September 29, 2025 | 06:18 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Prabowo Subianto admitted there were flaws in the implementation of the government’s free nutritious meal program (MBG) after more than 6,000 students reportedly suffered food poisoning from the meals provided.
Speaking at the closing of the sixth National Conference of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) in Jakarta on Monday, September 29, 2025, Prabowo emphasized that the poisoning cases remain a small fraction compared to the total number of beneficiaries.
“Thirty million children and pregnant women receive food every day. Yes, there are deficiencies, and yes, there have been cases of food poisoning. But if we calculate, the percentage of errors or problems is only 0.0017 percent,” Prabowo said at the Sultan Hotel, Central Jakarta.
The president argued that these cases do not signify the failure of his flagship program. He compared MBG’s achievements to Brazil’s free meal initiative, which reached 47 million recipients in a year.
“In just 11 months, we managed to serve 30 million recipients,” he said proudly, while stressing the importance of the program in helping children who often survive only on rice and salt.
Prabowo said the government is working to prevent further food poisoning cases through stricter standard operating procedures for the Nutritional Service Fulfillment Units (SPPG).
These include sterilizing cooking utensils with modern technology, introducing mandatory food testing before distribution, and other preventive measures.
He underlined that the MBG program will continue, with the goal of expanding coverage to 82.9 million beneficiaries in 2025. “There are shortcomings, but the benefits are very significant,” he stressed.
Escalating Cases and Official Measures
Despite reassurances, the number of food poisoning cases linked to MBG continues to climb. The largest recent incident occurred in West Bandung Regency, where 1,309 students were affected.
According to the Indonesian Education Monitoring Network (JPPI), as of September 27, 2025, the total number of poisoning victims had reached 8,649 children—an increase of more than 3,200 cases in just two weeks.
In response, the government convened a cross-ministerial coordination meeting at the Ministry of Health on Sunday, September 28, 2025, to address the crisis.
The meeting was attended by Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs Zulkifli Hasan, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin, National Nutrition Agency Head Dadan Hindayana, Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian, State Secretary Minister Prasetyo Hadi, and other top officials, including the Presidential Chief of Staff, the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency head, and the Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Minister.
Following the meeting, Zulkifli outlined six corrective measures: shutting down problematic SPPG units, evaluating the competence and discipline of all cooks, sterilizing eating utensils and improving sanitation, strengthening supervision by ministries and regional governments, requiring hygiene and sanitation certification for all MBG kitchens, and tasking public health centers and school health units with routine monitoring of SPPGs.
Dede Leni Mardianti contributed to the writing of this article.
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