Many MBG Kitchens Not Up to Standard, BGN Deputy Chief Highlights Regulatory Revisions Under Dadan Era

The National Nutrition Agency (BGN) is continuing efforts to reorganise the operations of its nutritional service fulfilment units (SPPG) that are already running. The agency implementing the Free Nutritious Meal (MBG) programme has stated it will not hesitate to shut down SPPGs that do not meet standards.

BGN Deputy Chief Agustina Arumsari acknowledged that many MBG kitchens are still not up to standard. Information about the condition of these substandard kitchens can also be easily found on social media. According to her, this issue will be one of the evaluation materials for BGN under its new leadership.

“Well, we will evaluate all of that later,” she said during a press conference at the BGN Office on Thursday (18/6/2026).

Arumsari stated that her party will record every MBG kitchen that is already operating. Later, SPPGs that are not feasible to operate will have their operations terminated. She gave an example of several MBG kitchens whose target beneficiaries are not very numerous. The operations of these kitchens could be stopped by transferring the beneficiaries to other SPPGs.

“But once again, this has to be done one by one, yes, it is a bit complicated, it has to be one by one and we are basing it first on the beneficiaries,” she said.

Arumsari revealed that the problem arose from the practice of buying and selling SPPG points. As a result, many new SPPGs emerged without clear beneficiary criteria. The impact was that these kitchens sought out beneficiaries without paying much attention to the existing criteria.

“So, perhaps from the previous period, as friends might already know, there was buying and selling of points, so the focus became the SPPG itself. The beneficiaries, well, they would just be sought out from the nearest location there,” she said.

Arumsari added that the existence of MBG kitchens not meeting standards was also a result of BGN regulations under the previous leadership. This was because several regulations were allegedly changed to facilitate easier kitchen construction.

“So, perhaps friends know, previously there was a change in the technical guidelines from a kitchen area of 400 square metres, which was changed by the former Head of BGN to 150 square metres, something like that. Well, things like that caused kitchens to then not meet the standards to produce good quality food,” she said.