More than 360 people have been ill in the town of Slagen, Java, Indonesia’s Slagen town, after consuming school lunches, officials said Thursday in the biggest food poisoning incident that struck President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship free meal program.
Since its launch in January, the free school lunch program has been undermined by cases of heavy food poisoning across the archipelago, affecting more than 1,000 people.
Sragen government chief Sigit Pamungkas said 365 Reuters have become ill and food samples are being tested in the lab. The government will pay for treatment if necessary.
Withdandrid Hoimanyu, a ninth grader at Gemoron 1 Middle School, told Reuters that he woke up at night with a sharp pain in his stomach.
He had a headache and diarrhea, but after seeing a social media post from a schoolmate complaining about the same, he speculated that it was caused by food poisoning.
Possible contaminated lunches were turmeric rice, omelette ribbons, fried tempeh, cucumbers, lettuce salad, sliced apples, milk cooked in the central kitchen and distributed to several schools.
“We asked to temporarily suspend the distribution of food from that kitchen until the results of the lab return,” Sigitt said.
The government’s national nutrition agency that oversees the programme has raised standards for kitchen operation and delivery in the aftermath of a previous food poisoning incident, its chief Dadan Hindeyana told Reuters.
The free meal program has been rapidly expanding to over 15 million recipients so far. Authorities are expected to reach 83 million by the end of the year, and will budget a total cost of 171 trillion rupiah ($10.62 billion) this year.
Media reports say that in the case of food poisoning in West Java in West Java in May, more than 200 students became ill and the lab found that food was contaminated with bacteria from salmonella and E. coli.
