Muhammad Setiawan Pratama, 11, an elementary student receives treatment for food poisoning after eating government-sponsored free school meals, at a makeshift clinic inside a district's hall in Bandung, West Java, on Sept 25, 2025. - Reuters
JAKARTA: An independent public monitoring body named Free Nutritious Meal Watch has been launched amid mounting public unease over the government’s continued rollout of its free nutritious meal programme, despite an increasing number of food poisoning cases nationwide.
Introduced on Tuesday (Oct 7), the initiative includes a reporting platform that allows the public to flag incidents related to the programme, including issues of food quality and hygiene.
The data collected will be compiled and analysed to produce policy recommendations to submit to the government.
The Center for Economic and Law Studies (Celios), one of the initiative’s organisers, reported nearly 10,000 cases of foodborne illness linked to President Prabowo’s flagship programme, almost 10 months after its launch in January.
“Anomalies in the number of cases have been observed since July, when designated kitchens were forced to distribute free meals despite being unprepared,” said Celios public policy director Media Wahyudi Askar at Tuesday’s event.
“If the programme is not halted, we may see an exponential increase.”
Modelled after the LaporCovid initiative used during the pandemic, the reporting platform has three main objectives: amplifying public voices, urging policy termination based on public input and conducting a comprehensive evaluation of the programme.
Transparency International Indonesia (TII) and the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta), along with other health and data consultancy groups, alleged widespread corruption, military interference and conflicts of interest within the programme.
They said it had failed to benefit small-scale food producers and posed risks to children’s health. LBH Jakarta criticised the National Nutrition Agency (BGN), which oversees the programme, for lacking a transparent and effective complaint-handling mechanism.
The state should guarantee citizen’s rights to report violations or irregularities in the program, LBH Jakarta director Fadhil Alfathan said, adding that it is “ironic” that this initiative comes instead from civil society.
“With Free Nutritious Meal Watch, we now have the opportunity to see whether the programme is truly beneficial or not. I encourage everyone to prove it with concrete evidence through this platform.”
The group also urged the government to suspend and thoroughly review the programme, noting that frequent poisoning incidents not only threaten health but also disrupt children’s education.
BGN head Dadan Hindayana welcomed the establishment of the programme, telling The Jakarta Post briefly that “inputs from any party will be very useful.”
In West Bandung, West Java, where 1,315 students reportedly suffered food poisoning after consuming the free meals in late September, an independent investigation team under the BGN found excessive nitrite levels in fruits, possibly caused by bacterial activity.
However, the team’s toxicology tests detected no harmful bacteria, toxins or arsenic, and it claimed that not all hospitalized students were poisoned.
“Students went to health facilities after receiving a voice note encouraging free meal recipients to come for free medical checkups,” team head Karimah Muhammad said on Oct 3.
In the same region, a 12th-grade student died on Sept 30 after showing symptoms of foodborne illness, including nausea, vomiting and seizure, days after consuming the free meal at her school.
At least 121 other students from the same school reported having similar symptoms on Sept 24. However, West Bandung Health Agency head Lia Nurliana Sukandar downplayed a link to the free meals, saying that the student “did not, in fact, die because of the free meals.”
Karimah from the so-called independent team also maintained that “none of the victims showed symptoms of seizure”.
Last week, the government pledged tighter supervision of the programme, including requirements for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) certification, hygiene and sanitation compliance and halal certification for all kitchens.
Despite calls for a nationwide moratorium, the Prabowo administration has dismissed the need for a full suspension. Instead, the BGN was instructed to halt only kitchens linked to poisoning incidents while continuing the program’s rollout.
Even so, thousands more students were reportedly affected by similar cases in the first week of October, with new hot spots emerging in East Java and several other regions. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
