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Nutrition agency mulls insects as protein source for free meals program
Variety in local food ingredients is key to running the free meals program, given the agency’s main focus on ensuring fulfillment of nutritional standards and not on delivering one type of menu to all recipients across the country.
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A pupil of SD Kranji 1 state elementary school in Purwokerto, Central Java eats lunch on Jan. 6, 2025, the first day of the free nutritious meal program. Indonesia launched the ambitious program to provide free meals for schoolchildren and pregnant women on Jan. 6 to combat stunted growth caused by malnutrition, a key election promise of President Prabowo Subianto. (Antara/Idhad Zakaria)
T
he National Nutrition Agency (BGN) is considering including insects, such as grasshoppers or sago grubs in the free nutritious meal program menu in some regions as alternative protein sources.
BGN head Dadan Hindayana explained that the free meal menu could be adjusted to local resources and food consumption habits in every region across the archipelago.
“In certain regions, maybe insects such as grasshoppers or sago grubs can be part of the protein sources,” Dadan said in Jakarta on Saturday, as quoted by CNN Indonesia.
Dadan further explained that variety in local food ingredients was key to running the free meals program, stressing the agency’s main focus on ensuring fulfillment of nutritional standards and not on delivering one type of menu to all recipients across the country.
Read also: Govt to allocate Rp 400 trillion for 2026 free meal program
For example, he said, in regions where eggs were consumed as staple food, then it would be the main component of the region’s free meals menu. This would also be applied to regions with main protein sources coming from fish or other local food ingredients
Dadan emphasized that protein sources in many regions had been relying on local food resources and food consumption preferences.
