Eating Nutritious Becomes A Economy, Jember Health Office Steals Chemical Residue In Selada-Timun Vegetables

JEMBER - The Jember District Health Office (Dinkes) suspects that lettuce and cucumber vegetables exposed to chemicals are the cause of poisoning cases in the free nutritious food program (MBG) at SDN 05 Sidomekar, Jember Regency, East Java.

"Based on the analysis of epidemiological data, lettuce and cucumber are foods that are strongly suspected to be the cause of poisoning in the MBG program at SDN Sidomekar," said Head of Disease Prevention and Control (P2P) of the Jember Health Office, Rita Wahyuningsih in Jember, Antara, Sunday, September 5.

Rita also conveyed this to the Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM), Anis Hidayah, during a visit to the Jember Regency Government Office, Saturday.

According to Rita, there were 58 students who received food in the MBG program. Based on the teacher's statement, a number of students shouted because they foundbags in their food. Some of the students who had consumed the food then experienced symptoms of nausea, vomiting, and dizziness.

If according to the data, there was an increase in the number of complaints 10 minutes after eating food. There were 17 children who complained of nausea, 12 children vomited, and 7 children complained of stomach pain," he said.

The free nutritious food menu consists of bread, boiled eggs fried, lettuce, cucumber, vegetables, saset sauce, scarming cheese, UHT milk, and mendol tempeh.

"Selada and cucumber are the most powerful foods associated with suspected poisoning, taking into account rapid events, which are about 10'15 minutes after consumption," Rita said.

He explained that the most likely cause was exposure to chemicals, such as pesticide residues or detergents that were still attached to raw vegetables. To confirm this allegation, the Jember Health Office has taken food samples and sent them to a health laboratory in Surabaya, but the results have not yet been received.

Meanwhile, the Acting Head of the Jember Health Office, A. Helmi Lukman, added that most likely the cause of poisoning was the inadequate vegetable washing process.

"Making vegetables should be done last so as not to quickly wither or be damaged, so that cleanliness is maintained until it is served to students," said Helmi.