More than 1,000 children in Indonesia have been taken ill this week after eating free school lunches under President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship meals programme, raising fresh concerns about food safety in the $28bn initiative.
Health officials said the latest cases were reported in West Java’s Cipongkor, where 1,258 children fell sick between Monday and Wednesday. This comes just a week after 800 other students in West Java and Central Sulawesi suffered similar symptoms.
President Prabowo launched the meals scheme to provide free lunches to 80 million children, presenting it as a solution to childhood stunting and a central pillar of his presidency.
But a wave of mass poisoning incidents has fuelled calls from rights groups and campaigners to suspend the project for review.
Muhaimin Iskandar, Coordinating Minister for Community Empowerment, insisted on Wednesday that “there are no plans to stop it.”
Victims complained of stomach aches, nausea, dizziness and in some cases shortness of breath, an unusual symptom for food poisoning. Meals served this week included soy sauce chicken, fried tofu, vegetables and fruit. Earlier cases had been linked to expired sauces and even fried shark.
Dadan Hindayana, head of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN), said last week’s poisoning in Cipongkor stemmed from a technical mistake by the Nutrition Fulfillment Service Unit (SPPG). The agency has since suspended SPPG’s operations in the area.
West Bandung regent Jeje Ritchie Ismail declared the incident “an extraordinary event so that handling can be faster and more comprehensive.”
Data shows the scale of the problem. From January to 22 September, BGN recorded 4,711 cases of food poisoning linked to the scheme, mostly on Java. However, the Indonesian Education Monitoring Network (JPPI) reported a higher figure of 6,452 cases by 21 September.
“This abnormal situation should require the government to declare an outbreak and temporarily halt the programme for a thorough evaluation,” said JPPI National Coordinator Ubaid Matraji.
Some have proposed that funding be redirected to parents to prepare meals at home, but authorities have dismissed this option.
Despite mounting criticism, the government is pressing ahead. In its first phase since January, free meals have reached 550,000 students in 26 provinces, with more expansion planned.
The programme, however, faces questions not only on food safety but also on its cost. Indonesia has allocated over $10bn this year alone for the scheme, far higher than comparable programmes in India and Brazil.
Experts have cautioned that large-scale social initiatives in Indonesia have often been prone to corruption.
“Given the sheer size of the budget,” said Muhammad Rafi Bakri, a research analyst at Indonesia’s audit board, “this programme is a goldmine for corrupt officials.”
Prabowo has defended the policy as a promise fulfilled, arguing that “through this initiative, our children will grow taller and emerge as champions.”
His approval ratings reached 80% in his first 100 days in office, but the repeated outbreaks now risk undermining public trust in one of his biggest political pledges.