Supervision of school snacks is unpalatable, says BPOM chief

Head of the Food and Drug Supervision Agency (BPOM) Kustantinah says that her office has not been able to effectively control the quality of school snacks due to limited human resources.

“The number of elementary schools throughout Indonesia now stands at 180,000, while the number of our employees is limited. Therefore, it is impossible to reach all of them,” Kustantinah said at the opening of My Healthy School Children Snacks Festival at Saparua Square in Bandung, West Java, on Saturday.

Kustantinah said that supervision of school snacks was lacking, but badly needed because according to a survey conducted by BPOM and the Bogor Institute of Agriculture, school snacks accounted for 35 percent of school children’s total food intake. “BPOM supervision has found that 30 percent of school snacks do not meet the standard requirements,” she said.

The main requirements include restriction of use of prohibited and dangerous substances like formalin, borax and Rhodamin B and methanol yellow dyes. “Many traders tend to use textile dyes in their food products to make them look attractive.”

It was also uncovered that many food products contained other dangerous chemicals, including benzoate, saccharin and cyclamate, and did not meet the minimum tolerable level of microbe contaminants.

The discoveries were found after BPOM conducted tests on school snack samples taken from 13 provinces through the deployment of mobile laboratories in cooperation with local education offices at schools.

“The biggest deviation [from acceptable standards of health] was found in developed regions, including big cities,” Kustantinah said, without going into details.

Kustantinah said she expected all regional administrations throughout Indonesia to realize the importance of supervising school snacks. Besides, she said, there were many parents who did not give their children packed lunches. “This is simply because the parents are busy, so they just allow their children to buy food at schools,” she said.

The government recently launched the Movement for Healthy School Children’s Food, which was initiated by Vice President Boediono early this year. Boediono said that health risks caused by unhygienic snacks would affect the creation of healthy children.

In conjunction with Saturday’s opening of the food festival in Bandung, about 2,000 students from Jakarta and some West Java cities read a pledge on School Children’s Food Care. Aside from Kustantinah, head of the West Java education office, Alma Luchyati, also took part in the declaration event.

“We and all of the nation’s elements are committed to providing healthy, qualified and nutritious food for school children. Let’s unite for the sake of the future of the nation,” the students said in unison through loudspeakers.

The pledge was the first ever public declaration on school food standards in Indonesia. Kustantinah said she hoped the joint commitment would be followed up by other regional administrations.

An assistant to the Children Growth Section at the Women’s Empowerment and Children Protection Ministry, Wahyu Hartomo, said he would cooperate with the National Children Forum, which had provincial branches, to ensure the provision of healthy school food.