Jakarta. The head of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN), Sudaryono, said on Monday he had dismissed 137 managers of school meal kitchens across several provinces as part of a broad overhaul of the government's Free Nutritious Meals program, less than two weeks after taking office.

The announcement came just days after another mass food poisoning incident linked to the program affected about 700 students and teachers at a vocational school in Semarang.

"As of today, I have removed 137 kitchen heads in West Java, Lampung, East Java, North Sumatra, Banten, and Central Java, including the manager of the kitchen that supplied meals linked to the food poisoning case at State Vocational School 6 Semarang," Sudaryono said.

He said the dismissals targeted managers who had committed disciplinary violations or had records of conduct inconsistent with the agency's operational and integrity standards, including cases involving food safety failures and financial misconduct.

"We have zero tolerance for food poisoning and corruption. We are building a system based on the principle that trust is good, but control is better," he said.

Sudaryono is the third head of the National Nutrition Agency since it was established in August 2024.

His predecessor, Dadan Hindayana, was dismissed by President Prabowo Subianto in June along with two deputies before all three were arrested by the Attorney General's Office on corruption charges.

Another deputy, Nanik Deyang, briefly took over the agency before resigning after about 45 days, citing health reasons while the corruption investigation into the agency was ongoing.

In his first week in office, Sudaryono dismissed 261 agency employees for various disciplinary violations and permanently closed 833 kitchens that failed to meet standards on hygiene, financial management, or operational compliance.

He also pledged to make the program more transparent by allowing parents, schools, and local authorities to access information about daily menus, nutritional content, kitchen locations, and the officials responsible for meal preparation.

"My commitment after taking office is to provide transparent information to all relevant stakeholders. Parents, health offices, education offices, teachers, and school principals should know what meals students receive today, what they received yesterday, what they will receive tomorrow, the nutritional content, where the meals are prepared, and who is responsible," he said.

The Free Nutritious Meals program, one of President Prabowo's flagship initiatives, spent Rp 101.1 trillion ($5.6 billion) during the first half of 2026 and reached more than 63 million beneficiaries.

The program has faced repeated scrutiny over food poisoning incidents affecting tens of thousands of students, while the Constitutional Court recently ruled that the program can no longer be financed using the national education budget.

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