Should law-breaking suppliers keep feeding Incheon's schoolchildren?

Incheon's school meal ingredient suppliers racked up 32 administrative penalties over the past five years, data showed.

Legal violations keep surfacing among suppliers that provide daily meals to growing children. This raises questions about whether authorities merely catch and punish violations, without ensuring proper follow-up management afterward.

According to an analysis Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Han Byung-do released Wednesday based on data submitted by the Korea Agro-Fisheries and Food Trade Corporation, Incheon's school meal ingredient suppliers received a combined 32 administrative penalties from 2022 through July this year.

By year, the penalties totaled six in 2022, seven in 2023, seven in 2024 and four in 2025. This year already saw eight penalties as of July.

By type, disqualification as an unfair bidder accounted for the most cases, at 21, followed by 10 violations of the Food Sanitation Act and one violation involving country-of-origin labeling.

The problem was more severe nationwide. During the same period, school meal ingredient suppliers across the country received a combined 527 administrative penalties, of which 329, or 62.4 percent, involved violations of the Food Sanitation Act.

Penalties for Food Sanitation Act violations were not light, either. Administrative fines were the most common, at 192 cases. But harsher measures followed — 51 business suspensions, 34 punitive surcharges, and 30 cases of business closure, license revocation or ex officio cancellation. Penalties as severe as business suspension or worse totaled 81 cases.

The bigger problem emerges after the sanctions end. Suppliers caught violating rules are barred from using the integrated public meal platform for a set period. But a significant number returned to sign new school meal contracts once that restriction period expired.

Nationwide, over the past five years, suppliers signed 29,980 contracts worth roughly 312.8 billion won ($233.3 million) combined after their platform restrictions expired. Of the 458 sanctioned suppliers, 186 — or 40.6 percent — resumed contracts once their restriction period ended.

In practice, one supplier in Gyeonggi Province was fined and barred from the platform for 89 days in 2022 over a Food Sanitation Act violation. After the restriction lifted, the supplier signed 7,598 contracts worth 91.56 billion won. Forty-four suppliers received two or more administrative penalties over the past five years.

Also notable is that more than 95 percent of school meal contracts are negotiated contracts rather than competitive bids.

Of the 14.2 trillion won in nationwide school meal ingredient contracts signed from 2022 through July this year, negotiated contracts accounted for 13.53 trillion won, or 95.3 percent. Electronic bidding made up only 4.7 percent.

Han said the Ministry of Education should integrate management of administrative penalties and violation histories, and strengthen accountability across the entire school meal process, from pre-inspection to post-management.

With Incheon alone recording 32 administrative penalties over the past five years, merely confirming these numbers is no longer sufficient.

A full review is needed into which suppliers were penalized and why, how they were managed afterward, and whether they went on to re-enter school meal contracts.