BGN Reveals Types of Food That Can Cause Digestive Issues for Students

Jakarta – The National Nutrition Agency (BGN) has disclosed types of food in the Free Nutritious Meals Programme (MBG) menu that have the potential to cause digestive disorders.

Deputy Head of BGN, Nanik Sudaryati Deyang, stated that from the evaluation by the investigation, monitoring, and supervision team, several types of food have so far been identified as potential causes of digestive issues, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea.

“Among those foods, the frequent cause of stomach aches and diarrhoea is soto. This can occur because the condiments still include raw items such as cabbage, celery, and bean sprouts. Additionally, when served, the water placed separately has already cooled,” said Nanik on the official Instagram @nanik_deyang, quoted from Jakarta on Monday, 20 April 2026.

She explained that when cold broth is poured over the condiments by the children at school, it has the potential to be contaminated with E. coli bacteria, so children with low immunity can immediately experience digestive disorders.

“Other menu items that easily cause stomach aches in children because they spoil quickly include yellow rice, uduk rice, and fried rice,” she said.

Additionally, other types of food that often cause digestive disorders are various kinds of noodles, especially if the fried noodle cooking process involves directly mixing them with vegetables.

“Shredded chicken is also among the highest causes of poisoning. This can happen because often the shredded chicken is not premium chicken, but rather second- or third-grade chicken (not fresh). Moreover, the shredding process done in the afternoon to meet time constraints without using gloves also increases the risk of contamination,” she explained.

Nanik added that foods using various sauces also have the potential to cause digestive disorders, because sometimes they are cooked first in an undercooked condition, then consumed by children more than 12 hours after cooking, and some are even taken home.

“Finally, the menu that also causes children to feel nauseous and vomit is grilled chicken and barbecued fish. After investigation, it turns out the grilling process does not use a large oven, but a torch tool usually only used for caramelisation or singeing thin meat, so the degree of doneness does not reach the inside,” said Nanik.