More than 800 students in Indonesia have fallen ill this week in two mass food poisoning outbreaks linked to the government’s free school meals programme, prompting concerns over food safety and oversight, officials said Friday.

The largest incident occurred in West Java’s Garut region, where 569 students from five schools experienced symptoms of nausea and vomiting on Wednesday after consuming meals of chicken and rice. According to Nurdin Yana, secretary of the Garut regional government, 30 students required hospitalisation, while hundreds were treated at home. As of Friday, 10 students remained hospitalised.

In a swift response, local authorities pledged to tighten oversight of food vendors and simplify menus temporarily, replacing complex meals with safer items such as bread, boiled eggs, milk, and fruit. Despite the outbreak, officials ruled out suspending the programme entirely.

A second case was reported in Central Sulawesi’s Banggai Islands, where 277 students became sick on the same day. The National Nutrition Agency, which oversees the school meals initiative, said meal distribution in the region has been paused pending investigation.

Prasetyo Hadi, a spokesperson for the central government, issued an apology Friday, acknowledging the recurring food safety issues. “These cases are, of course, not what we had hoped for or intentional,” he said.

The incidents add to growing scrutiny over President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship school feeding programme, which was launched in January 2025 and aims to address child malnutrition on a massive scale.

Since its inception, the programme has reported over 4,000 cases of food poisoning, according to a recent study by the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF). The think tank’s findings have raised red flags about quality control, food hygiene, and supply chain management.

Despite the setbacks, the government remains committed to expanding the initiative. Currently serving more than 20 million students, the programme is targeting 83 million recipients by the end of 2025. The budget—already at 171 trillion rupiah ($10.32 billion)—is expected to double by 2026.

Health experts and education advocates have called for urgent improvements to safety protocols, even as the administration presses forward with what it describes as a cornerstone of its social welfare agenda.