August 27, 2025 | 01:25 pm
The Indonesian Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) will conduct tests on samples of food tray from the free nutritious meal program (MBG) suspected of containing pork oil. BPOM Head Taruna Ikrar stated that the plan will be carried out as soon as possible.
"The Food and Drug Monitoring Agency will follow up on this issue by conducting tests," he said when met at the BPOM office in Central Jakarta on Wednesday, August 27, 2025.
He explained that BPOM has two methods to test whether there is pork oil content in the nutritious meal tray.
Firstly, testing through swabbing. The swab results will then have their DNA tested in the laboratory to match the presence of pig DNA. From the testing, it will also be known whether there are derivative compounds of animal protein, such as gelatin or glycerin from animal oil.
The second testing method is to test the metal material of the MBG food tray. To conduct this, BPOM needs to collaborate with the Ministry of Industry which has a specific testing standard institution. "There are specific processes that we can dissect to see whether it has porcelain," said Taruna.
He stated that the capacity of BPOM only covers standard safety supervision in the distribution of MBG. As for determining the halal or haram status of the tested MBG tray, it falls under the authority of the Halal Assurance Agency and the National Standardization Agency. According to Taruna, BPOM is currently collaborating with both of these agencies as well as the National Nutrition Body to follow up on this report.
Taruna stated that he cannot disclose the origin of the MBG tray sample to be tested. He delegated the authority to answer that to the National Nutrition Body. "Our domain is given the task to conduct tests and laboratory tests, we are ready for that," he said.
When contacted separately, the Head of the National Nutrition Body, Dadan Hindayana, stated that they are still tracing information about the alleged pork oil content in the MBG box. "We are currently studying it," said Dadan in a written message on Wednesday, August 27, 2025. He mentioned that the National Nutrition Body has never been involved in the procurement of the MBG tray.
Previously, there was a report circulating on social media from the Indonesia Business Post which conducted an investigation in the Chaoshan region, eastern part of Guangdong Province, China, suspected to be the importer of the nutritious meal tray for the MBG program in Indonesia. In the report, the Indonesia Business Post team reported the discovery of 30-40 factories producing the nutritious meal for the global market, including one suspected for the MBG Program in Indonesia.
The report claims the discovery of alleged falsification of the "Made in Indonesia" label and the SNI logo on the meal tray, which was actually produced in China, the use of the 201 type of meal tray which is suspected to contain high manganese (a whitish-gray metal) and unsuitable for acidic foods. Additionally, there are indications of the use of pork oil or lard in the produced meal tray.
However, the National Standardization Agency (BSN) previously stated that it has established Indonesian National Standard (SNI) 9369:2025 concerning stainless steel compartmentalized meal tray to support the MBG Program.
"We established this standard on June 18, 2025, through the Chief of BSN's Decision Number 182/KEP/BSN/6/2025. This is a new standard developed by ourselves and compiled by the Downstream Metal Product Technical Committee 77-02," said BSN's Deputy of Standard Development Hendro Kusumo.
Dinda Shabrina contributed to the writing of this article.
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