Jakarta – At least 72 children from four different schools in Duren Sawit, East Jakarta have shown symptoms of food poisoning after consuming school lunches prepared under the government's free nutritious meal program last week, prompting the shutdown of the participating kitchen due to failure to meet food safety standards.
The kitchen in question, the Nutrition Fulfillment Service Unit (SPPG) Pondok Kelapa II in Duren Sawit, first received reports of several students suffering from nausea, diarrhea and stomachache on Thursday afternoon shortly after consuming packaged meals consisting of spaghetti, meatballs, scrambled egg tofu, mixed vegetables and strawberries.
The Jakarta provincial administration later confirmed on Saturday that meals distributed by the kitchen had caused food poisoning in 72 students from state senior high school SMAN 91 and state elementary schools SDN Pondok Kelapa 01, 07 and 09 in Duren Sawit.
As of Sunday, the students were still receiving medical treatment at city-owned Duren Sawit hospital and two private hospitals in East Jakarta.
The National Nutrition Agency (BGN), which manages the free meals program, has since shut down the kitchen indefinitely due to a failure to meet the standards for food safety and wastewater treatment.
The agency linked the food poisoning incident to a critical delay between preparation and serving time, arguing that the lapse allowed the quality of the distributed meals to worsen and ultimately triggered health issues among the students.
"We apologize for this incident. The agency will also cover all the hospital treatment costs," BGN deputy head Nanik Sudaryati Deyang said in a statement on Saturday.
Nanik told The Jakarta Post on Sunday that the agency had been regularly conducting inspections at free meals program kitchens to ensure compliance.
Jakarta Governor Pramono Anung visited the students hospitalized at the Duren Sawit hospital on Saturday, saying that their recovery could be expected shortly, as they have begun to stabilize.
The governor said his office had communicated with the BGN to track down the cause of the poisoning case, while reasserting the Jakarta administration's commitment to support the central government's free meals program.
"The safety and well-being of children are our top priority," Pramono said.
"The Jakarta administration is committed to closely monitoring the situation to guarantee an optimal medical care, while also coordinating with all relevant parties to ensure a comprehensive response and evaluation," he added.
The ambitious free meals program, a flagship initiative of President Prabowo Subianto aimed at addressing the country's chronic stunting problem, has been marred by a spate of mass food poisoning cases.
Nearly 2,000 cases nationwide were reported in January alone, according to education watchdog Network for Education Watch Indonesia (JPPI).
The latest incident in East Jakarta brings the total number of cases to more than 20,000 since the program was launched early last year.
"It's not enough to just halt the operation of the kitchen. The kitchen in question must also be thoroughly audited to ensure that such incidents would not happen again," JPPI national coordinator Ubaid Matraji said on Sunday.
Last month, the BGN suspended the operations of more than 2,200 kitchens nationwide for failing to obtain mandatory hygiene certification.
The BGN on Monday canceled the permit of an under-construction kitchen in East Jakarta before it became operational, following a viral video showing the kitchen being built some 100 meters from an unauthorized dumpsite.
"The location of the kitchen violates our standards. A kitchen must not be located in close proximity to waste, animal enclosures or other potential sources of contamination," Nanik of the BGN said, as quoted from Kompas.com.