19 Primary School Pupils in Bantul Poisoned by Free Nutritious Meal Programme, Suspected Due to Boxed Milk

Dozens of pupils at SDN Monggang, Srihardono, Pundong, Bantul, experienced symptoms of poisoning after consuming the free nutritious meal (MBG). The cause is suspected to stem from boxed milk that emitted a pungent odour when opened.

The head of SDN Monggang, Sumarni, stated that the incident began when the school received a shipment of MBG on Wednesday (8/4) at 08:30 WIB. The MBG was then distributed to pupils during break time.

“Then a sixth-grade pupil found maggots wriggling in the pakcoy and ompreng and brought it to the teachers’ office,” she told reporters on Thursday (9/4/2026).

Due to this discovery, Sumarni requested that the uneaten MBG not be consumed first. Shortly after, there was also smelly ompreng in the teachers’ room.

“After the ompreng was opened, it turned out the pungent smell came from the boxed milk. For that reason, I asked for the boxed milk that had not yet been drunk by the pupils to be withdrawn so it could be replaced by SPPG,” she said.

Not long after, some pupils experienced poisoning symptoms after consuming the MBG menu. Therefore, the school took them to the Pundong Health Centre.

“It turned out that the number of pupils experiencing poisoning symptoms kept increasing to 18 people. But after receiving medical treatment, they were all allowed to go home,” she said.

Sumarni also revealed that today there was one pupil who experienced food poisoning symptoms. Thus, the total number of pupils experiencing those symptoms is 19 pupils.

“Of the 19 pupils, nine have not come to school; we have communicated with the parents, and they said they are still nauseous, dizzy, and have diarrhoea,” she said.

Regarding the cause of the poisoning symptoms, Sumarni suspects it was from the boxed milk. Although Sumarni admitted that the expiry date on the boxed milk was still in 2027.

“But when pouring the contents of the boxed milk, maggots could be seen wriggling. So whether the maggots in the pakcoy came from the maggots in the boxed milk or not, I don’t know,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Head of SPPG Srihardono 1, Septiyanto, did not want to say much about the incident. However, Septiyanto assured that for the time being, SPPG would not operate.

“If the laboratory results come out, we will provide an official statement; clearly, today SPPG is temporarily not operating,” he said.