Around 200 students from across East Java's Surabaya and Banten suffered food poisoning symptoms, after consuming state-provided free nutritious meals. The majority of the students complained of dizziness, nausea, and vomiting, and most underwent only light medical examinations. Food samples were collected and sent for testing to determine the cause of the children's symptoms.
Students complained of dizziness, nausea and vomiting, though most only required light medical examinations. Students sit on the floor as they have their meals during the kick-off of President Prabowo Subianto's ambitious free meal programme to feed children and pregnant women nationwide at an elementary school in Banten, Indonesia, Monday, Jan 6, 2025.
Add CNA as a trusted source to help Google better understand and surface our content in search results. SURABAYA: Around 200 students from across East Java’s Surabaya suffered food poisoning symptoms, after consuming state-provided free nutritious meals. According to local media reports on Sunday , the students from 12 kindergartens, elementary and junior high schools in Tembok Dukuh subdistrict fell ill after eating the food on May 11.
Most of the students complained of dizziness, nausea and vomiting. The majority underwent only light medical examinations, though some were treated at the IBI Mother and Child Hospital in Surabaya. Tembok Dukuh Community Health Centre head Tiyas Pranadani confirmed that the suspected poisoning was linked to free meals distributed by a single nutrition fulfilment service unit .
“There are several schools that received food from one SPPG, and almost all of them complained. Nearly everyone reported symptoms,” she said at the IBI Hospital lobby, as cited by Sunday’s media reports.
“From our monitoring and reports from teachers, usually the meals don’t include meat,” she said. “So maybe, this is still a possibility, maybe it came from meat, because until now students had never received meat. ” Food samples were collected and sent to the Health Laboratory Centre for testing in coordination with the Surabaya health agency, to determine the cause of the children’s symptoms.
Some students reported negative experiences of eating that day’s beef dish, with Gibran, a student at SD Raden Wijaya, saying the food smelled good but the beef tasted bitter.
“I didn’t finish it. I put it in my lunch box,” he said, as quoted by local media platform the Jakarta Post. Cicilia, an affected student at SDN Tembok Dukuh III, who was put on an IV drip, said she “only tasted a little, then threw it away”.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto hugs a student after inspecting the Free Meals Programme, a government scheme providing free nutritious meals to schoolchildren and pregnant women, at an elementary school in Jakarta on May 7, 2025. After withdrawing all remaining meals, Tembok Dukuh SPPG head Chafi Alida Najla issued a public apology.
“On behalf of SPPG Tembok Dukuh Bubutan, I extend my deepest apologies to all affected parties, to the students and teachers who suffered poisoning from our food,” she said, as quoted by the Jakarta Post. Chafi stressed that her unit would suspend operations until laboratory test results were released and confirmed that the SPPG had been certified by the National Nutrition Agency since beginning operations in February 2026.
Despite suspending its operation, the SPPG is eligible for the daily fee of 6 million rupiah from BGN. It has pledged to cover all medical costs for affected students. Prabowo’s ambitious US$28 million free meals programme was launched last January with an aim to feed nearly 90 million children and pregnant women.
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