BGN Chief: Evaluating Raw Material Standards for Free Nutritious Meals a Priority

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Head of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) Sudaryono said that evaluating the raw material standards of the Free Nutritious Meal (MBG) programme is one of the priorities to be undertaken to improve the governance of the national priority programme.

“All the ingredients must be right, with safety standards that must also be right, because we are learning from poisoning incidents and other factors. So, apart from the processing method, there are also issues with the raw materials, which may not be standardised or may be of rather poor quality,” he said in a statement confirmed in Jakarta on Thursday.

He stressed that President Prabowo Subianto had also ordered BGN to sharpen its targets so that the main goal of improving children’s nutritional quality could be achieved, while also having an impact on local economic growth.

He also responded to the continued involvement of the TNI and Polri in the MBG programme. His involvement in the early formulation of the MBG programme and his previous position as Deputy Minister of Agriculture gave Sudaryono sufficient experience that the number of security personnel in Indonesia is very large, so the role of the TNI and Polri is very important for the programme’s continuity, including, for example, in empowering farmers to supply raw materials.