The Potential of Aloe Vera as Formalin Reductor in Formalyzed Javanese Chicken Meat

Abstract

One of the hazardous materials that are often found during food control surveys is formalin. Formalin is used by irresponsible traders as a food preservative because it is cheap and easy to use. Therefore, efforts are needed to reduce the formalin content in food, one of which is by using natural ingredients such as aloe vera. Based on research, aloe vera contains saponins that can be used to reduce the formaldehyde content in food. This study aims to find out the concentration of aloe vera solution that can provide the largest reduction in formalin levels in samples of formalized chicken meat. The methods used in this study have three stages. The first stage is to soak the chicken meat in a 0.1% formalin solution for 1 hour then filtered to get samples of formalized chicken meat. The second stage is to soak samples of formalized chicken meat in a solution of aloe vera reduction with concentrations of 0, 30, 60, and 90% for 1 hour then filtered to get the filtrate. The third stage is to analyze the immersion filtrate using the UV-Vis Spectrophotometer to find out what the remaining formalin levels are in the chicken meat. The result of this study was that the higher the concentration of aloe vera solution, the greater the decrease in formalin content in the sample. The largest decrease in formalin content was obtained from soaking aloe vera solution with a concentration of 90%, which can reduce formalin by 29,87%.