Some 400 Indonesian school children fall ill after eating free school meals
An investigation has been launched after some 400 children became ill after eating free school meals in Indonesia’s western Bengkulu province, in the worst case of mass food poisoning linked to President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship food programme to help pregnant women and children, Al Jazeera reports.
The reports of mass illness on Wednesday came as President Prabowo arrived in Beijing, China, for events commemorating the end of World War II, and days after widespread antigovernment protests rocked cities and towns across Indonesia.
Authorities will launch an investigation into the cause of the illness, Bengkulu Province ‘s Vice Governor Mian said.
“We will temporarily suspend operations at this kitchen while we investigate where the weaknesses lie,” said Mian, who goes by a single name.
“This is the domain of the BGN [National Nutrition Agency] investigation team and the authorities,” he said.
Dadan Hindayana, chief of the National Nutrition Agency, which runs the programme, told the Reuters news agency the kitchen in question had only recently started operating, asking staff to evaluate services while waiting for results of tests on the food.
Since its launch, Prabowo’s free school meals programme has been rapidly expanded to reach more than 20 million recipients, and authorities plan to reach 83 million recipients by year-end, budgeting a total cost of 171 trillion rupiah ($10.52bn) for the programme this year.
The president launched the programme in January, but the initiative had already been marred by food poisoning that affected hundreds of people.
Last month, 365 people fell ill from free school meals in Central Java. According to local media reports, laboratory results indicated that the outbreak was a result of poor sanitation.
In the latest mass illness in Bengkulu, children aged from about 4 to 12 were rushed to a local hospital complaining of stomach pain beginning last Thursday, according to a video handout from the local government.
It was earlier reported, 24 kids and 2 workers were reportedly poisoned at the Narymbet ata kindergarten in Tespa village, Sairam district of Turkistan region.