Latest Indonesian free meal poisoning outbreaks affect 800, lawmaker says

Nearly 800 Indonesians have fallen ill in separate incidents of food poisoning linked to the government's free meals programme, a member of a parliamentary commission overseeing health said, including more than 500 students in East Java province this week.

President Prabowo Subianto launched his multibillion-dollar programme last year to eradicate under-nutrition by giving free meals to tens of millions of children, but the scheme has been dogged by controversies, including mass food poisoning, allegations of corruption, leadership changes and a burdensome price tag.

Aside from the 512 students who fell ill in the region of Sidoarjo in East Java, 49 suffered from poisoning in the East Java city of Nganjuk and 237 in the West Sumatra region of Agam, Charles Honoris, a lawmaker and member of the sole political party outside the governing coalition, said on Instagram on Wednesday.

Charles cited local health department data to make the claim and said they were not isolated incidents.

"This is a failure of the system," he said.

The National Nutrition Agency, which oversees the $12.94 billion programme, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawmaker's post. It suspended the kitchen linked to the Sidoarjo case on Wednesday.

There have been a number of outbreaks of mass food poisoning linked to the free-meals scheme, with 37,600 individuals reported to have been affected as of August 8, according to Network for Education Watch, a non-governmental watchdog.

Improper food storage and late delivery of cooked meals are often to blame for the food poisoning, authorities have said.

In July, a survey by pollster Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting showed only one-third of people were satisfied with the scheme, with the reported cases of poisoning cited as a major reason.