Nutritionists Talk Complete Effectiveness And Challenges Of The MBG Program

JAKARTA - The Nutrition Food Program (MBG) is here as one of the government's strategies to answer the challenges of malnutrition in Indonesia. From the point of view of health practitioners, this program is not just food supply, but long-term investment to welcome Indonesia Gold 2045. So, how is the effectiveness of this program in overcoming nutritional problems and what are the challenges in the field?

From a nutritionist's point of view, Indonesia is currently facing the burden of double nutrition or triple burden of malnutrition, which includes stunting, anemia, and increasing obesity, especially in children from middle to lower economic families. The problem of stunting, it turns out that it is not only about height, but has a broad impact on decreasing the quality of life, IQ level, and potential economic power of children in the future. This directly threatens the quality of Indonesia's human resources (HR) in the long term.

This is in line with what Mochammad Rizal, MS, RD, a Nutritionist who is currently studying PhD in the field of International Nutrition, Cornell University, New York, United States.

"So the nutritional problems that we want to overcome right now are not only about height. Therefore, the government claims that MBG is a long-term investment for Indonesia's gold 2045," he explained, in a written statement, Friday, October 31.

Ideally, the most specific nutritional intervention to address the stunting problem directly is targeting the target of pregnant women to children aged two years. Currently, the main problem that MBG wants to answer is ensuring food access for children from middle to lower class families. If carried out on target, consistently, and serving quality nutritious food, MBG can have a positive chain impact. The most important impact is improving health and nutrition.

"In the short term, what we can see is that an increase in the nutritional status and health of children will increase, such as a decrease in the number of anemias. Children who grow healthy today will give birth to a generation that is free of stunting," Rizal explained.

In addition to improving the health level and nutritional status, another thing that is expected from MBG is to motivate children to come to school enthusiastically. With the stomach filled with nutritious food, learning concentration is expected to increase. It does not stop there, this program is also expected to be able to boost the productivity of local food supply chains, such as farmers, fishermen, and local catering.

However, the implementation of MBG in the field cannot be separated from various complex challenges. The current habit of eating children who are accustomed to consuming Ultra Processed Food (UPF) such as snacks, candy, and foods high in sugar, salt, and fat are challenges.

The ideal Minister of MBG is at high risk of not being spent (food waste). On the other hand, providing an UPF-based menu such as nuggets or sausages, so that food runs out, instead diverts the main goal of fulfilling nutrition from this program. It takes a gradual strategy to change students' current eating behavior," said Rizal.

To measure changes in healthy diet behavior in schools, an evaluation of food that runs out or is not consumed regularly. In addition, schools are also expected to collect data on the amount of food that is not suitable for consumption, to reporting the number of unexpected events, including food safety incidents that occur in schools. This evaluation guide is contained in the Implementation Guide to the MBG Program in the Education Unit prepared by the Ministry of Education (2025).

In addition, in an effort to measure the impact of MBG, schools are encouraged to measure students' height, weight, and body mass index every six months. Not only that, schools are also required to measure changes in students' behavior about nutrition and clean and healthy living behavior in schools.

Through these guidelines, it is hoped that comprehensive data collection, such as data on the number of beneficiaries, MBG menu data, food waste data, and nutritional status before and after MBG runs, becomes a database that is very important for policy evaluation. Furthermore, if the results are positive, it becomes validation that MBG is a good program and needs to be maintained.

The role of nutritionists in this program is also very crucial, both to ensure that balanced nutrition and food safety are well implemented. However, non-ideal workload is a challenge that needs to be fixed immediately.

"As far as I hear from the ratio of 1 nutritionist to monitor 3000-4000 servings is very heavy. This burden has the opportunity to create a food safety incident. However, the new regulations that I have heard have limited production to a maximum of 2000 servings in the Nutrition Food Supply Unit (SPPG). This is a good improvement step, because it can reduce workload and food safety risk," said Rizal.

Not only that, MBG needs to be integrated with nutrition education for children and families. Apart from preparing the MBG menu, the role of nutritionists to educate students is important. That way a good understanding of balanced diet and nutrition can be built

"This is a new program so there are still many challenges that need to be addressed, including providing good input that is needed," concluded Rizal.

The MBG program is a big program that involves many parties. With collaboration, proper implementation, and strict monitoring, this program has great potential to become a solid foundation in producing a healthy, intelligent, and productive Indonesian golden generation.