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Resty Woro Yuniar

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship free nutritious meals programme is facing renewed scrutiny after yet another wave of mass food poisoning that affected more than 2,000 students, raising questions about why safeguards on paper fail to translate to food safety on the ground.
A series of illnesses were reported in Java, Sumatra, and Sulawesi in the past week. The latest was on Tuesday in Rembang, Central Java, where 200 students of an Islamic school showed symptoms of food poisoning such as vomiting and diarrhoea after eating meals from the programme.
Between September 1 and 3, a total of 1,961 students suffered from food poisoning across the country, many requiring medical treatment.
In the case in East Java’s Sidoarjo on Thursday, at least 730 students of Manbaul Hikam Islamic boarding school fell ill after lunch. Sudaryono, head of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN), which supervises Prabowo’s initiative, chalked up the incident to “deliberate negligence”.

Last month, BGN issued new safety protocols to prevent mass food poisoning – a recurring problem since the US$15.2 billion programme was launched in January 2025. At least 43,000 children had suffered from food poisoning linked to the programme by the end of August, according to data from the Network for Education Watch.
Prabowo’s administration promised reforms to fix the initiative, following the arrest of BGN’s former head and top officials for alleged mark-ups and corruption in June.
Fake information
Among the new protocols is a mandatory requirement for meals to be consumed within four hours of cooking, with expiry labels to be placed on all food trays.
In the Sidoarjo case, the expiry labels bore false information and were plastered on one food tray, instead of all trays, Sudaryono said on Thursday, as cited by Detik.
“Preliminary investigation shows that the food was cooked at 5am, so it should be consumed before 9am … However, the label showed that it was cooked at 8am … and not all food trays were labelled,” he said. “The food … was delivered to the school after 11am. The students ate it only after 12pm, resulting in food poisoning.”
Sudaryono said in a video posted on his Instagram account on Tuesday that he had fired the head of the kitchen responsible. Since August 3, BGN has sacked at least 137 heads of kitchens in various regions due to lax food safety.
BGN has forbidden students to bring the meals home, as food quality could decrease the longer it is left uneaten. Last month, it said it would introduce a test kit in each kitchen to detect spoilage.
Each kitchen partner is also required to obtain a Certificate of Hygiene and Sanitation Suitability from the Ministry of Health. Those without certificates will be shut down. Sudaryono said on Tuesday that the agency had temporarily closed 1,999 out of the 27,022 kitchens in the programme for failure to be certified.


Nutrition expert Tan Shot Yen said the latest wave of food-poisoning cases underlined a lack of effective monitoring and enforcement, which could render BGN’s new food safety measures futile.
“There are now regulations regarding [the food safety] in the programme, but is there monitoring? That’s what’s important. In Indonesia, people have a driving licence, but they still get hit by trains because they want to rush ahead. Law enforcement is always an issue in Indonesia,” Tan said.
She also questioned whether each kitchen examined the health status of their food handlers, especially when meals are garnished with raw vegetables such as lettuce or tomatoes.
Sudaryono and BGN did not respond to This Week in Asia’s requests for comments.
Tighter focus
Jimmy Daniel Berlianto, a senior researcher at the Centre for Indonesian Policy Studies, said the new cases showed that “governance” remained a “fundamental issue” in the free nutritious meals programme.
“The change we hope for is for the [programme] to transition to a locally-driven approach, driven by community actors such as schools and public health facilities,” Berlianto said. “Regional governments, along with local communities, should also be empowered to adjust the programme according to their respective problems and needs.”
BGN currently manages all aspects of the programme, from granting kitchens’ operational permits to monitoring their operations.

Both experts said that the programme’s beneficiaries, currently at 63 million, could be trimmed down to include only children in remote, underdeveloped and frontier regions.
Prabowo aims to distribute the meals to nearly 83 million schoolchildren, toddlers, breastfeeding mothers, and pregnant women to prevent stunted growth and malnutrition. But the programme is not the only way to achieve these goals, according to the experts.
To address stunted growth, Tan suggested the government pledged more funds to the existing supplemental feeding programme offered by health centres across Indonesia. Under the initiative, toddlers and pregnant women were given meals “cooked under the supervision of nutritionists” for up to 90 days, she said.
As for malnutrition, Berlianto said that officials should focus on delivering the meals to children from poor families.
“The free nutritious meal programme still has a positive impact if implemented in a targeted manner,” he said. “Many studies in other countries show that free school meals could improve nutritional status and educational participation for those with high levels of vulnerability, such as children from poor households.”


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Paramedics guide students suffering from food poisoning to receive medical treatment at the Manbaul Hikam Islamic boarding school in Sidoarjo, East Java, on September 2. Photo: EPA

Students rest while receiving treatment for food poisoning at the regional general hospital after eating government-sponsored free school meals in Sidoarjo, East Java, on September 2. Photo: Reuters

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Students suffering from food poisoning await medical treatment in an ambulance at the Manbaul Hikam Islamic boarding school in Sidoarjo on September 2. Photo: EPA

A protester holds a placard rejecting the government’s free meal programme during a protest outside the parliament building in Jakarta on August 27. Photo: EPA

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In three days last week alone, close to 2,000 students suffered from food poisoning after eating meals from Prabowo’s flagship programme


In three days last week alone, close to 2,000 students suffered from food poisoning after eating meals from Prabowo’s flagship programme.


Prabowo Subianto

Food and Drinks

Indonesia has new food safety rules for free meals. Why are students still falling ill?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}In three days last week alone, close to 2,000 students suffered from food poisoning after eating meals from Prabowo’s flagship programme

In three days last week alone, close to 2,000 students suffered from food poisoning after eating meals from Prabowo’s flagship programme