JAKARTA: The government’s plan to put expiration dates on free nutritious meal packages has drawn criticism that it could shift responsibility for food poisoning onto beneficiaries while leaving deeper food safety problems unaddressed.
The National Nutrition Agency (BGN), which oversees the flagship initiative of President Prabowo Subianto, said the measure would be implemented in the second week of August in an attempt to address reports of foodborne illnesses related to the programme.
Under the new measure, each meal must be consumed within four hours of being prepared at Nutrition Fulfillment Service Units (SPPGs), the kitchens responsible for preparing the meals, BGN head Sudaryono said.
“The food must be consumed within a maximum of four hours after cooking because it contains no preservatives,” he said in a statement last week.
“The meals are freshly prepared, not ultra-processed, so there is a specific window in which it is safe to consume them.”
The plan has been criticised by the Indonesian Education Monitoring Network (JPPI), which said the labels could shift responsibility for food poisoning onto students and schools that consume meals beyond the designated time, rather than addressing problems with kitchen hygiene and ingredient quality.
“Simply putting a label on the package is not a fundamental solution,” JPPI national coordinator Ubaid Matraji told The Jakarta Post on Monday (Aug 10
“What should be done instead is to improve food production and distribution management and ensure that free meals reach those who need them, including children suffering from stunting or nutritional problems, rather than distributing them in a blanket approach.”
JPPI recorded over 40,000 people affected by food poisoning linked to the free meals programme across several provinces between its rollout in January 2025 and August this year.
Meanwhile, Jakarta-based nutritionist and doctor Tan Shot Yen said the four-hour consumption deadline was only one of several measures needed to improve the safety of the free meals.
She said all SPPGs should obtain Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) certification and a Certificate of Hygiene and Sanitation Eligibility (SLHS), arguing that both standards should have been implemented from the outset.
Without proper hygiene and assured ingredient quality, she warned, the meals could become a source of disease transmission, including typhoid, rather than providing adequate nutrition
“If the standard operating procedures are properly implemented, there should be no need for ‘additional rules’ [such as consumption deadlines], assuming all SPPGs already understand the safe interval between food preparation and consumption.”
For some beneficiaries, however, the new labels could provide reassurance amid recurring concerns over the free meals’ safety.
Cantika, the mother of an eight-year-old who asked to use a pseudonym, said she often sees meals that did not appear fresh, including those distributed to pregnant women.
“I truly hope that stricter oversight of safe consumption times will make beneficiaries safer,” the 34-year-old said.
Besides repeated food poisoning reports, the programme has faced a series of operational and governance challenges, including an ongoing corruption investigation involving senior BGN officials such as former agency head Dadan Hindayana
After Prabowo appointed Sudaryono on July 22 to replace former BGN head Nanik S. Deyang, who resigned citing health reasons, Sudaryono shut down 883 of the country’s roughly 28,000 SPPGs during his first week in the office, citing violations of hygiene and operational standards as well as inadequate wastewater treatment facilities. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
