Free school meals in Indonesia have made more than 300 people sick.
According to CNN, in the largest food poisoning case of President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship free meals program more than 360 people got food poisoning in Sragen in Central Java.
The free school meal program has been hit by mass food poisoning cases since it was launched in January this year by the president, affecting more than 1,000 people.
Local authorities told Reuters that 365 people fell sick after eating the food, and they have sent the sample for testing.
Sragen chief Sigit Pamungkas also announced that the government will bear the medical expenses of the affected people if needed.
One of the affected students, Wizdan Ridho Abimanyu, a ninth grader, told the outlet that he woke up at night because of pain in his stomach, and then he suffered from headache and diarrhoea.
Sigit stated, “We have asked to temporarily stop the food distribution from that kitchen until the lab results are back.”
The school lunch that was contaminated consisted of turmeric rice, omelette ribbons, fried tempeh, a cucumber and lettuce salad, sliced apple, and a box of milk.
The meal was cooked in a central kitchen and then distributed to several schools.
Dadan Hindayana, chief of the government's National Nutrition Agency overseeing the program, asserted that they raised the kitchen operations and delivery standards after the early poisoning cases.
The free meals programs that quickly expanded to serve over 15 million recipients until now aims to reach 83 million by the end of the year, with a budget of 171 trillion rupiah ($10.62 billion).
