Indonesia Free School Meal Program Probed After 2,000 Fall Ill From Suspected Poisoning

Nearly 2,000 people, most of them students, fell ill in suspected food poisoning outbreaks this week linked to President Prabowo Subianto's flagship Free Nutritious Meals program, officials said Saturday, raising fresh concerns about food safety as the government continues to rapidly expand the multibillion-dollar initiative nationwide. The incidents, reported between Tuesday and Thursday, affected roughly 1,950 students, teachers and Islamic boarding school pupils across East Java, Central Java, West Sumatra, Aceh and South Sulawesi after they consumed meals distributed under the program, known locally by its Indonesian acronym MBG.

The largest of the reported outbreaks occurred in Central Java's Rembang regency, where 752 students and 25 teachers at State Senior High School 1 Lasem suffered symptoms including diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and stomach pain after eating meals provided through the program, according to the head of the Rembang Health Office. A separate but comparably large outbreak was reported in Sidoarjo, East Java, where 730 people, most of them students at the Manbaul Hikam Islamic boarding school, were affected. Local health authorities said the majority of those sickened in Sidoarjo, more than 700 individuals, had since been discharged from medical care and were recovering at home.

Additional cases were reported elsewhere across the archipelago. In Agam regency, West Sumatra, authorities recorded 276 suspected cases involving students and teachers, prompting officials to suspend food distribution from the local nutrition service center pending an investigation into the cause. In Aceh's Bener Meriah regency, a smaller but still notable incident saw 15 elementary school students and a school principal treated for dizziness, nausea and other symptoms after consuming a school meal provided under the program.

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The latest string of outbreaks adds to a long and growing list of food poisoning incidents linked to the Free Nutritious Meals program since its launch in January 2025. According to Indonesia's Health Ministry surveillance data, as of early September, food poisoning incidents associated with the program have affected more than 50,000 people across some 560 separate cases spanning 245 districts and cities in 36 provinces nationwide. The scale of these figures has fueled repeated criticism from lawmakers, food safety advocates and public health experts, some of whom have called for the program to be paused pending a comprehensive review of its food handling and safety protocols.

The Free Nutritious Meals program, one of President Prabowo's signature policy initiatives, was launched with the stated aim of improving nutrition among Indonesian schoolchildren and has since expanded to cover a broader population, including pregnant women, nursing mothers and young children. The program's rapid scale-up, from a relatively modest number of preparation kitchens at launch to tens of thousands of operational sites nationwide, has been cited by some analysts as a contributing factor to the recurring safety lapses, given the strain placed on food preparation, storage and distribution systems expanding at such speed.

Despite the repeated outbreaks and separate allegations of corruption tied to the program's implementation, the Indonesian government has continued to expand its reach, framing the initiative as a central pillar of its efforts to address child malnutrition and support long-term development outcomes. As scrutiny of the program intensifies following this week's incidents, officials are likely to face continued pressure to strengthen food safety oversight and transparency measures, even as the government maintains its broader commitment to the program's nationwide rollout.

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