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JAKARTA: Over 800 students fell sick in two cases of mass food poisoning this week after consuming free school meals sponsored by the Indonesian government, officials said on Friday.
One case affected more than 500 and was the biggest outbreak yet under President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship program. From January, when the program was launched, up to August, over 4,000 children have been hit by food poisoning after consuming the meals, according to Indonesian-based think tank, the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance, raising questions on oversight.
In Indonesia’s West Java province, 569 students from five schools in the Garut region experienced nausea and vomiting on Wednesday after consuming chicken and rice provided by one free meals kitchen a day earlier, Nurdin Yana, the secretary of Garut regional government, told Reuters.
“As of Friday, ten students are still being treated at the hospital and others have recovered,” Yana said. Initially, about 30 students had to be hospitalized, while the rest were treated at home, he added.
The local government will increase surveillance of the kitchen that provided the meals, Yana said, adding the program would not be halted but, instead, students would be given more basic food, such as bread, milk, boiled eggs and fruit for now.
Another mass food poisoning case linked to the program occurred on Wednesday in the Banggai Islands of Central Sulawesi province, affecting 277 students, the National Nutrition Agency, which oversees the program, said in a statement, adding that meal distribution in the area was temporarily halted.
Prabowo’s spokesperson Prasetyo Hadi said on Friday that the government apologized for the “re-occurrence of cases in several areas that are, of course, not what we had hoped for or intentional.”
Questions have been raised about standards and oversight of the program, which has expanded rapidly to reach over 20 million recipients, with an ambitious goal of reaching 83 million by year-end and a budget of 171 trillion rupiah ($10.32 billion).
The budget for the program will be doubled next year.

ROME: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s hard-right government has agreed to grant citizenship to a pro-Trump Fox News journalist for her work improving US-Italian ties.
The proposal concerning Maria Bartiromo, a prominent business journalist and news anchor with Italian roots, was agreed at a cabinet meeting late Thursday.
Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi had put the proposal to the cabinet for the granting of citizenship “for special merits,” a government statement said.
“Throughout her more than 30-year career as a journalist, (Bartiromo) has significantly contributed to strengthening relations between Italy and the United States, maintaining her unwavering commitment to Italian institutions,” it said.
The proposal will now go to Italy’s ceremonial head of state, President Sergio Mattarella, for approval.
Bartiromo has spoken proudly about her Italian ancestors, recalling how her grandfather Carmine arrived in the United States at the age of 11.
Her father’s family is from Naples and her mother’s family is from Agrigento in Sicily.
Bartiromo’s citizenship is within the rules, even after Meloni’s government tightened the requirements for an Italian passport this year.
Previously, people proving blood ties of up to four generations could apply, but now they must have an Italian parent or grandparent.
However, the decision to award the journalist citizenship has made headlines in Italy, given her outspoken support for Trump and accusations that she peddles conspiracy theories.
Fox, the Rupert Murdoch-owned network, and Bartiromo were named in multi-billion-dollar defamation lawsuits launched by Smartmatic over baseless fraud claims involving their voting technology in the 2020 US presidential election.