October 16, 2025 | 07:31 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto mentioned the number of food poisoning cases related to the Free Nutritious Meal Program (MBG) in front of global Chief Executive Officers (CEOs). The Head of State mentioned that the food poisoning victims were 0.0007 percent of the 35.4 million MBG beneficiaries.
"We experienced food poisoning, but when we calculated the amount of food we provided, the statistics were 0.0007," said Prabowo at the Forbes Global CEO Conference, at The St. Regis Hotel, Jakarta, on Wednesday, October 15, 2025.
The former defense minister stated that food poisoning cases were unacceptable. However, he believes that in every action there may be accidents or mistakes.
"But I think in every human action, there are no accidents or mistakes at all, it is very rare," he said.
Prabowo explained that the number of MBG recipients was 35.4 million as of October 15, 2025. The number is almost 7 times the population of Singapore. He also mentioned that the number of MBG menu maker kitchens has reached 11,900.
"I am proud to say, as of data a few hours ago, we currently have 11,900 (MBG) kitchens, and today we have fed 35.4 million people," he said.
On that occasion, Prabowo also explained the reason for creating the MBG program. Prabowo admitted to running for president five times. During the presidential campaign, Prabowo admitted to seeing stunted and malnourished children when visiting villages.
The visit made Prabowo think that there are still many children who do not get enough nutrition and nutrients. They come from families classified as poor.
"I see poverty in front of my eyes, and it is indeed difficult for them, the elite groups, to understand that there are still children eating rice with salt as their dish," said Prabowo.
Prabowo then remembered schools in Europe, England, and the United States that provide free lunch. He then read about India's experience in providing free meals.
"I realized that their per capita income is lower than that of Indonesia. Yet their leaders dared to have a free meal program for children," he said.
Not only India, Prabowo also saw that there are 77 countries already running free lunch programs. He wants Indonesia to be the 78th or 79th country to start the program.
"We also started designing it and made it one of the campaign promises, and we designed it," said Prabowo.
The Indonesian Education Watch Network (JPPI) recorded the number of victims of MBG project food poisoning as of October 12, 2025, reached 11,566 children.
The National Coordinator of JPPI, Ubaid Matraji, detailed that if calculated from January to October 12, 2025, the province with the highest number of MBG food poisoning victims was West Java with 4,125 victims. followed by Central Java with 1,666 victims and the Special Region of Yogyakarta with 1,053 victims. Meanwhile, in East Java, there were 950 victims, and East Nusa Tenggara had 800 victims.
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