New National Nutrition Agency (BGN) head Sudaryono, who oversees the free meals program, described the series of food poisoning incidents lately as “deliberate negligence” by kitchens that had failed to follow the agency’s food-safety procedures.

Non-governmental watchdog Network for Education Watch said that as of Aug 8, there had been some 37,600 cases of food poisoning linked to the free-meals programme.

Hundreds of students fall ill in three seperate incidents in Java and Sumatra this week as criticism of president’s flagship program grows