Formaldehyde noodles? No thanks

Formaldehyde noodles? No thanks

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Bogor

Jakartans have not taken kindly to the news from the
Jakarta Food and Drug Office (BB-POM) that formaldehyde
is being poured into foods, such as tofu, noodles and salted
fish, to keep it fresher, longer.
Days after the announcement of the high content of the mortuary
preservative in certain foods, tofu vendors saw a drop in sales
and sidewalk eateries found customers were avoiding fried tofu
and noodles.

"At first I didn't know why people weren't buying my tofu
anymore ... Really, I don't sell tofu with formaldehyde," a tofu
vendor at Kebayoran Lama traditional market in South Jakarta told
The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Despite the BB-POM's assurance that the warning did not apply
to all tofu, noodles and salted fish sold at traditional markets
and supermarkets, its report on the high content of formaldehyde
in more than half of the samples taken from 50 markets in Greater
Jakarta and Banten between November and December, has made people
go to great lengths to avoid the chemicalized foods.

"Almost all traders in Bogor's traditional markets sell salted
fish treated with formaldehyde," the Bogor Agribusiness Agency's
fishery division head Robert Hasibuan said, noting that at least
20 samples of salted fish from the markets tested positive for
formaldehyde.

He has ordered traders to stop selling formaldehyde-treated
fish and refuse produce from suppliers that use formaldehyde.

Huzna Zahir, an executive of the Indonesian Consumers
Foundation (YLKI) -- which exposed the same issue a decade ago --
blamed the BB-POM for causing confusion by not providing clearer
information

"They say tofu, but which kind? There is Chinese tofu,
Sumedang tofu and Bandung tofu, and I know from producers that
the last two kinds aren't usually treated with formaldehyde," she
said.

The Association of Indonesian Food and Beverages Industries
(GAPMMI) said small-scale industries were suffering due to the
non-specific news reports.

"I'm certain that only a few of them use formaldehyde, yet all
950,000 small- and medium-scale food producers, who supply 70
percent of the country's processed food needs, are taking the
blame," GAPMMI chairman Thomas Darmawan was quoted by Detik.com
as saying on Wednesday.

Formaldehyde is a chemical widely used in fertilizer, plywood,
industrial fungicide, and as a preservative in mortuaries and
medical laboratories. Its use here to delay the decay and molding
of food is due to its low price and availability.

Formaldehyde can have enormously neurodegenerative effects,
including seizures, headaches, nausea, depression, convulsions
and loss of vision.

Without laboratory testing, Huzna said, it was difficult to
say offhand which products were formaldehyde-treated and which
were safe to eat.

Separately, PD Pasar Jaya president director Prabowo Soenirman
told the directors of traditional markets across the city to look
out for foods containing formaldehyde in their markets.

"Currently, we await the help of officers from the BB-POM so
we can 'spot the difference'," he said.

French-based Carrefour Indonesia's corporate affairs director
Irawan D. Kadarman said that, as one of the largest retail chains
in the city, it would not hesitate to cut off business contracts
with suppliers who provided formaldehyde-treated foods.

"We have asked all of our suppliers to give in writing a
guarantee that their products are free from illegal substances,
if we find that they are not, we will of course stop dealing with
them."