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JAKARTA: Hundreds of children suffered food poisoning from school lunches in Indonesia this week, health officials have reported, in the latest outbreaks related to the national multi-billion-dollar free meals program.

Launched in January, the Free Nutritious Meals Program was a centerpiece of the election campaign that catapulted President Prabowo Subianto to power last year. With a budget of around $10 billion, it plans to serve nearly 83 million students and pregnant mothers across Indonesia by year end. 

But cases of food poisoning linked to the program have been increasingly reported since it began. This week, hundreds of students fell ill after eating school lunches in the West Bandung region of West Java province, prompting the local government to declare a health emergency. 

“The total number is currently at 842 people … (The most severe cases) involved seizure, severe dehydration, headaches and loss of consciousness,” Lia N. Sukandar, who heads West Bandung’s health agency, told reporters on Wednesday evening. 

Scenes from the West Bandung outbreaks have been widely circulated on Indonesian social media, with footage showing ambulances coming and going and sick students in pain as they lie on fold-out beds and the floor. 

Across the country, the total number of food poisoning cases is expected to rise further this week, as local media outlets on Thursday reported hundreds more incidents in West Java and nearly 200 others in the provinces of Central Java and East Nusa Tenggara. 

“The food has gone stale because they were cooked late at night and then distributed and eaten by the students the next day. So the time is too long between when it was cooked and when it was served, and this should be evaluated,” West Java Governor Dedi Mulyadi told reporters. 

Nanik S. Deyang, deputy head of the National Nutrition Agency, which oversees the free meals program, told reporters a probe had been launched into the recent poisoning cases. 

“Right now, we are doing an investigation and we have closed the kitchens (linked to the cases),” she said on Thursday.

Prior to the latest outbreaks, at least 6,452 children nationwide have suffered from food poisoning related to the free meals program since its January launch, according to data compiled by think tank Network for Education Watch. 

“This abnormal situation should push the government to declare a health emergency and temporarily stop the program for a thorough evaluation,” Ubaid Matraji, the network’s national coordinator, told Arab News. 

The free meals program, which has so far reached 20 million people, is expected to receive double its current budget next year. 

The rising number of cases nationwide likely resulted from a “systemic failure in food safety surveillance,” said Jakarta-based doctor Faiz Batara Achdar. 

“The problem lies not only in the program’s intention, but in its hasty implementation and the lack of strict quality control on the ground,” she told Arab News. 

On Sept. 16, five school children visited her clinic in East Jakarta with typical food poisoning symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and dehydration after consuming lunches from the government program, which she said indicated the problem was likely in food storage, distribution or hygiene.

“In the context of public health, a program as big as this should include a comprehensive risk evaluation, logistical feasibility tests and comprehensive training for all parties involved, from food providers to distribution officers in schools,” Achdar said. 

“Without those, what is claimed as an effort to improve nutrition for the nation can turn into a health disaster for the people.”