At a press conference, Tallinn Mayor Jevgeni Ossinovski (SDE) acknowledged that current feedback on school meals is unsatisfactory. "There are certainly educational institutions where satisfaction with school meals is quite high and others where it is unacceptably low," he said.

Ossinovski explained that the city has decided to allow schools to terminate catering contracts early if satisfaction with the food is low. "This will genuinely motivate caterers to improve, because we see that satisfaction levels can vary widely even with the same provider across different institutions. We simply cannot ignore that," he said.

Deputy Mayor Aleksei Jašin (Eesti 200) noted that surveys conducted by the Education and Youth Board (Harno) show that the quality of catering varies between institutions, even though the funding allocated to each is the same. Schools will have the option to terminate their five-year catering contracts if the satisfaction survey indicates low approval of the meals.

He added that the city government is also meeting its goal to ensure that by the end of this calendar year, schools will offer a vegetarian meal option for students.

Tasters to play a role in picking caterers starting next year

"In addition to the traditional lottery system that has long been a hallmark of Tallinn's catering procurement process — determining who will provide meals and what the offering will be — we're also introducing the option for a tasting and food evaluation committee, which has proven quite popular in Tartu," said Jašin.

Jašin emphasized that this tasting committee will not be involved in contracts signed this September, as the city government believes that could lead to disputes.

"We've spoken with catering providers. Some have welcomed the changes, others have not, but we hope that through cooperation with the caterers, we can offer our students the highest possible food quality," he noted.

A Delfi journalist pointed out during the press conference that caterers have raised concerns about being required to provide meals with very limited funding and asked whether the city planned to support them rather than just penalize them.

"That argument is relative — whether the money is a lot or a little," Jašin responded. "If we say that primary school students receive €1 per meal from the state and 83 cents from the city and we multiply that by the number of students at each school and then by the number of school days, it adds up to a fairly substantial amount."

Jašin clarified that a low satisfaction survey result does not automatically result in contract termination but gives schools the option to do so if they choose.

He also noted that the idea of taste testing actually came from the caterers themselves.

In response to Delfi's question about how caterers themselves explain the uneven satisfaction levels, Jašin said: "Some have criticized the contract format or the regulation that governs it — some caterers have requested that it be made more specific and include additional options."

Mayor Ossinovski added that under the national regulation, meals are expected to meet nutritional and public health standards. "We are adding another aspect that is, frankly, fundamental to any food service: that the food should taste good," he said. "We will start setting targets, measuring and demanding that caterers take the taste of school meals seriously."

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