Over 800 Indonesian students suffer food poisoning from eating government free meals
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At least 4,000 children have been hit by food poisoning since President Prabowo Subianto kicked off his flagship free school meals programme in January.
PHOTO: EPA
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JAKARTA – More than 800 students fell sick in two cases of mass food poisoning this week after consuming free school meals sponsored by the Indonesian government, officials said on Sept 19.
One case affected more than 500 and was the biggest outbreak yet under President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship programme.
From January, when the programme was launched, up to August, more than 4,000 children have been hit by food poisoning after consuming the meals, according to the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance, raising questions on oversight.
In Indonesia’s West Java province, 569 students from five schools in the Garut region experienced nausea and vomiting on Sept 17 after consuming chicken and rice provided by one kitchen a day earlier, Dr Nurdin Yana, secretary of the Garut regional government, said.
“As at (Sept 19), 10 students are still being treated at the hospital and others have recovered,” Dr Yana said.
Initially, about 30 students had to be hospitalised, while the rest were treated at home, he added.
The local government will increase surveillance of the kitchen that provided the meals, Dr Yana said, adding that the programme would not be halted. Instead, students would be given more basic food, such as bread, milk, boiled eggs and fruit for now.
Another mass food poisoning case linked to the programme occurred on Sept 17 in the Banggai islands of Central Sulawesi province, affecting 277 students, the National Nutrition Agency, which oversees the programme, said in a statement, adding that meal distribution in the area was temporarily halted.
Mr Prabowo’s spokesman, Mr Prasetyo Hadi, said on Sept 19 the government apologised for the “re-occurrence of cases in several areas that are, of course, not what we had hoped for or intentional”.
Questions have been raised about standards and oversight of the programme, which has expanded rapidly to reach more than 20 million recipients, with an ambitious goal of reaching 83 million by year-end and a budget of 171 trillion rupiah (S$13 billion).
The budget for the programme will be doubled in 2026. REUTERS
