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View all search resultsMore than 1,000 students fall ill after eating free meals
Since its launch in January, the government’s free meals program has been plagued by a series of food safety incidents, with more than 13,000 students reported to have suffered food poisoning as of earlier this month.
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Students prays before eating their food supplied by the government's free nutritious meal program at an elementary school in Banda Aceh, Aceh on Oct. 30, 2025. (AFP/Chaideer Mahyuddin)
M
ore than 1,000 students in Yogyakarta, West Java and East Java have suffered from food poisoning after eating government-provided lunches in recent days, as authorities scramble to tighten food safety in President Prabowo Subianto's flagship free nutritious meal program.
At least 230 students and teachers from elementary to high schools in Cibodas village, West Bandung regency, West Java, reported symptoms of stomach pain, nausea and dizziness on Tuesday, just hours after eating a meal of rice, fried tempeh, chicken meatballs and stir-fried vegetables on Tuesday.
Local health officials said the victims were rushed to various medical facilities across the regency. Due to the sudden influx of patients, many had to be treated in hallways and on fold-out beds as healthcare facilities struggled to accommodate the surge.
Cibodas village secretary Yuyu Wahyu said the village’s public sports hall had also been converted into a temporary medical facility to treat the affected students.
“As of now, 10 people are still being treated at the sports hall, while some have been transferred to local hospitals,” he said on Thursday, as quoted by Kompas.com.
The incident marks the seventh mass food poisoning case linked to the free meals program in West Bandung regency since the start of the year, bringing the total number of affected people to around 2,000.
On the same day as the food poisoning incident in West Bandung, 695 students and teachers from a vocational school and a junior high school in Gunungkidul regency, Yogyakarta, also reported symptoms of food poisoning.
