MBG Serves 1.1 Billion Meals, National Nutrition Agency Targets Zero Food Safety Incidents Across All Kitchens

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JAKARTA, Investortrust.id — The National Nutrition Agency reported on Friday, Sept 26, 2025, that the Free Nutritious Meal Program, or MBG, has distributed more than 1.1 billion meals since its nationwide rollout on Jan 6, 2025.

National Nutrition Agency Chairman Dadan Hindayana said the program had successfully delivered nutritious meals to targeted groups across the country, marking one of the largest social nutrition initiatives ever implemented in Indonesia.

As of September, MBG operated through 9,406 Nutrition Service Centers, known as Sentra Penyediaan Pangan Gizi (SPPG), spread across 38 provinces. Beneficiaries included 28.28 million school children, 920,591 toddlers, 153,499 pregnant women, and 313,769 breastfeeding mothers.

Beyond improving national nutrition, MBG also created significant employment. A total of 337,060 workers have been absorbed in SPPG operations, showing that the program supports both public health and local economic growth.

Food Safety Focus

Dadan emphasized that food safety remained a top priority. Out of 9,406 kitchens in operation, 9,327—or 99.1 percent—recorded zero food safety incidents. However, 79 kitchens reported incidents of varying severity. The agency has issued warnings, and in some cases, imposed temporary or permanent closures depending on the level of risk.

“Our target is still zero food safety incidents across 100 percent of kitchens, and this is not just a slogan,” Dadan said. To achieve this, the agency will strengthen monitoring with a multi-stakeholder approach. One upcoming measure is mandatory food safety certification for every MBG kitchen to ensure strict compliance with health and safety standards.

Global Standards for Mass Meal Safety

Internationally, mass meal programs such as school feeding and public catering follow food safety systems based on Codex Alimentarius (WHO/FAO), HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points), and national public health regulations.

These frameworks demand strict hygiene in facilities, proper temperature control for storage and cooking, separation of raw and cooked food, personal hygiene for food handlers, and regular cleaning and sanitation. Special measures for large-scale catering include retaining food samples from each batch, maintaining detailed logs of cooking and storage conditions, and ensuring all staff receive certified food safety training.

In Indonesia, the National Food and Drug Authority (BPOM) and the Ministry of Health align with these global benchmarks. For programs like MBG, this means that every kitchen is expected to apply zero-tolerance standards for preventable foodborne illness. Even isolated outbreaks are treated as critical failures that require immediate corrective action.

Dadan said that MBG was not only a nutrition solution but also a national investment in building Indonesia’s “golden generation” by 2045. “The success of this program is the result of collective work and public trust that must be safeguarded,” he said.