February 28, 2025
JAKARTA – Reports of food poisoning, undercooked meals and spoiled food continue to mar President Prabowo Subianto‘s flagship free nutritious meal program, with authorities continuing to downplay the incidents.
On Wednesday, 12 school pupils from Takalar Regency, South Sulawesi, were hospitalized after experiencing symptoms of food poisoning from government-provided meals at their schools. This marks the fifth food poisoning case linked to the program since its launch last month.
Nilal Fauziah, head of the Takalar Health Agency, said the affected pupils were from three different elementary schools in the regency.
“The menu provided to the schools included rice, fish, tofu, vegetables and bananas. We have taken samples from the batch for analysis,” she said on Wednesday, as reported by MetroTV.
However, she noted that authorities could not yet confirm that the food poisoning incidents were caused by the packaged meals, as only 12 out of 97 students who ate the meals showed symptoms.
“There are several possibilities. The incident could also have been caused by the drinking water the students brought from home,” she added.
A day earlier, the East Java Ombudsman discovered that the fruit and vegetables served to students at SMP 13 Surabaya state junior high school under the free meals program had spoiled and were unfit for consumption.
The Ombudsman also pointed out that the kitchen preparing the meals never asked the school about students’ allergies nor gathered any feedback from the students regarding the menu, resulting in significant food waste.
Additionally, the Ombudsman noted that the kitchen lacked a clear system for evaluating the nutritional value of the meals or assessing their impact on the students.
Two separate food poisoning incidents linked to the free meals program were reported last week.
Eight pupils from SD 7 Tebing Tinggi state elementary school in Empat Lawang regency, South Sumatra, were taken to a healthcare facility after showing symptoms of food poisoning from their packaged meals.
Previously, several videos circulated on social media showing packaged meals served at the school on Tuesday, which included fried fish fillet, stir-fried vermicelli noodles, fried tofu and papaya, all infested with maggots.
In a separate incident, 29 students from SD Katolik Andaluri Catholic elementary school in Sumba Timur regency, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), experienced food poisoning after consuming a government-provided lunch.
The students reported symptoms of nausea, stomach pain, dizziness and vomiting after eating a meal of fried noodles, fried tempeh and tofu, egg and bananas. They noted that the food tasted off and appeared to have gone bad.
Also last week, footage of bloodied, undercooked chicken served at SD Inpres 3 Waingapu elementary school in Sumba Timur regency, NTT, went viral on social media.
The school principal, Hamuli Ngguna Manggil, mentioned that students also found strands of hair in their food, causing many to reject the meals.
“After the video went viral, the caterer responsible for the free meals program at our school visited and accused us of staging the incident. They also stopped delivering food to us following the incident,” he said on Tuesday, as reported by Kompas.
When asked about the raw chicken incident, National Nutrition Agency (BGN) head Dadan Hidayana called it a “technical problem.” He explained that the problem may have arisen due to the caterer’s limited experience in preparing meals on such a large scale, CNN Indonesia reported.
Each kitchen involved in the free meals program typically serves 3,000 students per day.
Experts have criticized the government for its apparent lack of seriousness in addressing food safety issues within the free meals program, as well as its hasty decision to expand the program without conducting a thorough evaluation.
The program’s first phase, which began on Jan. 6, targeted 500,000 students. The government plans to gradually increase the number of recipients to 17.5 million by December, with a long-term goal of reaching 82 million by the final year of Prabowo’s administration in 2029.
On Monday, the BGN’s Dadan reported that the program had already reached over 2 million students since its launch.
He also announced that the program had been expanded to all the country’s 38 provinces, with 963 kitchens now in operation, 117 of which started this week.