Analysis of Formaldehyde Level in Wet Noodles Using Nash and UV-Vis Spectrophotometry Method

Analisis Kandungan Formalin pada Mie Basah Menggunakan Nash dengan Metode Spektrofotometri UV-Vis

Abstract

Noodle is a type of food that is much favoured by community, specially Indonesian, because of good taste,
cheap, and easy in processing. One of the most widely consumed noodles is wet noodles. Wet noodles have a
fairly high water content. Therefore, wet noodles cannot be stored for a long time. To prevent spoilage and mold
growth, producers usually add food additives to the process of making wet noodles. However, still found
preserved wet noodles that can not be used, example formalin. Previous research has found that wet noodles
containing formalin are sold in several cities in Indonesia. Formalin is a chemical that is harmful to health and
its use is also prohibited as a food additive. The aims of study is to determine whether there is formalin in wet
noodles sold in the Wonokusumo Surabaya market by using qualitative and quantitative analysis methods using
spectrophotometry and nash reagents. The stages of research used in this study were to standardize formalin
standard solutions to determine the maximum wavelength and calibration curves; Nash reagent manufacturing;
sample preparation; and testing the formalin content of wet noodles qualitatively and quantitatively. While the
research results obtained in this study are the levels of standard solution formalin after standardized by
34,5807%; the maximum wavelength of formalin with nash reagents is at 412 nm, the correlation coefficient (r)
of the calibration curve is 0.9992. Qualitative test results on the five samples after adding reagent and heated
showed that samples A, D, and E did not contain formalin because there was no change in color. Whereas
samples B and C contain formalin because of a change in color to yellow. Quantitative test results on samples B
and C obtained an average content of formalin in sample B of 257,596 mg/kg and sample C of 320,884 mg /kg.