Good News From Central Sulawesi, BPOM Ensures School Children's Snacks Are Free Of Hazardous Ingredients

Illustration - Two students buy street food on the first day of school at SDN Negeri 3, Bugih, Pamekasan, East Java. (Photo: Saiful Bahri/Antara)

JAKARTA - The Head of the Drug and Food Control Agency (BPOM) in Palu Agus Riyanto stated that snacks for school children in all schools in Central Sulawesi (Sulteng) province are free from hazardous materials.

The report is based on monitoring results, supervision, and routine examination that always carried out by BPOM in Palu to school children's snacks in schools in all districts and cities in the province, he said in Palu City, Wednesday.

"Start from children's snacks in elementary school (SD), junior high school (SMP), and senior high school (SMA) we supervise and check with the sampling method by randomly selecting a school that is suspected of having individuals selling snacks for school children that contain hazardous materials. The results are safe and do not contain hazardous materials," he said, as reported by Antara, December 15.

Hazardous materials examined in school children's snacks, he continued, include formalin, borax, rhodamine B, and yellow methanal which are often mixed into children's snacks at school and other foods.

"We already supervise since several years ago through the School Snack Food Program (PJAS) and the results did not find any snacks sold at schools containing hazardous materials as intended," he said.

Therefore, he said parents don't need to worry about snacks consumed by children at school. However, BPOM still routinely monitors and inspects school children's snacks.

Agus hopes that children's snack food vendors in schools will never try to mix these snacks with ingredients that are harmful to the body.