Around 400 children fall ill after eating free school meals in Indonesia's Bengkulu

Indonesia sees worst food poisoning yet under Prabowo’s free meals programme

Around 400 children have fallen ill after eating free school meals in Indonesia's western Bengkulu Province in the worst case of mass food poisoning to date linked to President Prabowo Subianto's flagship food programme.

Prabowo launched the programme of free meals for children and pregnant women in January, but the initiative has been marred by mass food poisoning across the archipelago, affecting hundreds of people.

Last month, 365 people fell ill from free school meals in Central Java. According to local media reports, laboratory results indicated that the outbreak was a result of poor sanitation.

In Bengkulu, the children aged from about 4 to 12 were rushed to a local hospital complaining of stomach pain last Thursday, according to a video handout from the local government.

Authorities will launch an investigation into the cause of the illness, the province's vice governor Mian said.

"We will temporarily suspend operations at this kitchen while we investigate where the weaknesses lie. This is the domain of the BGN (National Nutrition Agency) investigation team and the authorities," he said.

The National Nutrition Agency, which runs the programme, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Since its launch, the free school meals programme has been rapidly expanded to reach over 20 million recipients so far and authorities plan to reach 83 million recipients by year-end, budgeting a total cost of 171 trillion rupiah ($10.52 billion) this year.