To investigate the status of the bacteria contamination in student meal in Yunnan, and compare the contamination among 10 kinds of food.Methods The national standard methods about hygiene indexes and common foodborne pathogenic bacteria had been implemented on student meal from 16 representative cities in Yunnan Province in 2014 based on Food Safety Risk Monitoring Plan in Yunnan in 2014,and data were analyzed with SPSS 19.0 software. Results The unqualified hygiene indexes was 22.96% (186/810) in 810 student meal samples from unpacked food. The overall detection rate of main pathogenic bacteria was 17.53% (142/810), while it had difference between student breakfast 21.50% (63/293) and student lunch 15.28% (79/517) (P<0.05). The unqualified rates of Bacillus cereus was 15.47% (108/698) in 698 student meal samples, and 20.48% (51/249) for rice and flour foods, 13.38% (57/426) for packed lunch. The detection rate of Salmonella was 0.49% (4/810), mainly from packed lunch (0.70%, 3/430) and rice and flour foods (0.40%, 1/249). The detection rate of Staphylococcus aureus was 3.09% (25/810) with the highest rate in egg and egg products (4.55%, 1/22), followed by rice and flour foods (3.61%, 9/249), packed lunch (3.49%, 15/430). The detection rate of Listeria monocytogenes was 0.62% (5/810), mainly from packed lunch and rice and flour foods with the detection rates of 0.80% (2/249) and 0.70% (3/430). Diarrheogenic Escherichia coli were not detected. The detection rates of four kinds of foodborne pathogenic bacteria had no difference in different sampling sites (P>0.05). Except Staphylococcus aureus, the detection rates had no difference between in four quarters in 2014.Conclusion The 10 kinds of student meal with unpacked condition in Yunnan were seriously contaminated, indicating the risk of foodborne diseases. Considering the vulnerability of young students and the complexity of the food chain, food safety supervision, monitoring and management should be strengthened.