Jakarta – Most of the soft drinks and snacks sold in Indonesia's elementary school canteens use textile dyes and are contaminated with the E. coli bacteria, which causes worm-related diseases, a report said.

Mr Adi Sasongko, head of Kusuma Buana Foundation's anaemia eradication team, said on Wednesday that the team had discovered such conditions after conducting surveys in several elementary schools in Jakarta recently.

"The canteen owners confirmed the use of these unhealthy substances. They said that it was cheaper to use textile dyes," he told a seminar on an anaemia eradication programme in Jakarta's elementary schools. Consuming textile dyes in food and drinks over a long period of time could cause cancer among schoolchildren, he said.