Phesi Ester Julikawati, Jakarta – Seven students from State Elementary School 59 in Bengkulu were rushed to Harapan dan Doa Hospital following suspected food poisoning. The students suffered dizziness, stomach pain, and vomiting after consuming the government's Free Nutritious Meal (MBG) on Friday, September 4, 2026.
Ningrum Hartanto, a teacher at the school, noted that she detected an unpleasant odor coming from her meal portion. "When I opened the food box, I smelled a bad odor, particularly coming from the chicken nuggets," Ningrum said.
Upon realizing the issue, school administrators immediately ordered students to stop eating the meals. However, several children had already consumed the food and began complaining of severe abdominal pain and nausea 15 minutes later.
School staff promptly brought the affected students to a local community health center (Puskesmas) before they were referred to the emergency room at Harapan dan Doa Hospital in Bengkulu. All seven students received intensive medical treatment at the hospital and have since been discharged following their recovery.
Meanwhile, Bengkulu City Health Office Head Nelli Hartati stated that authorities immediately coordinated with the MBG kitchen, or the Nutrition Service Fulfillment Unit (SPPG), to recall all distributed MBG packages from 10 other schools following the outbreak. "Samples of the suspected contaminated food have been submitted to the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) for laboratory analysis," she said.
Bengkulu Province SPPG Regional Coordinator Iqbal Ramadan stated that officials are closely monitoring developments and have temporarily halted SPPG operations for a thorough evaluation pending official laboratory results from BPOM.
"We monitored the situation on the ground and coordinated with the Health Office regarding the seven affected students. Thankfully, they have all been discharged home, and samples from the MBG packages have been delivered to BPOM for testing. We are awaiting the laboratory results to determine the cause and we are evaluating our SPPG operations," he explained.
Source: https://en.tempo.co/read/2118971/more-free-meal-poisonings-hit-indonesia-7-sick-in-bengkul