TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Education Monitoring Network (JPPI) reported that the number of children experienced food poisoning from the government's free nutritious meal project, also known as MBG, as of 12th October 2025, has reached 11,566 children. The National Coordinator of JPPI, Ubaid Matraji, stated that there have been a total of 1,084 new poisoning cases within the last week or during the period from 6th to 12th October 2025.
Ubaid believes that the tens of thousands of children becoming victims of MBG poisoning is not merely a matter of negligence, but a crisis of public responsibility. "Every week, thousands of children collapse due to MBG, yet the country allows the kitchens to continue operating," Ubaid said through a written statement on Monday, 13th October 2025.
Based on data collected by JPPI and volunteers in various regions, poisoning cases have spread to two new regions that were previously unreported. These two provinces are South Kalimantan (Banjar Regency) and Gorontalo (Gorontalo City). "This indicates the increasingly widespread and uncontrolled spread of cases," stated Ubaid.
JPPI's records show that the highest MBG poisoning cases this week occurred in East Nusa Tenggara with 384 victims, followed by Central Java with 347 victims, and South Kalimantan with 130 victims.
Meanwhile, if calculated from January to 12th October 2025, several provinces with the highest MBG poisoning cases include West Java with 4,125 victims, followed by Central Java with 1,666 victims, and Yogyakarta Special Region with 1,053 victims. This is then followed by East Java with 950 victims, and East Nusa Tenggara with 800 victims.
JPPI found a significant increase in poisoning cases in East Java and East Nusa Tenggara. These two provinces, according to Ubaid, were not among the top five on 30th September 2025. However, these two regions are now among the list of provinces with the most victims. According to JPPI, the surge in cases indicates an escalation and the failure of quality control in the field.
JPPI found that the victims are no longer limited to students. The network received reports that teachers, toddlers, pregnant women, and family members have also become victims. Free nutritious meal packages brought home or distributed to Integrated Health Post (Posyandu) have caused poisoning to spread to households, as seen in Bima, Ketapang, and South Central Timor.
JPPI believes that the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) has failed in implementing the basic principles of governance, namely transparency, accountability, and public participation. "Hundreds of trillion rupiah in funds were disbursed without clear legal support, while thousands of children became victims of immature policy experiments," said Ubaid.
Prior to this, BGN announced that 4,711 beneficiaries of MBG had experienced various poisoning symptoms until 22 September 2025. BGN noted 45 poisoning cases or extraordinary events (KLB) in the free nutritious meal program since it first commenced in January 2025.
The Head of BGN, Dadan Hindayana, stated that the data was collected directly from the field by the Deputy of Monitoring and Supervision. According to him, poisoning cases usually occur in new Nutrition Fulfillment Service Units. "New NFSU still needs its own habits and mitigation," Dadan said at his office in Jakarta on Monday, 22nd September 2025.
Dadan explained that his agency divided the poisoning cases into three regions. The details are as follows: the first region consists of the western part of Indonesia with a total of 7 cases, then the second region covers the island of Java with 27 cases, and the third region covers the eastern part of Indonesia and other regions with 11 cases.
Dadan admitted that this program, which consumed tens of trillion rupiah, still has many shortcomings. However, he said that the agency will continue to make improvements while increasing the number of kitchens to achieve the target.
Free nutritious meals are one of the flagship programs of President Prabowo Subianto, included in his campaign promises during the 2024 presidential election. Prabowo aimed for this program to reach 82.9 million beneficiaries, consisting of school children, pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and toddlers.
Since its launch in January 2025, MBG has yet to have legal support for the use of state funds, both in laws and presidential regulations (perpres). The government has so far only issued Presidential Regulation No. 83 of 2024 concerning the National Nutrition Agency.
The draft Presidential Regulation on the Governance of Free Nutritious Meals is now available at the State Secretariat Ministry. The regulation has not been ratified by Prabowo because its contents are still being refined. "There are still several inputs, especially from the Ministry of Health," said Minister of State Prasetyo Hadi in Menteng, South Jakarta, on Friday, 10th October 2025.
Dian Rahma Fika contributed to the writing of this article.
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