Over 100,000 Trained to Boost Food Safety, Support Economic Growth

KBRN, Jakakrta: In a bid to strengthen national food safety and support Indonesia’s vision of achieving 8 percent annual economic growth, the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) has trained more than 100,000 individuals across the country. The initiative aims to ensure safer food practices while enhancing public health and investor confidence.

BPOM Chief Taruna Ikrar announced the milestone in Jakarta on Tuesday, October 21, 2025, highlighting that the training was conducted through several key programs between 2020 and 2024.

These include the Germas Sapa (Healthy Living Movement for Food Safety Awareness) initiative, the Sarjana Penggerak Pembangunan Indonesia (SPPI/Graduate Mobilizers for Indonesia’s Development) program which trained 30,000 development-focused graduates, and the Makan Bergizi Gratis (MBG/Free Nutritious Meals) program which involved 42,000 food handlers.

Taruna emphasized that food safety is a global concern, citing World Health Organization (WHO) data showing that contaminated food causes illness in one out of every ten people and leads to approximately 420,000 deaths annually.

“Around 40 percent of deaths among children under five are linked to foodborne diseases,” he noted, as quoted by antaranews.com, underscoring the importance of safe food not just for adults but especially for children.

He clarified that food safety differs from food security, explaining that under current regulations, a food poisoning incident is classified as extraordinary when two or more people fall ill from consuming the same food at the same place, such as in restaurants or public feeding programs like MBG.

“If we fulfill our responsibilities, the lower the percentage of food poisoning cases, the greater our success,” Taruna said.

He also pointed to nutrition improvement as a key indicator of progress. Citing Health Ministry data, he noted that Indonesia still faces high rates of childhood stunting (19.8 percent), wasting (7.4 percent), overweight (9.3 percent), and obesity (18.5 percent).

Over its 208-year history, BPOM has evolved from a regulatory body focused solely on drugs and health products to one that also oversees food safety. Through Germas Sapa, BPOM has reached 1,106 villages and urban communities, 453 traditional markets, trained 2,759 market officers, 17,221 village food safety cadres, implemented food safety programs in 17,318 schools, and trained 11,503 school-based food safety cadres.

“When you combine all these efforts, we’ve reached over 50,000 cadres, plus the 30,000 SPPI graduates we’ve trained. Add to that the 42,000 food handlers, and we now have more than 100,000 people reinforcing food safety nationwide,” Taruna said.

He expressed optimism that improved food safety will help Indonesia meet its economic growth targets, particularly by attracting investment without compromising food quality standards. ***