More than 1,000 children have fallen ill from free school lunches in Indonesia this week, according to authorities – the latest in a string of mass food poisoning events linked to President Prabowo Subianto’s multi-billion-dollar nutritious meals programme.
Yuyun Sarihotima, head of West Java’s Cipongkor Community Health Center, told BBC Indonesia that the total number of poisoning victims recorded between Monday and Wednesday had reached 1,258.
It follows the poisoning of 800 students last week in West Java and Central Sulawesi provinces.
President Prabowo has made the nutritious meals programme – which aims to offer free lunches to 80 million school children – a signature of his leadership.
But a spate of mass food poisoning incidents has led non-governmental organisations to call for authorities to suspend the programme due to health concerns.
Muhaimin Iskandar, Coordinating Minister for Community Empowerment, said on Wednesday that “there are no plans to stop it”.
Victims of the recent outbreaks complained of stomach aches, dizziness, and nausea – as well as shortness of breath, which is a non-typical symptom of food poisoning.
In previous cases of food poisoning stemming from the free lunch programme negligent food preparation has been cited as a suspected cause.
This week’s victims ate meals that included soy sauce chicken, fried tofu, vegetables and fruit – but past poisoning incidents have been linked to expired sauce and, in one case, the serving of fried shark.
The head of Indonesia’s National Nutrition Agency (BGN) Dadan Hindayana said on Wednesday that the mass food poisoning in Cipongkor last week was the result of a technical error by the Nutrition Fulfillment Service Unit (SPPG).
Credit: bbc.com
