November 19, 2025 | 06:55 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Nutritionists Association (Persagi) has countered the National Nutrition Agency's (BGN) assessment that Indonesia lacks enough nutrition experts to support the government's Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) program.
Doddy Izwardy, Chair of Persagi, affirmed that universities continue to produce a substantial number of graduates in the field. "The production of graduates is up to 11,000 per year," Doddy said in Menteng, Central Jakarta, on Wednesday, November 19, 2025.
However, Doddy admitted that his organization lacks comprehensive information regarding the current location or employment status of these nutrition experts post-graduation. He acknowledged that this information gap explains why some managers of MBG public kitchens or nutrition fulfillment service units (SPPGs) find it difficult to locate nutritionists. This difficulty persists even though every SPPG is required to employ nutrition experts to inspect food safety and nutritional quality.
Nevertheless, Doddy insisted that the total number of nutrition experts available is sufficient to meet the needs of all SPPGs nationwide for the MBG program. "Sufficient for the entire Indonesia," he confirmed.
To bridge the information gap, Doddy stated that Persagi will assist the BGN, the body implementing the MBG program, in locating and deploying these experts. Persagi has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with BGN for the deployment of nutrition specialists.
According to Doddy, Persagi has consolidated its resources, including 35 provincial regional leadership councils and 500 city/district branch leadership councils, to effectively map the availability of nutrition experts across the country.
Persagi's statement responds to earlier claims by BGN, which reported that nutrition experts had become a "rare profession" since the implementation of the MBG program by the Prabowo Subianto administration began on January 6, 2025.
The head of BGN, Dadan Hindayana, stated that nutrition experts, who previously often faced difficulty finding employment, are now highly sought after. "Commission IX [of the House of Representatives] suggested that BGN find a way out of the shortage of the nutrition expert profession," he said after a hearing on Wednesday, November 12, 2025.
To address the perceived shortage, Dadan continued, BGN plans to seek graduates or bachelor's degree holders from similar scientific disciplines as alternatives. "For example, graduates of public health, food technology, or food processing," said the IPB University professor.
Based on data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) in 2024, the number of nutrition experts in Indonesia was 34,553. This figure reflected a minor decrease of about 5 percent from the 36,400 recorded in 2023.
Andi Adam Faturahman contributed to the report.
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