BGN to Audit All Free Nutritious Meal Kitchens During School Holidays, Substandard Units to Be Closed

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The National Nutrition Agency (BGN) will conduct a total audit of all Free Nutritious Meal (MBG) kitchens during the school holidays and close any Nutrition Service Units (SPPG) that are deemed unfit or fail to meet standard operating procedures (SOP).

Wakil Kepala BGN Agustina Arumsari emphasised that the move aims to improve food safety standards, service quality, and the governance of the national priority nutrition programme.

“We are also taking advantage of this school holiday momentum. We will halt and audit all kitchens, so that hopefully when children return to school, conditions on the ground will be better and more organised, especially regarding data issues. I am closely monitoring our colleagues at the Data and Information Centre (Pusdatin), and we have begun coordinating with parties that already possess the relevant data,” she said in Jakarta on Monday.

She stressed that once the beneficiary data is accurate, the BGN will restructure incentives for SPPG units, adjusting them according to the number of beneficiaries and other indicators such as the quality of the food served.

“We expect that the incentive will no longer be a fixed Rp6 million. Currently, whether a unit serves 1,500 or 500 beneficiaries, the incentive remains Rp6 million. Once we know the real number of beneficiaries receiving meals from an SPPG, there will be a restructuring,” she explained.

Agustina added that there is a possibility of merging SPPG units as part of the adjustment or refocusing process, and establishing new incentive structures for each MBG kitchen. “We will then set the incentives differently, and they will not be uniform. We will also evaluate the incentive model, not just based on output produced, but on your ability to produce quality food that meets safety standards. We will create several assessment components,” she said.