This is the largest food poisoning case involving Indonesia's free meal program by President Prabowo Subianto.
Since its launch in January 2025, the free school meal program has caused a series of food poisoning cases across the country, affecting more than 1,000 people.
Sigit Pamungkas, head of the Sragen government, said that a food sample is being tested in a laboratory and the government will cover all medical expenses if necessary.
Dishes that are likely to be contaminated include turmeric rice, fried eggplant, fried tempeh, cucumber and lettuce salad, sliced apples and a box of milk. This lunch is cooked in a centralized kitchen and distributed to many schools.
We have asked to temporarily stop distributing food from that kitchen until the test results are available, Sigit said.
Meanwhile, according to Dadan hindayana, head of the National Nutrition Agency, the program's monitoring agency, standards for kitchen operations and distribution after food poisoning cases were improved before the incident.
Previously, in May, more than 200 students were injured in a mass food poisoning incident in West Java (Indonesia). Notably, the test results at that time showed that the food was contaminated with Salmonella and E. coli.
However, the above free meal program has been rapidly expanded and has served more than 15 million Indonesians so far.
The authorities even plan to reach 83 million arrivals by the end of 2025, with a total budget of 171 trillion rupiah (10.62 billion USD).
