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TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia's National Nutrition Agency (BGN) has announced that factory-produced food items will no longer be included in the government’s Free Nutritious Meal (MBG) program.Deputy Head of BGN, Nanik S. Deyang, delivered the statement during a press conference at the agency’s office in Jakarta on Friday, September 26, 2026.“We will stop using all factory products,” Nanik asserted, emphasizing that meals served to students must be sourced from local raw materials.Nanik, who was inaugurated by President Prabowo Subianto as Deputy Head of BGN on September 17, 2025, said she discovered widespread use of factory-made goods in MBG menus during her first week in office.She stressed that the program should fulfill its original purpose: to support local economies rather than benefit large food conglomerates.“The MBG kitchen is meant to stimulate the local economy, not to enrich conglomerates that own bread factories,” she said.To ensure this, Nanik instructed Nutrition Fulfillment Service Units (SPPG) to stop serving factory-made products and switch entirely to locally sourced ingredients.BGN is even encouraging that bread provided in schools be homemade by students’ mothers, rather than purchased from factories.An exception, however, will be made for certain items such as milk. Since most MBG kitchens do not have access to dairy farms, packaged milk will still be permitted temporarily.“Reluctantly, for now, we allow the use of packaged milk. But for other products, we will no longer tolerate or approve their use,” Nanik concluded.Editor’s Choice: Indonesia's BGN Apologizes After Free Nutritious Meals Sicken 6,000 ChildrenClick here to get the latest news updates from Tempo on Google News
