Nutrition Agency to Require Expiry Time Labels on Free Meal Containers from Next Week

The National Nutrition Agency (BGN) is requiring Nutrition Service Fulfilment Units (SPPG) to include a consumption time limit on every container of the Free Nutritious Meal (MBG) starting next week as an effort to strengthen food safety. BGN Head Sudaryono, familiarly known as Mas Dar, explained in an official statement in Jakarta on Sunday that the consumption time limit information will serve as a marker for teachers and students to ensure food is consumed in a safe condition.

“In addition, starting next week, we will enforce the obligation to write on every container a sign or warning that the food must be consumed before a certain time. So, the role of teachers is very important here,” he said. Mas Dar requested that teachers ensure food is not consumed if it has passed the time limit stated on the container. The prohibition applies to both teachers and students.

“If the time on the container has already exceeded the stated time, we ask that it not be consumed. Teachers must not consume it, and especially students or pupils must not consume it if it has passed the specified time limit,” Mas Dar stated. He explained that generally, food can be consumed a maximum of four hours after cooking; therefore, there is a specific time limit or window to ensure the food remains safe to eat.

“In accordance with normal food serving standards, after cooking it must be eaten within a maximum of four hours because this food contains no preservatives. It is truly cooked without ultra-processing, so the items are genuinely fresh, meaning there is a window, a period when it is safe for consumption,” he said. Besides setting a consumption time limit, Mas Dar also requested that students not take the MBG food home. Food received at school is expected to be consumed directly on site according to the designated time.

According to him, the practice of taking MBG food home has been one of the factors causing poisoning cases in several locations. In fact, he said, these cases were not only experienced by students but also by parents who consumed the food brought home. “Indeed, I understand this very well. I was also at an elementary school in Bogor that I visited, where a child split the meal in two, saying he remembered his mother at home. This has become a case of poisoning in several spots, and what’s more, those poisoned were not only the students but also the fathers and mothers at home who were poisoned by the food that was brought home,” Mas Dar said.