JAKARTA: The latest series of food poisoning incidents has put President Prabowo Subianto’s free nutritious meal programme under renewed scrutiny, with cases now being investigated by the National Police and questions mounting over whether recent reforms have addressed the programme’s underlying problems.
More than 2,000 school students and teachers have fallen ill in separate food poisoning incidents across Java, Sumatra and Sulawesi over the past week after consuming meals provided through the government’s flagship initiative.
Dozens have been hospitalised with nausea, vomiting and stomach aches.
The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) on Friday called on the police to conduct a “transparent, independent” investigation into the incidents, saying repeated food poisoning cases threatened children’s right to life.
“[The government] must provide comprehensive remedies to the victims, including transparent epidemiological investigations to identify the root causes, fair sanctions and measures to ensure that such incidents will not happen again,” Komnas HAM commissioner Uli Parulian Sihombing said.
New National Nutrition Agency (BGN) head Sudaryono, who oversees the free meals programme, described the incidents as “deliberate negligence” by kitchens that had failed to follow the agency’s food-safety procedures.
In mid-August, just weeks after being appointed head of BGN, Sudaryono introduced so-called expiry labels on free meal packages to address widespread food poisoning incidents.
Under the new measure, meals must be consumed within four hours of being prepared at designated kitchens, known as Nutrition Fulfilment Service Units (SPPGs).
“We have checked the chronology [of the poisoning incidents] and found that the kitchens had not labelled all the food trays. For example, of the 400 trays delivered, only one was labelled,” Sudaryono said in a video statement on Thursday.
“If the food is cooked at 5 a.m., it must be consumed by 9 a.m. [...] But what happened on the ground was that meals that should have been consumed by 10 a.m. were only delivered to schools after 11 a.m. [...] That is what caused the mass food poisoning,” he went on to say.
Sudaryono warned that those responsible for the mass poisoning incidents could face strict sanctions, including criminal charges if negligence is proven. He added that the National Police had begun investigating kitchens.
“Whether there are suspects or not, we leave that to the results of the investigation by law enforcement officers.”
Workers transport containers of the free nutritious meals programme by cart for distribution to schools in Sangkurio, Mamuju, West Sulawesi, on Aug. 11, 2026. The West Sulawesi Regional Office of the Directorate General of Treasury (DJPb) said the province had allocated Rp220 trillion (US$13.7 million) in state funds for the programme by mid-2026, reaching 375,922 beneficiaries and supported by 169 Nutrition Fulfilment Service Units (SPPGs) out of a target of 189.
Prabowo launched the multi-billion-dollar programme last year to improve nutrition for tens of millions of children, but it has been repeatedly hit by mass food poisoning incidents, allegations of corruption and leadership turmoil at the BGN.
The scale of the food-safety problem is difficult to dismiss as a string of isolated incidents. Data from the Network for Education Watch (JPPI), a non-governmental watchdog, shows that at least 43,000 children had suffered food poisoning linked to the programme by mid-August. Of those, 15,735 cases were recorded in the first eight months of this year, including 3,079 in August alone.
The latest outbreaks came shortly after Sudaryono, a close ally of Prabowo who has held several senior positions in the President’s Gerindra Party, vowed to overhaul the programme.
His reform agenda includes tighter oversight of kitchens, stricter hygiene standards, digital tracking and a review of beneficiary targets.
Yet the repeated outbreaks suggest that the government’s response has so far failed to address the deeper weaknesses behind the programme’s food-safety failures.
Critics, including MBG Watch, a civil society coalition monitoring the programme, say authorities have focused too heavily on administrative penalties, such as suspending or removing SPPG heads, while failing to fix systemic problems in how the programme is managed and monitored.
Meanwhile, the JPPI said the latest incidents also showed that previous promises of evaluation had failed to produce meaningful improvements.
The outbreaks, which occurred during the first week of school after the July holiday, closely mirrored previous waves of food poisoning linked to the programme.
“The government cannot keep hiding behind the word ‘evaluation’ while children continue to be treated at health centres and hospitals.
An evaluation is meaningless if it does not lead to real changes in the way the programme is managed and food safety is handled,” the JPPI’s Ubaid Matraji said.
Center for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS) senior researcher Jimmy Daniel Berlianto said the government needed to go beyond operational fixes and rethink the programme’s governance structure.
He called for an end to its centralised, top-down model and greater authority for local administrations to oversee implementation and monitoring.
“Not every region faces the same challenges. Local actors therefore need greater room to determine the implementation model that best suits their circumstances, while the central government focuses on setting national standards and oversight,” Jimmy said in a statement on Friday.
Lawmaker Charles Honoris from the quasi-opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) described the repeated incidents as “failure of the system” and called for a radical overhaul, including a shift from centralised kitchens to school-based kitchens to reduce the risk of food contamination.
“I hope the President can leave a positive legacy by improving our children’s nutrition and reducing stunting. But if the implementation model does not change, I am not convinced those goals can be achieved,” Charles said during a hearing with the BGN on Thursday. - Jakarta Post/ANN
