Behind the freshness of cincau, the threat of formalin still lurks

While not all black grass jelly products contain formalin, various tests conducted by the BPOM Technical Implementation Unit (UPT) in several regions have shown that some black grass jelly products still contain dangerous substances.

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Grass jelly is a traditional drink that has long been known and consumed by the Indonesian people. Its use continues to evolve, not only as a ready-to-serve drink served with ice, sugar, coconut milk, or syrup, but also as an additive in various modern beverage products.

Grass jelly can be easily found, ranging from traditional markets and traditional drink vendors to modern outlets and packaged processed food products. In addition to ready-to-serve drinks, soft drink products containing grass jelly in the form of packaged processed food are also widely circulated. BPOM data (202/2026) records that at least 181 beverage products containing grass jelly have been registered.

Registered products are certainly easier to evaluate for safety, both through pre-market surveillance and post-market monitoring. The raw plant materials used to produce ready-to-serve grass jelly drinks are diverse. However, within the community, there are two types of grass jelly that are most popular and well-known.

First, green grass jelly, which originates from the Cyclea barbata or Premna oblongifolia plants, obtained through a process of squeezing leaves using water (Gangga et al., 2017). This type of grass jelly is generally found in traditional drinks served with a mixture of ice, sugar, coconut milk, or syrup.

Second, black grass jelly, which originates from the Mesona palustris Bl plant (Wahyono et al., 2015). This black grass jelly is also widely found as a mixture in other ready-to-serve drinks, such as fruit ice, mixed ice (es campur), cappuccino grass jelly, and others.

Unlike green grass jelly, which is generally produced and sold directly by traditional drink vendors to consumers, black grass jelly is now produced more extensively by manufacturers who market it in large quantities or in bulk to traditional markets.

From traditional markets, this black grass jelly is then resold to ready-to-serve drink vendors as well as households to be processed and served as a consumable beverage. Research by Nurulkhusna et al. (2024) explains that black grass jelly has a hydrophilic gel structure with a matrix dominated by water bound within a hydrocolloid network.

This high water content causes black grass jelly to be very vulnerable to physical changes, syneresis, spontaneous fermentation, and microbiological spoilage during the storage process.

Sanitation studies on black grass jelly also confirm that high water content can serve as a medium that supports the growth of microorganisms (Nurulkhusna et al., 2024).

These findings are in line with the Hurdle Effect theory (Leistner, 1978), which explains that factors such as heating, storage temperature, water activity (aw), and acidity levels play an important role in the food preservation process.