September 25, 2025 | 06:12 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Deputy Head of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) Nanik Sudaryati Deyang explained the reasoning behind shark meat being included in the nutritious free meal (MBG) menu in Ketapang Regency, West Kalimantan. This was revealed after 20 students and teachers at Public Elementary School 12 Benua Kayong, Ketapang, suffered from food poisoning.
Nanik said her agency has yet to ascertain the cause of the MBG poisoning in Ketapang. But she argued shark meat menu adhered to the suggestion to provide food according to each region's local wisdom.
"So, shark was on the menu since we adhere to local wisdom. If, for example, the most abundant fish in this region is mackerel, then that's what we would use," Nanik said during a press conference on the MBG Program Partner Verification at Artotel Cibubur, Bogor, West Java, on Thursday, September 25, 2025.
She assured that BGN would ban shark meat for the free nutritious meal program if found that it's the cause of the food poisoning in Ketapang.
Nanik also explained that there is a difference between suspected cases of food poisoning and food allergies. Therefore, the effects that occur after eating are not always referred to as food poisoning. "For example, shrimp, there are children who are allergic to shrimp. There are even children who are allergic to mayonnaise," she said.
According to her, schools and the MGB public kitchens already have a list of children and their specific allergies. "But some schools overlook this," Nanik said.
The mass food poisoning of dozens of students and teachers at the elementary school occurred two days ago. The MBG public kitchen for the school is the Mitra Mandiri 2 kitchen.
The cases of MBG poisoning are rising throughout September 2025. According to data from the Indonesian Education Monitoring Network (JPPI), the number of MBG poisoning victims as of September 21, 2025, reached 6,452 people. This figure increased by 1,092 cases compared to the JPPI data from the previous week.
"This is not normal. The government should immediately declare a state of emergency and temporarily halt the MBG for comprehensive evaluation," said the National Coordinator of JPPI, Ubaid Matraji, on Wednesday, September 24, 2025.
The findings from JPPI differ from the data from the National Nutrition Agency (BGN), the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency, and the Ministry of Health. The data on free nutritious meal poisoning from the three agencies as of September 2025 is around 5,000 people.
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