Number of Free Nutritious Meal Food Poisoning Victims Reaches 11,000 as of October 12

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Education Monitoring Network (JPPI) reported that the number of children experienced food poisoning from the government's free nutritious meal project, also known as MBG, as of 12th October 2025, has reached 11,566 children. The National Coordinator of JPPI, Ubaid Matraji, stated that there have been a total of 1,084 new poisoning cases within the last week or during the period from 6th to 12th October 2025.

Ubaid believes that the tens of thousands of children becoming victims of MBG poisoning is not merely a matter of negligence, but a crisis of public responsibility. "Every week, thousands of children collapse due to MBG, yet the country allows the kitchens to continue operating," Ubaid said through a written statement on Monday, 13th October 2025.

Based on data collected by JPPI and volunteers in various regions, poisoning cases have spread to two new regions that were previously unreported. These two provinces are South Kalimantan (Banjar Regency) and Gorontalo (Gorontalo City). "This indicates the increasingly widespread and uncontrolled spread of cases," stated Ubaid.

JPPI's records show that the highest MBG poisoning cases this week occurred in East Nusa Tenggara with 384 victims, followed by Central Java with 347 victims, and South Kalimantan with 130 victims.

Meanwhile, if calculated from January to 12th October 2025, several provinces with the highest MBG poisoning cases include West Java with 4,125 victims, followed by Central Java with 1,666 victims, and Yogyakarta Special Region with 1,053 victims. This is then followed by East Java with 950 victims, and East Nusa Tenggara with 800 victims.

JPPI found a significant increase in...