en.malanginspirasi.com – A wave of mass food poisoning linked to President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship national Free Meal Program or Makan Bergizi Gratis (MBG) in Indonesia has sparked national outrage and gained widespread international media coverage.
Over the past three days, nearly 2,000 students and teachers across multiple Indonesian provinces, including East Java and Central Java, have fallen ill after consuming state-provided school lunches.
The series of contamination incidents came to a head this week with two major outbreaks.
In Lasem, Central Java, 777 individuals at a local high school suffered symptoms such as severe nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea shortly after eating their designated meal boxes.
Meanwhile, in Sidoarjo, East Java, a separate incident at an Islamic boarding school affected 730 students.
The standard response and public health fallout have quickly caught the eye of major international news agencies, including Reuters, the BBC, Deutsche Welle, and the South China Morning Post.
Global outlets have highlighted growing concerns over food safety standards, hygiene regulation, and logistics oversight in executing such a massive infrastructure project.
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In response to the domestic panic and international scrutiny, school officials, including the headteacher in Lasem, confirmed that the government has stepped in to cover emergency medical expenses, while local authorities suspended operations at several kitchens tied to the bad batches.
At the same time, education advocacy groups have called for formal investigations and immediate safety audits of participating central kitchens.
From the government side, the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) pledged a thorough review of food distribution timelines and kitchen hygiene protocols.
Prabowo acknowledged the incidents as deeply regrettable, but he urged the public to consider the overall scale of the project, characterizing the cases as a small fraction compared to the millions of safe meals successfully served nationwide.
Health agencies are currently performing lab tests on food samples as public pressure continues to build on social media platform X.
