Commission IX Of The House Of Representatives Asks For MBG Program To Be Evaluated After Toxic Students

Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka while reviewing the trial of the free nutritious eating program at SDN Sentul 03, Bogor, Tuesday 23 July 2024. (ANTARA PHOTO-Yulius Satria Wijaya)

JAKARTA - Member of Commission IX of the House of Representatives Nurhadi expressed his concern over the incident of dozens of MAN 1 students in Cianjur who experienced symptoms of poisoning after consuming Free Nutrition Food (MBG). According to Nurhadi, the repeated incident indicates that there are serious problems in the implementation of the MBG program in the field so that it needs to be evaluated.

"This is a very concerning incident, especially because the MBG program actually aims to be noble, namely improving the nutrition of school children and reducing the stunting rate," said Nurhadi, Wednesday, April 23.

Nurhadi said that the incident of student poisoning after eating MBG which occurred continuously caused health problems. He considered that the incident in Cianjur was a strong warning to further strengthen supervision of the distribution of free nutritious food in schools.

"Of course this is a strong alarm for all parties, especially the National Food Agency (BGN) and all agencies involved," said Nurhadi.

"Moreover, this incident is also not the first, and this indicates the need for a thorough evaluation, both in terms of providing raw materials, distribution, to monitoring food security," he added.

As is known, dozens of students from Madrasah Aliyah Negeri (MAN) 1 and SMP PGRI 1 Cianjur, West Java, were poisoned by mass after eating food from the Free Nutrition Food (MBG) program, Monday, April 21. As a result, kitchens in Cianjur District have temporarily stopped producing MBG.

This incident is not the first time this has happened. Within four months of the MBG program being launched nationwide, at least three similar problems have occurred in different areas.

In Sukoharjo, Central Java, dozens of students at SDN Dukuh 03 were poisoned after consuming chicken from MBG. The poisoning case from MBG also occurred in Nunukan Selatan, North Kalimantan, where it was experienced by students at SDN 03 Nunukan and SMAN 2 Nunukan Selatan. It was even found that there was a menu of MBG tuna fish distributed to schools in traffic conditions.

The MBG menu poisoning incident also occurred in Batang, Central Java, some time ago. As many as 60 kindergarten to junior high school students were rushed to the puskesmas after eating the MBG menu which was suspected to be stale. Most recently, food poisoning was experienced by dozens of students in Cianjur.

With so many incidents of MBG poisoning, Nurhadi emphasized that Commission IX of the DPR in charge of health affairs will immediately ask for an official explanation from related parties, especially to BGN who is a working partner.

"We will encourage a comprehensive audit of vendors providing MBG in various regions, including strengthening food hygiene and sanitation standards. If negligence or procedural violations are found, then there must be strict and transparent sanctions," said the legislator from the East Java IX electoral district.

Nurhadi added that his party also encouraged local governments and local health offices to be more active in conducting regular supervision and training for food providers in schools.

"We at Commission IX remain committed so that nutritional improvement programs continue, but must be carried out safely and responsibly," concluded Nurhadi.