Around 200 students from various schools in Surabaya's Tembok Dukuh subdistrict experienced food poisoning symptoms after consuming provided free nutritious meals. Symptoms include dizziness, nausea, and vomiting, and they were treated at local hospitals.
FILE PHOTO: A student carries lunch boxes on the first day of a free-meal programme at at Muhammadiyah high school in Sidoarjo on January 6, 2025.
- AFP JAKARTA: Around 200 students from 12 kindergartens, elementary and junior high schools in Tembok Dukuh subdistrict, Surabaya, East Java, suffered symptoms of food poisoning after consuming state-provided free nutritious meals on May 11. Most of the students complained of dizziness, nausea and vomiting. Some were treated at the IBI Mother and Child Hospital in Surabaya, while the majority underwent only light medical examinations. As of Monday afternoon, no students had been reported to require hospitalisation.
Tembok Dukuh Community Health Center 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. She added that the number of victims was still provisional as data collection is ongoing. Tiyas said preliminary suspicion pointed to the meat dish served that day.
“From our monitoring and reports from teachers, usually the meals don’t include meat,” she said. “Today , there was meat. So maybe, this is still a possibility, maybe it came from meat, because until now students had never received meat. ” To confirm the cause, food samples have been collected and sent to the Health Laboratory Center for testing in coordination with the Surabaya Health Agency.
“We still don’t know the cause. We are rechecking. Samples have been taken on site and will be examined at BBLK,” Tiyas said. Several students shared their experiences, telling what they experienced.
Nabila, a student at SDN Tembok Dukuh IV public elementary school, said she had finished almost all her lunch except the fried tofu.
“The menu was beef, vegetables, orange, rice. I ate it all. Only the tofu was left,” she said. Shortly after eating, she felt dizzy and had stomach pain, prompting her school to send her to Puskesmas Cicilia, a student at SDN Tembok Dukuh III, also suffered similar symptoms and was put on an IV drip.
“I only tasted a little, then threw it away,” she recalled. Gibran, a student at SD Raden Wijaya, said the food smelled good but the beef dish tasted bitter.
“I didn’t finish it. I put it in my lunch box,” he said. In response, the Tembok Dukuh SPPG immediately withdrew all remaining meals and its head Chafi Alida Najla publicly apologised for the incident.
“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 told reporters. “We will take full responsibility for medical treatment and all field observations. ” Chafi stressed that her unit would suspend operations until laboratory test results were released.
“We are halting operations. We will conduct evaluations until everything is truly safe before deciding how to proceed,” she said. She also confirmed that the SPPG had been certified by the National Nutrition Agency since beginning operations in February 2026.
“All permits are complete. This incident was beyond our control,” she asserted. Despite suspending its operation, the SPPG is eligible for the daily fee of Rp 6 million from BGN. The SPPG has pledged to cover all medical costs for affected students.
“The MBG provider is committed to financing all medical treatment for the students. We will also carry out investigations into the food through BBLK,” Tiyas said. Field observations showed that the MBG menu that day consisted of white rice, fried tofu, beef krengsengan , sautéed long beans and carrots and an orange.
Although most symptoms were mild, the incident left some children traumatised. Several victims said they no longer wanted to eat MBG meals. Health authorities are still awaiting laboratory results to determine the exact cause of the mass poisoning. Surabaya Education Agency head Febrina Kusumawati said teachers at schools had followed the standard operating procedures by checking the smell and appearance of the meals before distributing them to students.
“If the SOP has been carried out and nothing suspicious was found, then there must be an extra check of the substance or the food materials that are ready to be consumed,” she said. “The conclusion from the smell was that nothing was wrong. But it turned out some students still suffered poisoning. That means the food must be checked beforehand.
” She emphasised that the SPPG must strengthen its SOP to ensure food safety, including examining whether certain menu combinations could trigger chemical reactions in the body.
“Sometimes when food is combined with something else, there may be chemical processes that occur inside the body. That also needs to be studied further,” she said. The incident follows a similar case in Mojokerto regency on Jan. 11, when 216 students from kindergarten to senior high school suffered food poisoning after eating chicken soup prepared by a SPPG. The number of food poisoning victims increased to 411 on Jan. 14.
Victims in that case reported nausea, vomiting, fever and diarrhoea after consuming the meal. - The Jakarta Post/ANNTwo people die in fire at oil warehouse in Myeik, Myanmar The Singapore-based Malaysian doctor who sees patients in the world’s fiercest war zones, like Gaza and Sudan India's Rajdhani Express fire: Swift emergency evacuation by Railway Protection Force, rail staff saves 68 passengers
Free Meal Program Free Nutritious Meals Food Poisoning Outbreak Mass Student Illness School Meals Health Laboratory Center Nutrition Fulfillment Service Unit Assessment Of Food Samples Medical Examination
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