Health closes a macro-kitchen in Mallorca and leaves 2,000 school menus in limbo

PalmaWhat happened that, with only a few days left until the end of the school year, the closure of one of the main central kitchens supplying school canteens in Mallorca was ordered and nearly 2,000 daily menus were put at risk? This is the question that remains open after the Ministry of Health of the Balearic Islands decreed the precautionary closure of the central kitchen of the restaurant Can Arabí, a decision made on Monday, June 8, following a health inspection. The closure has had an immediate effect on the school canteen system: 33 educational centers had to be urgently reorganized and menus redistributed among various companies. In total, Can Arabí managed nearly 45 school canteens, many of them on a catering basis. That same Monday night, the Department of Education activated an emergency device to ensure that no center would be left without service.

The logistical blow is important because Can Arabí does not operate in isolation, but within a broader system of suppliers that support a good part of the island's school canteens. Together with two other companies – Tundidor and Comensals Menjadors Escolars – they manage a network of 107 educational centers, more than half of the total. They therefore constitute an oligopoly with great bargaining power and the ability to absorb canteens managed by small companies. Their economic offers are difficult to beat. The closure of Can Arabí has forced the redistribution of orders among three companies and the activation of alternatives in a matter of hours, at the very end of the school year.

Repeat offenders

According to sources close to the Department of Health, the decision is the culmination of a long process of inspection and administrative monitoring. The file against Can Arabí, opened more than two years ago, is one of the most complex and relevant currently managed by the Administration in terms of food safety. The same sources assure that the company accumulated deficiencies and inadequate practices repeatedly detected by health inspectors and that, despite the requests made over this period, the irregularities would not have been corrected satisfactorily. They also maintain that the catering service would not always have heeded the indications of Health, arguing that its size and the large number of centers it served made it difficult to immediately apply some measures. The consulted sources emphasize, moreover, that the recently decreed closure is not the first health intervention of the same level affecting the facilities and that the Department of Education had been informed of all the actions and incidents detected at Can Arabí.

Officially, Health acknowledges that the service had already been the subject of previous proceedings, but argues that the situation this Monday is solely due to non-compliance detected in the last inspection: "In any case, if its activity had been re-authorized, it was because the detected non-compliance had been rectified. The provisional suspension of Monday, June 8, is solely due to non-compliance detected during the last inspection". L'ARA Balears has repeatedly tried to contact those responsible for Can Arabí, without receiving a response.

Despite the impact of the decision, several educational centers agree in highlighting the speed with which they reacted on Tuesday, once the measure was adopted the night before. Marina Vallcaneras, director of CEIPIESO Pintor Joan Miró, explains that "it was managed very well, because the information arrived late, but the Ministry contacted us personally." She also states that they were able to notify families with enough time for students to bring their own lunchboxes. Along the same lines, Xisca Chacopino, director of CEIP Joan Capó, admits that she is not clear about the origin of the problem, but positively values the institutional response: "Whatever it is, the Ministry has resolved it well." Meanwhile, the center maintains its administrative relationship with the affected company: they continue to place orders for menus and water at Can Arabí, but the food is now served by another company.

The incident was not uniform across all centers. In the Part Forana of Mallorca, a director describes a situation of uncertainty and constant changes in the distribution of menus: “There’s a mess... from 7:00 AM to 10:00 AM (on Tuesday), they’ve changed the menu three times”. According to this witness, the management of adapted menus has been particularly problematic: “They only bring the ordinary ones; they don’t bring the ones for allergies, intolerances, and others,” said the director. Other centers consulted explained that the difficulties with Can Arabí were not limited to this episode. A director from Palma assures that they had already received complaints from families about the quality of the food and that there were also organizational problems: “We have had problems with monitoring and with the lack of instructions and training for the staff”. In this center, it had even been requested to reinforce the presence of teachers in the dining room to ensure its operation: an exceptional measure that was finally authorized.

A controversial company

Beyond the precautionary closure, the management of Can Arabí had already been questioned by some educational communities. One example is the report prepared by the dining hall commission of the AFA of CEIP Duran Estrany in Llubí, dated May 18, 2025. The document points out possible breaches of the awarded contract, especially in relation to commitments for sustainable and local food, which would not have been substantiated with documentation. It also includes shortcomings in the implementation of management tools, in holding informational talks with families, and in the presentation of food safety reports. Furthermore, it denounces that the 10% reduction in the dining hall price for siblings, as provided for in the offer, would not have been applied.

This same center ended up terminating the contract with Can Arabí two years before it expired. In an email sent to families after the closure of the central kitchen became known, the management informed that the dining service until the end of the school year would remain in the hands of the company Maria Magdalena Bonnín. With a view to the coming school years, the management will pass to Ses Maduixetes Càtering.

The precautionary closure of Can Arabí arrives in the final stretch of the school year and leaves open an administrative investigation that will have to clarify the scope of the detected irregularities and the possible consequences. Meanwhile, the dining service has remained active with alternative solutions since the day after the closure, in an emergency operation that has highlighted the dependence of the educational system on a small number of large providers.