LASEM, Indonesia |More than 1,700 students and teachers have fallen ill in food-poisoning incidents linked to Indonesia’s government-funded free meals program in just three days, raising renewed concerns over food safety in one of President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship initiatives.
The latest outbreak occurred at a senior high school in Lasem, Central Java, where 752 students and 25 teachers developed diarrhea and vomiting after eating meals provided through the program, according to school principal Juhartutik, cited by Reuters. Fifteen people were hospitalized, a local doctor said.
The students were served grilled chicken. Juhartutik said a food taster had found some of the chicken “slimy” before distribution, while the kitchen operator reportedly said the food had been cooked at about 3 a.m. and eaten around noon. The suspected causes remain subject to investigation.
The latest incident follows separate outbreaks in Sidoarjo and Nganjuk in East Java and Agam in West Sumatra. Reuters reported that 950 people were sickened in those three incidents, including 664 in Sidoarjo. Kitchens linked to the outbreaks have been suspended while authorities investigate.
Food safety has become a recurring challenge for the Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) program. Reuters reported that improper food storage and delayed delivery of cooked meals have frequently been cited in previous poisoning incidents. A government watchdog, Network for Education Watch, said that more than 37,600 suspected food-poisoning cases had been associated with the program as of August 8. A lawmaker has separately cited a figure of more than 50,000 cases as of September 1, although the figures have not been independently verified.
The National Nutrition Agency (BGN), which oversees the program, has faced growing pressure to strengthen food-safety standards. Following the Sidoarjo outbreak, officials suspended the kitchen believed to have supplied the meals for 30 days pending investigation, Reuters reported.
The MBG program began nationwide on January 6, 2025, initially serving about 570,000 beneficiaries through 190 nutrition-service kitchens. The government designed it to address child malnutrition while also providing meals to other vulnerable groups. By early 2026, BGN said the program had expanded to more than 19,000 kitchens serving more than 55 million beneficiaries.
President Prabowo has set a target of reaching about 82.9 million beneficiaries by the end of 2026. The program was a major campaign promise during his 2024 presidential bid and is intended to improve nutrition while creating demand for local agricultural and food businesses.
The rapid expansion, however, has intensified questions over whether food preparation, storage, transportation and inspection systems can keep pace. BGN itself acknowledged in 2025 that the program required further improvements in food processing, distribution and procurement.
For the Indonesian government, the latest outbreaks present a difficult balance: expanding access to nutritious meals for millions of children while ensuring that the program designed to improve public health does not expose beneficiaries to preventable food-safety risks.
Paraluman P. Funtanilla
Paraluman P. Funtanilla is Tutubi News Magazine's Marketing Specialist and is a Contributing Editor. She finished her degree in Communication Arts in De La Salle Lipa. She has worked as a Digital Marketer for start-up businesses and small business spaces for the past two years. She has earned certificates from Coursera on Brand Management: Aligning Business Brand and Behavior and Viral Marketing and How to Craft Contagious Content. She also worked with Asia Express Romania TV Show.
- Paraluman P. Funtanilla
- Paraluman P. Funtanilla
- Paraluman P. Funtanilla
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