The case continues to be related to the Indonesian President's billion-dollar free meal program and is seen as a warning for the initiative.
According to Governor Dedi Mulyadi, mass poisoning cases were recorded in 4 areas of West Java province. Meanwhile, some non-governmental organizations have called for the program to be suspended due to health concerns.
A week earlier, 800 students in West Java and Central Sulawesi were also poisoned after eating lunch provided by the program.
The free nutritional meal program - President Prabowo Subianto's mark - has now expanded rapidly, reaching more than 20 million people, aiming to ensure meals for 83 million people out of a total of 280 million Indonesians before the end of the year.
The program's budget of 171,000 billion rupiah (10.22 billion USD) is expected to double next year.
Governor Mulyadi said that in West Bandung alone, more than 470 students were poisoned on September 22, after eating a free lunch, while 3 other incidents occurred on September 24 in the Sukabumi area, causing at least 580 students to be hospitalized.
We have to re-evaluate the people running the program and most importantly, how to deal with psychological trauma in students after poisoning, Mulyadi said, adding that small hospitals in the West Bandung are overloaded with the number of poisoned students.
The Prabowo office has not commented on the incident.
Dadan hindayana, head of the National Nutrition Agency - the program's monitoring unit - said that kitchens involved in the poisoning have been suspended.
