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🇮🇩 Indonesia /Culture & Society

More than 1,700 fall ill after Indonesia’s free school meals

From Tempo · () Indonesian

Translated from Indonesian and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • More than 1,700 people in several Indonesian regions have reported food poisoning after eating meals from the government’s free school meals program.
  • Reported cases include pupils, teachers and other residents, with symptoms including diarrhea, vomiting and nausea; one lawmaker cited health department data putting the total since the program began as high as 50,000.
  • Improper food storage and delayed delivery of pre-cooked meals have been blamed, adding pressure to President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship nutrition program.

More than 1,700 people have fallen ill across Indonesia in the past week after eating free school meals, adding to mounting concern over President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship program.

At least 725 pupils and 25 teachers at a school in Lasem, on Java, complained of diarrhea, vomiting and nausea on Thursday morning after eating lunch served the previous day. The school’s principal said the bathrooms filled with queues, with two of the school’s toilets under renovation.

They had diarrhea, they were vomiting, and felt nauseous.

· School principal in LasemThe principal described symptoms reported by pupils and teachers after the meal.

More than 600 students in Sidoarjo, East Java, were also taken to hospital earlier in the week. Separate outbreaks affected 49 people in Nganjuk, East Java, and 237 people in Agam, West Sumatra.

This is a failure of the system.

· Charles HonorisThe lawmaker criticized the food poisoning cases linked to the program.

Lawmaker Charles Honoris said health department data indicated that as many as 50,000 food poisoning cases had been linked to the scheme since it began. “This is a failure of the system,” he said.

The outbreaks have been blamed on improper food storage and delays in delivering pre-cooked meals. In Lasem, a food taster reportedly found some grilled chicken “slimy” and set it aside. The school principal said the kitchen operator reported that the food had been cooked at 3 a.m. and eaten at noon.

This has become a national alarm. The government cannot continue to treat them as mere statistical figures. Behind every number there is a sick child, a panicked family, and the state's failure to guarantee safe food.

· Ubaid MatrajiThe education researcher described the wider public concern over the outbreaks.

Launched in January 2025, the $12.94 billion program aims to improve nutrition for up to 80 million children, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers. It has faced allegations of corruption, leadership changes and repeated mass food poisoning outbreaks. The government’s National Nutrition Agency said the cases would be handled “seriously.” Ubaid Matraji of the Indonesian Education Monitoring Network called the situation “a national alarm” and said each case represented a sick child, a frightened family and a failure to guarantee safe food.

Seriously

· Head of Indonesia’s National Nutrition AgencyThe agency chief said the food poisoning cases would be handled seriously at a parliamentary hearing.
About this summary

Originally published by Tempo in Indonesian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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