Over 1,000 Indonesians sick from school meals in food poisoning outbreak

More than 1,000 children in Indonesia's West Java have suffered food poisoning this week from school lunches, authorities said, the latest in a series of outbreaks and another setback for the president's multi-billion-dollar free meals programme.

The mass poisoning was reported in four areas of West Java province, its Governor Dedi Mulyadi told Reuters on Thursday, which came as non-governmental organisations issued calls to suspend the programme due to health concerns.

The latest cases follow the poisoning of 800 students who ate school lunches last week in West Java and Central Sulawesi provinces, which were supplied under President Prabowo Subianto's signature free nutritious meals programme.

Questions have been raised about standards and oversight of the scheme, which has expanded rapidly to reach over 20 million recipients, with an ambitious goal of feeding 83 million of Indonesia's 280 million people by year-end. The programme's 171 trillion rupiah ($10.22 billion) budget will double next year.

Governor Mulyadi said more than 470 students fell sick in West Bandung on Monday after eating the free lunches and three more outbreaks took place there on Wednesday and in the Sukabumi region, affecting at least 580 children.

"We must evaluate those running the programme... And the most important thing is how to deal with the students' trauma after eating the food," Mulyadi said, adding small hospitals in West Bandung were overwhelmed by sick students.

Prabowo's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest cases. Dadan Hindayana, head of The National Nutrition Agency that oversees the free meals programme, said kitchens with poisoning cases had been suspended.

SURGE IN CASES

Local broadcaster Kompas TV showed footage from a local sports hall in West Bandung that was turned into a makeshift treatment centre, with dozens of sick students on fold-out beds, others laid on the floor in pain.

Other images showed students being treated outside of hospital buildings with ambulances coming and going.

Before this week's incident, at least 6,452 children nationwide have suffered from food poisoning from the programme since it was launched in January, according to think tank Network for Education Watch.

Governor Mulyadi said kitchens were tasked with feeding too many students and were located far from the schools, forcing them to start cooking very early, sometimes the night before it was served for lunch.

"When the food was still warm, it was immediately put on the tray and the tray was closed, making it spoiled, stale," he said.

The local government has declared health emergency status for West Bandung region due to mass food poisoning, allowing the provincial government to allocate budget to handle the cases, Mulyadi added.