Arya News - A nine-year-old boy in Lampung recently died after choking on a longan fruit distributed as part of the initiative, marking the first reported death linked to the program.
JAKARTA – Calls to review the fruit served under Indonesia’s free nutritious meal program have emerged after a nine-year-old boy in Lampung died after choking on a longan fruit distributed as part of the initiative, marking the first reported death linked to the program.
The incident occurred on Tuesday morning at SDN 03 Poncowarno State Elementary School in Poncowarno village, Central Lampung regency, according to police.
“The boy, Reyhan Arisyah Putra, was eating longan from a government-provided meal package while playing and running inside his classroom when he choked,” said M. Prenanta Al Ghazali, head of the criminal investigation unit at the Central Lampung police, as quoted by Kompas.id.
Reyhan sought help from classmates and school staff, who tried to assist him but were unable to dislodge the fruit, police said.
School officials took him to a nearby community health center before he was referred to a hospital for further treatment, but he was later pronounced dead, police said.
Prenanta said police had launched an investigation into the incident. Officers have visited the school and questioned several witnesses. The family, however, declined to have an autopsy conducted on Reyhan’s body.
Ubaid Matraji, national coordinator of the Indonesian Education Monitoring Network (JPPI), said the incident should not be treated solely as an accident but should prompt an evaluation of food safety measures and emergency response procedures under the free meal program.
“This is clearly fatal negligence. Serving millions of schoolchildren every day without a system to ensure food safety and mitigate physical hazards is extremely dangerous,” Ubaid said on Wednesday as quoted by Tribunnews.com.
He said the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) and free-meal kitchens should review how potentially hazardous foods, including fruit that could pose a choking risk, are prepared and served.
Ubaid also called on BGN to issue guidelines on how food should be prepared and served to students of different ages, including instructions on cutting, texture and presentation.
JPPI also called for closer supervision of students during mealtimes, clear procedures for responding to medical emergencies and first-aid training for staff involved in the program.
Similarly, Poncowarno village head Heri Eliyanto said the Reyhan’s death should not be treated simply as an unfortunate incident and forgotten, but should prompt improvements to prevent similar cases from happening again.
“We believe everything happens according to God’s will. But we sincerely hope this incident will serve as a lesson and prompt everyone to reflect and make improvements. We should not simply regard it as an unfortunate incident and move on, as we fear something similar could happen again,” Heri said as quoted by Kompas.com.
The head of the free meals task force in Lampung, Saipul, said the program’s technical guidelines do not specify which types of fruit should be served, but that the rules would be reviewed following the fatal choking incident.
“The technical guidelines do not specify particular types of fruit to be served to students, but this case will be a lesson for us and we will pay greater attention to the issue going forward,” Saipul said on Thursday.
He said in the future fruit served to students in the first three grades of elementary school should preferably be prepared ready to eat, without skin or seeds, to make it easier for younger children to consume safely.
Longans, snake fruit and other hard fruits would also be avoided in meals for younger children.
“They would only be served to older students, such as those in senior high school, who are more accustomed to removing inedible parts of fruit before eating,” he said.
Launched on Jan. 6, 2025, the free meals program is one of President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship initiatives. But the ambitious program has faced growing scrutiny over its large budget, allegations of corruption and food safety concerns, including reports of ultra-processed and contaminated food that have led to cases of food poisoning.
As of early September, about 53,000 students across Indonesia have suffered food poisoning linked to the program, according to the House of Representatives, with more than 3,000 cases reported in September alone.