skin with soy, the process of chronic iron deficiency anemia and protein deficiency begins," the expert explained.

She added that for a growing organism, this can mean "a decrease in cognitive abilities and a weak immune system."

According to the editorial's interlocutor, the adulteration of dairy products is also dangerous. Children's and dietary diets require milk fat as a source of fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E) and phospholipids necessary for the development of the brain and nervous system.

Read more in the Izvestia article:

Table Lies: How suppliers adulterate food in schools and hospitals