35.9% of Indonesian Teenagers Receiving MBG Have Received Spoiled Food

According to the Children's Voice Study: Prioritizing Children's Perspectives in the Free Nutritious Meal Program, 35.9% or 583 adolescent respondents who received MBG had received food that was spoiled, stale, or raw.

Meanwhile, the remaining 64.1% stated that they had never received MBG food in a spoiled, stale, or raw condition.

The study was conducted by the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI), Wahana Visi Indonesia, and the Center for Indonesia's Strategic Development Initiatives (CISDI).

Two approaches were used: listening to children's voices (LtC) in the form of a survey, and child-led research (CLR) in the form of a focus group discussion (FGD).

According to these three organizations, the survey findings indicate negligence in the MBG program, which has the potential to become a new form of child abuse.

"Furthermore, 11 of the 583 respondents mentioned that they still consumed the spoiled/stale/raw MBG because they were grateful and did not want to waste it," as quoted from the study report.

In its report, it was explained that the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) had announced at least 11,660 cases of food poisoning due to MBG between January 6 and October 6, 2025.

In addition to spoiled, stale, or raw food and poisoning cases, the FGD process conducted by child researchers uncovered one anecdotal case.

This case involved an incident where a kitchen head threatened a child who recorded and reported unfit food.

"Several cases like this were caught in media monitoring, where ultimately, the child was pressured to apologize for viralizing their findings on social media," explained the three organizations.

The survey was conducted online from July 11 to August 1, 2025, involving 1,624 respondents aged 12-17 from 12 provinces in Indonesia, using a convenience sampling method.

Another criterion for respondents was having received the MBG program more than once. Since the respondents' age was 12-17 years, the survey does not represent MBG for toddlers, pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and MBG situations in elementary schools or equivalent.