BPOM: Food Safety Key to Success of Free Nutritious Meal Programme

The Indonesian Food and Drug Authority (BPOM) considers the supervision of food safety for schoolchildren’s snacks to be an important part of supporting the success of the Free Nutritious Meal (MBG) Programme and creating a healthy generation for the Golden Indonesia 2045 vision. Director of Community Empowerment and Processed Food Business Actors at BPOM, Agus Yudis Pradana, stated in Gorontalo on Tuesday that food safety is not only the responsibility of the government but also all elements of society. “Food safety is not just the responsibility of a few people, not just the responsibility of the health service or BPOM, but the responsibility of all of us,” Agus said. He made this statement whilst attending the launch of a record-breaking attempt with the Indonesian World Records Museum (MURI) for the largest number of simultaneous school snack safety tests, held by Saka POM Gorontalo. Agus said the initiative involving Saka POM members is a form of concrete action in building a food safety culture from school age through collaboration with various parties. “BPOM has a motto: it is not food if it is not safe. No matter how good the nutritional content is, if its safety is not maintained, the food can actually become a source of health problems,” he said. According to him, supervision of schoolchildren’s snacks is also in line with efforts to support the success of the Free Nutritious Meal programme, which is one of the government’s priority programmes. He mentioned that various cases of food poisoning still occurring in several regions indicate the importance of increasing public awareness of food safety. Therefore, BPOM continues to encourage the involvement of local governments, schools, business actors, academics, the media, and the community in creating a sustainable food safety culture. Through the schoolchildren’s snack food safety testing activity, BPOM hopes that public awareness of the importance of safe and nutritious food will increase, especially for school-age children.