Preservative Formalin

The Preservative Formalin

Recently, television and newspapers often present news and even become headline news, that is, formalin as a preservative for food. While the meaning of formalin itself is a chemical used in health to preserve corpse (dead body, so that it looks fresh and not smells too bad if the corpse has wounds on his/her body.

Foods that use formalin are tofu, wet noodle, salted fish, etc. Those foods are very close to the middle class and under because the price is reachable by middle class and under. However, why the producers make the foods with the preservative formalin.

Most of the consumers theirselves do not know yet about the shape, smell, and the taste of foods that use formalin. Even the small-scale producers also do not know yet about the characteristic of foods using formalin.
People who consume that kind of foods also do not know the impact of consuming those foods continually toward their health.

The producers make food with formalin because it can be durable at approximately one week so that the producers get more profit.
Actually, the characteristic is easy to recognize but the consumers may be less careful or careless so they don’t know about it. The characteristics of tofu: rubbery, tofu looks better if it is fried; of wet noodle: rubbery and tend to be white; of salted fish; durable/long lasting until several days. While the characteristic of tofu that uses no formalin: easy to smash, easy to get burnt if it is fried; of wet noodle: not too rubbery; of salted fish: it can last about 2 – 3 days.

The impacts of using formalin are dizzy, queasy, even diarrhea and the person can suffer from cancer and other dangerous diseases.
As consumers, we have to be wary toward foods containing formalin and we have to know the characteristics and the impacts of formalin so that we can keep our body healthy.