The Performance of Turmeric Paper as an Indicator of The Borax Content in Crackers

Abstract

Borax is one of food additives that has been prohibited from being used by the Indonesian Government because it is dangerous to health. However, the fact is that borax has been widely added to several food products, such as skewered meatballs, school children’s snacks, bread, meatballs, tofu and crackers. Crackers containing borax is easily found in traditional markets. Short-term consumption of borax can cause various symptoms such as headache, fever, malaise, nausea or vomiting, pain in the upper abdomen and diarrhea. While long-term exposure to borax will have a more dangerous effect, which can cause stomach disorders, seizures to acute kidney failure which can lead to death. This paper reports a simple, easy and inexpensive test of borax content using a home-made turmeric paper on ten types of crackers purchased randomly in traditional market. The aim is that the borax content test can be carried out by anyone only by buying a few ingredients from the local market and pharmacy, and without the need to involve laboratory tests, but with accurate results when compared to laboratory tests. As a comparison, a flame test and a colour test on the borax content carried out in the laboratorium using the AOAC 18 ed. 2005 Official Method Boric Acid & Borates in Food 970.33 and the FI ed. V of 2014 General Identification Test <291> Borat method A on Page 1423 was also completed. Among the 10 crackers tested, six of them were detected to contain borax. These results are very consistent with the laboratory test results. The performance of the home made turmeric paper is therefore reliable.