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Around 400 children fall ill after eating free school meals in Indonesia's Bengkulu
Poor sanitation in a centralized kitchen caused around 400 Indonesian children to suffer mass food poisoning from free school meals, prompting suspension and investigation by authorities.
- Last Thursday, around 400 children aged four to 12 were hospitalized in Bengkulu Province, Indonesia, after reporting stomach pain following free school meals.
- The illnesses occurred within President Prabowo Subianto's free meals programme launched in January to curb malnutrition among children and pregnant women.
- Authorities temporarily suspended operations at a recently opened kitchen and will investigate the outbreak while awaiting lab results on the food.
- The programme has rapidly expanded to serve over 20 million recipients in 2025 with a budget of 171 trillion rupiah , aiming for 83 million by year-end.
- This event marks the worst mass food poisoning linked to the programme so far, with poor sanitation cited as the probable cause and local government covering treatment costs.
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Four hundred children in Indonesia have fallen ill after eating a school meal. The free meals were introduced this year by President Prabowo, and since then, there have been several major outbreaks of food poisoning. The sick children, from the Benkulu province of Sumatra, are all between the ages of 4 and 12. They were taken to the hospital with abdominal pain. Authorities say they are investigating how the children became ill. The meal program…
·Netherlands
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Channel News AsiaReposted by 
New Strait Times
New Strait TimesAround 400 children fall ill after eating free school meals in Indonesia's Bengkulu
JAKARTA: Around 400 children have fallen ill after eating free school meals in Indonesia's western Bengkulu Province in the worst case of mass food poisoning to date linked to President Prabowo Subianto's
·Singapore
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Total News Sources13
Leaning Left2Leaning Right3Center3Last UpdatedBias Distribution38% Center, 38% Right
Bias Distribution
- 38% of the sources are Center, 38% of the sources lean Right
38% Right
L 25%
C 38%
R 38%
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