Deputy Head Nanik S. Deyang warned MBG kitchen operators not to serve manufactured products, saying violations would not be tolerated.
“I will not tolerate the use of factory-made products. We will use locally sourced items. Bread will be made by the mothers of the students we feed, baked by mothers and eaten by their children,” she told a press conference in Jakarta.
She noted that during Ramadan, free meals for students, toddlers, and pregnant women often included packaged foods from large factories, a practice she said contradicted President Prabowo Subianto’s directive that the program support local economies rather than enrich conglomerates.
Exceptions would apply to packaged milk, Deyang said, if no local dairy farms were available in an area.
She stressed that BGN would also enforce strict compliance with Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). One case involved an MBG kitchen that purchased chicken on a Saturday but only processed it four days later.
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“Partners must monitor responsibly. I will not tolerate stale ingredients,” Deyang said, citing a Bandung case where chicken stored for days was eventually served to students.
Mass food poisoning cases have been linked to MBG packages in West Bandung District. As of Wednesday (Sept. 24), 631 students had fallen ill, including 411 on Sept. 22 and 220 on Sept. 24.
The children experienced nausea and vomiting after consuming MBG meals at lunchtime. The latest incident occurred in Cipongkor Sub-district, with food suspected to have come from the Nutrition Fulfillment Service Unit in Negalsari Village.
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Translator: Resinta Sulistiyandari
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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