E. Coli Bacteria Found in Free Nutritious Meal Program Poisoning Cases in Papua and Semarang

Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin stated that the Ministry of Health has followed up on the discovery of E. coli bacteria in poisoning cases linked to the Free Nutritious Meal (MBG) programme in Papua and Semarang, Central Java. The ministry has provided input to the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) to prevent such incidents from recurring.

“As soon as the poisoning occurred, the Ministry of Health team was deployed. The report is in, and the lab results are also available, so we identified that several food items contained E. coli bacteria, not just the watermelon but several other foods,” said Minister Budi Gunadi when confirmed in Jakarta on Thursday.

He stated that the Ministry of Health offered suggestions to the BGN regarding issues found at the Nutrition Fulfilment Service Units (SPPG) and appreciated the swift response of BGN Chief Sudaryono to the feedback.

On the same occasion, BGN Chief Sudaryono said that poisoning is a fatal matter concerning a person’s life, hence the actions taken must be firm. “My target is to figure out how, by any means necessary, to achieve zero poisoning cases,” Sudaryono stated.