The Importance Of Nutritionists In Every SPPG

A photo by Luthfiah VOI

JAKARTA - The Free Nutrition Food Program (MBG), which is a political promise as well as President Prabowo Subianto's flagship program, is predicted to be a major breakthrough to improve the nutritional quality of Indonesian children, tarnished by the large number of students who are poisoned. In addition, the implementation, the realization of this program's budget is far from roasting and burning.

Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Purbaya Yudhi Sadive. emphasized that the absorption of the program budget from MBG is also considered low. From the budget ceiling of Rp71 trillion, absorption until September 2025 has only touched Rp13 trillion, or around 18%. Purbaya also emphasized that it will take back the budget of ministries or institutions (K/L) that are not absorbed until the end of 2025. He even stated that he was ready to tour various agencies starting next October to ensure that the budget was used optimally.

"I will give you until the end of October. If they think they can't spend until the end of the year, we take the money. So we will distribute this to programs that are immediately ready and increase to the people. I don't want unemployed money," said Purbaya.

Head of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) Dadan Hindayana said that the absorption of the budget is identical to the number of beneficiaries of MBG. He acknowledged that there were challenges in budget absorption in the initial implementation of the MBG project, mainly related to the construction of a kitchen for the Nutrition Fulfillment Service Unit (SPPG). In early 2025, the number of SPPGs that were established was only 190 units. As a result, the absorbed budget was only IDR 190 billion during the first month of the MBG running.

"The budget absorption machine in the Nutrition Agency is the number of SPPGs. One SPPG stands in one day, then Rp1 billion will be absorbed. Why are we slow at the beginning? Because many people are not sure this program will run," said Dadan at the BGN Office, Central Jakarta, Thursday (18/9/2025).

Over time, Dadan revealed that 8,344 SPPGs have been built so far, or equivalent to budget absorption of IDR 8.3 trillion.

"We are targeting that in October there will be around 20,000 SPPGs, so that by November it will already be Rp. 20 trillion itself [the total absorption of the MBG budget]. That's the mechanism. So that the absorption at the end will be very large, not made up, but because the SPPG is increasing," said Dadan.

Furthermore, Dadan explained the projected absorption of the budget until the end of 2025, namely Rp 37 trillion in October, Rp 59.5 trillion in November, and Rp 76.4 trillion in December. With the MBG budget allocation of Rp 52 trillion in 2025, said Dadan, BGN estimates that it will require an additional Rp 24 trillion to fully support the intervention of the program.

Food Tray That Is Still Lacking

Presiden Prabowo Subianto terus memantau pelaksanaan program distribusi makanan melalui food tray atau ompreng, termasuk perkembangan isu di masyarakat. food tray atau dalam bahasa gaulnya, pantai, yang disusakan berbuat metal, salah satunya nikel dan tidak menduksi minyak. Adapun minyak digunakan pada proses stamping atau printing agar alat tidak panik. Setelah dipertelkan, food tray diberihkan dan disterilkan.

Dadan explained that the MBG program requires 15 million food routes per month over the last 4 months of this year. Meanwhile, the domestic production capacity has only reached 11.6 million units per month, so there is still a shortage of 4 million units. If imports are closed, this program can be disrupted, therefore, imports are still carried out by ensuring halal certification from BPJH," Dadan explained to VOI through a written message received, Monday, September 29.

Indonesia is the country with the largest Muslim majority in the world. The National Standardization Agency (BSN) announced that it had set the Indonesian National Standard (SNI) 9369:2025 concerning Blocked Spaces (Food Tray) from Karat-Resilient Steel for Food.

"We set this standard on June 18, 2025 through the Decree of the Head of BSN Number 182/KEP/BSN/6/2025. This is a new standard of self-development results compiled by the Technical Committee 77-02, Hilir Metal Products," said Deputy for Standard Development of BSN Hendro Kusumo in a statement on the official website, quoted Friday (26/9/2025).

"This determination is a strategic step to ensure that the utensils used in the MBG program meet the quality, safety and health aspects," he said.

Deputy Secretary of Rabithah Ma'ahid Islamiyah Nahdlatul Ulama (RMINU) Jakarta, Wafa Riansyah revealed that he had visited a food route factory in China in August 2025. There, he saw the mechanism for making food trays because the price was quite very cheap. So when we saw the process of making (food route), there was a mixture of animal oil, namely in this MSDS, there was pork fat," said Wafa some time ago.

Causes of poisoning

The West Java Regional Health Laboratory (Labkesda) revealed the cause of this 1,333 people. It turned out that the cause was Salmonella and Bacillus cereus bacteria.

Head of the Regional Technical Implementation Unit (UPTD) of the West Java Health Service, Dr. Ryan Bayusantika Ristandi, said that the bacteria were found from samples of the Free Nutrition Food (MBG) program that were examined by the laboratory team.

"The results of our examination showed that there were rotting bacteria, namely Salmonella and Bacillus cereus, which came from carbohydrate components in food," Ryan said, as reported by Antara, Sunday.

Reporting from the mdpi site, salmonella is one of the most widely-spreaded congenital pathogens of food worldwide. And Salmonella infection in humans is still a global health burden. The main source of Salmonella infection in humans comes from contaminated animal foods, with pork products. Salmonellosis is the third food congenital disease that causes death (Ferch, 2019). More than 91,000 cases of Salmonellosis in humans are reported by the European Union each year, resulting in an overall cost of up to evaporation of 3 billion per year (EFSA, 2023), 10-20% of which is caused by the consumption of pork (Soumet, 2022).

The annual costs incurred from the human health losses it caused in 2010 were around 90 million (FCC Consortium, 2010). Take Ireland, for example, where Salmonella's high prevalence of lymph nodes still shows serious problems before slaughter and major challenges for slaughterhouses to adhere to the cleaning requirements of the process ( Deane, 2022).

Citing the National Library of Medicine website, every year in the United States, it is estimated that 525,000 people are infected, 2,900 are hospitalized, and 82 are caused by the consumption of pork.

"We analyzed the epidemiology of the outbreak caused by pork in the United States which was reported to the 1998 '2015 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). During that period, 288 outbreaks were caused by pork, which resulted in 6,372 diseases, 443 hospitalizations, and four deaths," the health report said on the site.

The Importance Of Nutritionists In SPPG

Deputy Chairman of Commission IX of the DPR RI, Yahya Zaini reminded nutritionists in every nutritional fulfillment service unit (SPPG) to carry out their functions properly in the implementation of the MBG program. Yahya emphasized that the nutritionists assigned could function better. Yahya assessed that strict supervision by nutritionists is also needed at all stages of food processing. Moreover, the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) has assigned nutritionists at each SPPG to maintain quality.

"So far, nutritionists in each SPPG do not function properly. Because every stage of the food process, starting from raw materials, cooking, sorting and distribution are all supervised by them. BGN assigns 3 people in each SPPG, 1 chairman, 1 nutritionist, 1 nutritionist, 1 nutritionist, do not let nutritionist in every SPPG do not function properly anymore," Yahya Zaini told reporters, Wednesday, October 1.

Yahya welcomed the government's move which requires every kitchen SPPG provider MBG to have a Sanitation Hygienic Laik Certificate (SLHS). He reminded that hygienic certificates must really be a guarantee of quality and safety, not just administrative stamps.

"The most important thing is the quality of the menu and the quality of supervision in the field. Certificates must ensure that the MBG kitchen is safe, clean, and capable of maintaining proper nutrition for school children," said Yahya.