President Prabowo vows safer free meal program at Forbes CEO forum

Jakarta (ANTARA) - President Prabowo Subianto reaffirmed his administration's commitment to tightening standard operating procedures (SOP) in the Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) program following recent food poisoning incidents.

"We have strengthened SOP supervision, including by purchasing new tools and equipment," he said at the Forbes Global CEO Conference 2025 in Jakarta on Wednesday night.

In a talk show session with Forbes magazine Chairman Steve Forbes, Prabowo said more MBG kitchens are now equipped with modern tools for water filtration, food tray sterilization, and safety testing.

Addressing over 400 global business leaders and innovators, he stressed that the government would not tolerate any violations of food safety standards in its effort to ensure the program's success.

As of October 15, about 11,900 MBG kitchens have been operating nationwide, serving nutritious meals to some 35.4 million schoolchildren, toddlers, pregnant women, and breastfeeding mothers.

"In other words, we provide free meals to nearly seven times Singapore's population daily," Prabowo remarked.

He acknowledged the challenges of maintaining quality control across such a large-scale program, noting that around 0.0007 percent of distributed meals had caused poisoning cases.

"Still, we cannot afford to tolerate even a single incident," he added, reaffirming the goal of achieving zero cases.

During the session titled "A Meeting of Minds," Prabowo and Forbes also discussed Indonesia's economic outlook, sovereign wealth fund Danantara Indonesia, and the country's anti-corruption drive.

The dialogue also touched on Indonesia's participation in the Sharm el-Sheikh Peace Summit in Egypt on October 13, which resulted in the Gaza Peace Agreement.