Indonesia: Thousands Fall Sick from Free School Meals<\/p>\n
Reporter<\/p>\n
September 4, 2026 | 07:39 am<\/p>\n
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - More 1,700 people have contracted food poisoning\nin Indonesia over the past week after eating free school meals provided\nby the government as part of a new scheme.<\/p>\n
At least 725 pupils and 25 teachers at a school in Lasem on the\nisland of Java complained that they felt unwell on Thursday morning\nafter consuming the free lunch on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had diarrhea, they were vomiting, and felt nauseous,\u201d said the\nschool\u2019s principal. \u201cThere was a queue at the bathrooms because two of\nour toilets are under renovation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, more than 600 students in Sidoarjo, East Java,\nwere also taken to hospital after eating free lunch meals on\nTuesday.<\/p>\n
In two other cases on Wednesday, 49 people in the East Java city of\nNganjuk and 237 in the West Sumatra region of Agam also fell ill.<\/p>\n
One lawmaker, Charles Honoris, put the total number of food poisoning\ncases linked to the free school meals scheme as high as 50,000 since,\nciting health department data.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a failure of the system,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
What has caused the food poisoning?<\/p>\n
The mass outbreaks of food poisoning have been blamed on improper\nfood storage and late delivery of pre-cooked meals.<\/p>\n
According to the school principal in Lasem, a food taster found that\nsome of the grilled chicken to be distributed was \u201cslimy\u201d and therefore\nput aside.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe kitchen operator said the food was cooked at 3 a.m. and it was\neaten at noon,\u201d she reported.<\/p>\n
President Prabowo\u2019s free school meals scheme<\/p>\n
The $12.94 billion (\u20ac11.13-billion) program, launched in January\n2025, is one of President Prabowo Subianto\u2019s signature policies,\nintended to improve nutrition for up to 80 million children as well as\npregnant and breastfeeding women.<\/p>\n
But the costly scheme has been dogged by allegations of corruption,\nleadership changes and spate of mass food poisoning outbreaks.<\/p>\n
It was among the first budget items to be cut back as the Indonesian\ngovernment moved to counter the economic impact of the war in the Middle\nEast and hundreds of people took to the streets of the capital, Jakarta,\nlast week to call for it to be scrapped entirely.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has become a national alarm,\u201d said Ubaid Matraji, a researcher\nat the Indonesian Education Monitoring Network.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government cannot continue to treat them as mere statistical\nfigures. Behind every number there is a sick child, a panicked family,\nand the state\u2019s failure to guarantee safe food.\u201d<\/p>\n
The head of Indonesia\u2019s National Nutrition Agency, which oversees the\nscheme, told a parliamentary hearing that the food poisoning cases would\nbe handled \u201cseriously.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read: BGN Proposes Rp240 Trillion Budget for MBG Program in 2027<\/p>\n
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