Stephanie Apsari Putri, S.H.,M.H.,PhD

Faculty of Law, Universitas Diponegoro, Semarang, Indonesia

Food safety remains a critical challenge in Indonesia due to food adulteration, contamination, and systemic regulatory weaknesses. Government spokespersons play a vital role in managing public communication during food safety crises, providing timely, accurate, and credible information to mitigate public anxiety and misinformation. This study examines the communicative role of government spokespersons in Indonesia, highlighting institutional constraints, inter-agency coordination issues, and the influence of social media on public communication strategies. Using a qualitative doctrinal legal research approach, the study analyzes laws, regulations, guidelines, and comparative examples from other jurisdictions to identify gaps and propose improvements. Findings indicate that fragmented responsibilities among food safety agencies and the rapid spread of hoaxes undermine public trust, while consolidating authority under a single agency and adopting proactive, coordinated social media strategies can enhance risk communication and crisis management. The study provides practical and legal insights for strengthening government communication to ensure food safety and protect public health.

Food Safety, Government Spokesperson, Public Communication, Social Media

.

2) Aggarwal, A R and Garg, R L (1983) Formalin Toxicity in Hydatid Liver Disease. 38(7) Anaesthesia

3) Az Zahra, Rania & Setiawan, Erwin Budi (2023), Hoax Identification on Social Media Using Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) and Long Short-term Memory (LSTM) Methods. 11th International Conference on Information and Communication Technology ICoICT.

4) BBC News Indonesia. https://www.bbc.com/indonesia/articles/c5y9j28r2wlo.

5) Chinnasamy, Sara; Salvosa, Felipe F.; Esguerra, Christian V. (2024). COVID-19 Disinformation and Fake News Circulation—From the Perspective of Global South Countries. Ecologies of Global Risk Journalism: Conceptualizing Local Journalism in an Era of Deep Disruptions.

6) Collins, E.J.T (1993). Food Adulteration and Food Safety in Britain in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries. Food Policy 18(2)

7) Everstine, Karen; John Spink; and Shaun Kennedy (2013) Economically Motivated Adulteration (EMA) of Food: Common Characteristics of EMA Incidents. 76(4) Journal of Food Protection

8) Garcí¬a-Santamarí¬a, José-Vicente; Marí¬a-José Pérez-Serrano, Miriam Rodrí¬guez-Pallares, 2020, Profesional de la información, Official spokespersons and audiovisual strategy in the covid-19 crisis in Spain

9) Hammonds, Timothy M. (2004). It Is Time to Designate a Single Food Safety Agency 59(3) Food and Drug Law Journal.

10) Hariyadi, Purwiyatno (2008). National Food Safety Authority in Indonesia, Is It Possible? 2(2) SNI Valuasi

11) Komdigi.https://www.komdigi.go.id/berita/pengumuman/detail/disinformasi-beredar-produk-pangan-rekayasa-genetika

12) Krasnyak, Olga (2020). Foreign Ministry’s Spokesperson in Public Diplomacy: A Case of Russia. Russian Journal of Communication.

13) NADFC, ‘NADFC's Explanation Regarding the Development of Worm Parasite Findings in Canned Mackerel Fish Products’ 28 March 2018 [Translated from Indonesian Language] .

14) NADFC.https://www.pom.go.id/penjelasan-publik/klarifikasi-produk-pangan-yang-tidak-aman-dikonsumsi-karena-mengandung-darah-dan-virus-hiv.

15) NSW Food Authority Annual Report 2018-2019, 9.

16) NSW Government. https://www.nsw.gov.au/nsw-government/communications/social-media-guidelines.

17) Omojokun, Jane (2003). Regulation and Enforcement of Legislation of Food Safety in Nigeria’ In Hussaini Anthony Makun Mycotoxin and Food Safety in Developing Countries. Intech.

18) Rosmani, Arifah Fasha; Ariffin Abdul Mutalib; Siti Mahfuzah Sarif (2020). The Evolution of Information Dissemination, Communication Media and Technology in Malaysia. Journal of Physics: Conference Series.

19) Savoia, Elena; Rachael Piltch-Loeb, Eva H. Stanton, Howard K. Koh (2023). Learning from COVID-19: Government Leaders’ Perspectives to Improve Emergency Risk Communication. Globalization and Health.

20) Shan, Liran Christine; Panagiotis Panagiotopoulus, Aine Regan, Aoife De Brún, Julie Barnett, Patric Wall, Aine McConnon, Interactive communication with the public: Qualitative exploration of the use of social media by food and health organizations. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior 2015

21) Shaari, Azahah Abu Hassan; Mohammad Rahim Kamaluddin; Zainal Abidin; Muhammad Adnan Pitchan; Shalini Munusamy (2025) What Motivates Social Media Users to Share Fake News, and What Are Its Impacts? A Systematic Literature Review. Changing Societies and Personalities.

22) Sikanna, Rismawaty (2016). Qualitative Analysis on The Use Formalin in Tofu Sold in Palu Markets. 2(2) Kovalen: Journal of Chemistry Research

23) Trimadya, Nindya Malvins; Hartrisari Hardjomidjojo and Elisa Anggraeni, (2018). Risk Management System for Contamination on Food Supply Chain (Case Study: Pasteurized Milk) 28(2) Journal of Agriculture Technology. United States Government Accountability Office (GAO 2005), ‘Experiences of Seven Countries in Consolidating Their Food Safety Systems’ GAO-05-212.

24) Veneti, Anastasia; Panagiota Nakou (2025). The role of the government spokesperson in Greece. Histories of Political Public Relations: From Propaganda to Public Health.

25) Vyralakshmi, G. and G. Jayasheela (2017). Food Adulteration and Contamination-A Catastrophe. 11(7) IOSR Journal of Environmental Science, Toxicology and Food Technology (IOSR-JESTFT)

26) Yasuda, John Kojiro (2015). Why Food Safety Fails in China: The Politics of Scale. 223 China Quarterly

Volume 08 Issue 12 December 2025

There is an Open Access article, distributed under the term of the Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits remixing, adapting and building upon the work for non-commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited.