JAKARTA: A buffet-style system currently being tested under President Prabowo Subianto’s free nutritious meal programme may do little to address concerns over food safety and programme management, while involving students in serving meals could disturb their learning and break time, critics say.
The National Nutrition Agency (BGN) introduced the system earlier this week, saying it had drawn lessons from countries that have integrated school meals with education.
BGN head Sudaryono said the method, being piloted in at least 60 free meals kitchens known as SPPG, was comparable to school lunch practices in Japan.
Under the system, the meals are delivered warm from kitchens to classrooms, where designated students help portion the food. Their classmates then line up with trays to collect their meals before eating at their desks.
Japan’s long established national lunch programme, however, goes beyond meal distribution. It treats lunchtime as an educational activity that teaches children about nutrition, food culture and table manners.
Students take turns serving and distributing meals as part of established school routines, supported by nutritional guidance and food-safety practices. Meals are also prepared at in-site school kitchens, unlike Indonesia’s SPPG-based distribution system.
Education observer Ubaid Matraji of the Indonesian Education Monitoring Network (JPPI) said the BGN approach could disrupt students’ lunch breaks and overall learning schedules, as having students distribute meals manually could take longer than necessary.
The system also does not eliminate the risk of food contamination, he said, as meals are still prepared at kitchens outside school complexes and must be transported to schools.
“If there is no time limit, say two hours, from when the food is prepared until it’s consumed, there’s still a risk of bacterial contamination,” Ubaid said on Thursday (Oct 8).
He added that having students portion the food could make nutritional content per serving less consistent, increase food waste and create opportunities for price markups.
Ubaid argued that the BGN was “too focused on technical matters without addressing the problems raised by the public,” including unhygienic kitchens, inadequate food-safety safeguards, lack of transparency in program management, weak accountability and failure to reach those most in need.
He urged the agency to instead redesign the programme to better serve those in need, including stunted children, people facing food insecurity and low-income communities in underdeveloped regions.
Annette Mau of the Indonesian Mothers Alliance agreed, arguing that the trial was merely “a manoeuvre to polish the programme’s image” rather than an effort to address deeper problems in its management.
“We recommend that meals be prepared in school kitchens or nearby community kitchens serving only one or two schools, rather than using the current distribution model,” she said on Friday.
“This would ensure greater freshness.” Isnawati Hidayah of the Center for Economic and Law Studies (Celios), who initiated the MBG Watch programme watchdog, criticised the BGN for experimenting with a new serving method rather than taking concrete steps to address the growing number of food-poisoning cases associated with the programme.
“Food safety issues are complex and begin at the meal preparation stage, long before distribution. The buffet system addresses only one stage, while the other stages have yet to be taken into account,” she said.
The BGN, meanwhile, says the buffet-style system is intended to improve food quality and safety by shortening the time between cooking and consumption, allowing students to receive warmer, fresher meals.
“We hope, first, that the food will taste better because it is served warm. Second, it will certainly be fresher because there is no time delay, reducing the risk of food spoilage that could cause health problems,” Sudaryono said in a statement on Wednesday.
The trial comes amid repeated food-safety incidents since the initiative was launched in January last year.
Health Ministry surveillance data presented to the House of Representatives in early September showed that 560 suspected food-poisoning incidents linked to the programme had affected 50,059 people across 36 provinces.
BGN would continue monitoring the trials before deciding whether the buffet model was ready for wider implementation.
Sudaryono said the evaluation would consider the readiness of kitchens, schools and personnel, as well as the characteristics of beneficiaries in different regions. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
