200 Surabaya Students Poisoned by MBG, Suspected from Meat Menu
Some 200 pupils from 12 schools in the Tembok Dukuh area of Surabaya experienced mass poisoning after eating the free nutritious meal (MBG) on Monday, 11 May 2026. The meat menu is suspected to be the cause of the poisoning.
The head of the Tembok Dukuh Health Centre in Surabaya, Tyas Pranadani, explained that hundreds of kindergarten, primary, and secondary school pupils from 12 schools complained of dizziness, nausea, and vomiting after consuming the MBG menu around 09:00 WIB. They were promptly taken to the health centre and the nearest hospital.
According to Tyas, the MBG menu for the day consisted of rice, krengsengan meat, vegetable dish, fried tofu, and oranges. Tyas suspects that the poisoning was caused by the meat preparation.
“From our observations with the teachers, this meat menu was the first time. So it might be from the meat itself,” said Tyas at the Ibu dan Anak IBI Hospital in Surabaya.
Currently, all poisoned pupils remain under the health centre’s monitoring. No pupils have been required to be hospitalised due to this poisoning.
Tyas stated that her team has coordinated with the Tembok Dukuh Nutrition Fulfilment Service Unit (SPPG), the MBG provider in the area. Samples of the MBG have now been taken to a laboratory for testing.
Separately, the head of SPPG Tembok Dukuh in Surabaya, Chafi Alida Najla, apologised for the incident. She will conduct a full evaluation following this event.
Regarding the suspicion that the meat caused the poisoning, Chafi said that her team is still awaiting laboratory test results. She claimed that the processed meat met standards.
“The meat wasn’t spoiled; perhaps it was from the processing or already contaminated when it first arrived. But we ensure the meat was still fresh,” said Chafi.
She explained that SPPG Tembok Dukuh prepares MBG from 11:00 until 00:00 the next day. Then, at 09:00 WIB, it is received by the pupils. Daily, SPPG Tembok Dukuh produces 3,020 portions for 13 schools comprising kindergartens, primary, and secondary schools.
“Today we only distributed two thousand portions of MBG because of this poisoning incident. The rest I stopped for now,” she emphasised.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Coordinator of the National Nutrition Agency for East Java Region, Teguh Bayu Wibowo, said his team immediately followed up and conducted an evaluation due to this incident. Operations of SPPG Tembok Dukuh have been temporarily halted.
“We direct a sustainable distribution pause accordingly,” said Teguh.