Workshop on Community Empowerment in Prevention of the Use of Hazardous Preservative for Food Product held in Yogyakarta,

A Workshop on ‘Community Empowerment in Prevention of the Use of Hazardous Preservative for Food Product’ was held on 11 March 2006 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The workshop was jointly organised by CIRDAP/SOCSEA and the Office of Industry, Trade and Cooperatives Services (/TCS).

The Workshop was the fifth in-country programme of CIRDAP/SOCSEA in collaboration with the Provincial Government of Yogyakarta Special Region particularly the Office of Industry, Trade and Cooperatives Services. The workshop was participated in by 63 participants representing Food enterprises; Food catering business and Association of Food Producers. Officials of the ITCS Yogyakarta and SOCSEA Jakarta also attended the workshop.

The inaugural session of the workshop was attended by Head of the Industry, Trade and Cooperatives Services (ITCS), Yogyakarta Province; Head of Bureau of international Cooperation as well as other dignitaries from the Regional Government of Yogyakarta Province and Representative from SOCSEA.

Ms. Retno Pratiwi, Chairperson of the Organising Committee and Head of the Agency for the Development of Handicraft, Yogyakarta Province welcomed the participants and guests to the workshop. She gave brief explanation regarding the objective and background of holding the workshop. She emphasised the importance of the workshop in enhancing the awareness of community members particularly food producers vis-a-vis their sense of responsibility toward maintaining good health of community members. While expecting a successful holding of the workshop, Ms. Retno Pratiwi thanked SOCSEA for their generous cooperation in organising the workshop.

Mrs. Djumilah Latief, Assistant Administrative Officer, representing Head of SOCSEA presented an Introductory Remark. In her remarks, she mentioned various kind of preservatives being used traditionally by community members and food enterprises in producing various food items. Considering the issue of hazardous effect of “formaldehyde” (know as formalin) and  “borak” being used as preservative for various foods in Indonesia recently, which has caused negative impact to the business activities in food sector, SOCSEA felt necessary to organise a workshop for community empowerment particularly small and medium enterprise in food sector. While recognising the concern of a huge number of SMEs in Yogyakarta Province affected by the negative impact of the news on various media relating to the use of hazardous preservatives, SOCSEA was pleased to organise the workshop in collaboration with the Regional Government of Yogyakarta Province. She concluded her remark by reiterating SOCSEA's appreciation to ITCS for their interest in promoting community empowerment.

Mr. Syahbenol Hasibuan, Head of ITCS, Yogyakarta Province delivered the Address of the Honourable Governor of Yogyakarta, who was unable to attend the meeting. In his address, the Governor pointed out the strategic role of food industry in Yogyakarta, since its business activities spread all over the regencies/cities in the Yogyakarta Province, absorbs a huge number of manpower as well as creates new private businesses and functioning as part of the implementation of people's economic activities. He mentioned that large number of small food industries were operating in Yogyakarta namely 33.340 units in 2005 and absorbing 92.903 manpower. Furthermore he reminded that the constraints being faced by food industry was the increase of consumer’s preference relating to food taste, quality, performance as well as its packaging. While referring to the unfavourable situation being experienced by many food industries in Yogyakarta caused by the negative impact of the news spread openly on the use of hazardous preservatives, the Governor of Yogyakarta felt the need to find ways and means to overcome such phenomena, among other things by organising the workshop.

Technical Session

During the first technical session, three papers/training materials were presented by experts, namely:

a) ‘The Ministerial Regulation Concerning the Additional Food Ingredient Issued by Minister of Trade of the Republic of Indonesia Number: 04/M­-DAG/PER/2/2006 regarding the Distribution and Supervision of Hazardous Preservative’ by Mr. Riyadi Ida Bagus Salyo Subali, Office of Industry, Trade and Cooperatives Services (ITCS), Province of Yogyakarta.

According to the Ministerial Regulation, the hazardous preservative and dye being used in Indonesia include among others “Formaline, Borax, Material yellow and Rhodamin-B”. The Regulation rules the distribution, supervision and the use of hazardous substances. The regulation also elaborates on matters relating to the distribution of hazardous substances, the permit required for distribution and selling of the materials, Reporting to the Government, Prohibition, Guidance and the Production Control.

b) ‘The Good Manufacturing Practices’ by Ms. Endang Sri Nuryani, Office of Industry, Trade and Cooperatives Services (ITCS), Province of Yogyakarta.

The Good and proper ways of producing food / the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) / covers the following aspects: Supplying of raw material,  Design and facilities of factory,  Hygiene of employees/workers,  Processing control, Maintenance of processing facilities,  Storage, Transportation, and Laboratory facilities.

c) ‘The Arrangement of the Additional Substances to Food’ by: Ms. Erna Suyati, Regional Office of Health Services, Yogyakarta Province.

The regulation stipulated in the Ministerial Regulation Number : 722/Menkes/Per/lX/88 issued by Minister of Health of the Republic of Indonesia in 1988 comprehensively regulates matters relating to the Additional Substances to Food (ASF) covering various aspects such as:

- Definition of ASF: a kind of substance / mixture of substances which was/were not part of raw material for food, which was/were added to food to influence/change the characteristic or the form of the food, such as dye, preservative and flavouring substance.

- The prohibited ASF such as :

‘Boraks’ - being used to preserve various foods particularly meat ball and wet noodle.

‘Formalin’ (Formaldehyde Solution) - being used especially to preserve human corpse. It was also being used to preserve food such as bean curd.

‘Rhodamin B’ - being used as dye

The arrangement also referred to the earlier Ministerial Regulation Number 239/Menkes/Per/V/85 issued by Minister of Health, Republic of Indonesia in 1985 which spelled out the name of hazardous colouring substance as follows :

The presentations were followed by discussions by the participants.

In the second session, following three papers/training materials were presented by respective experts

d) ‘Identification of Coconut Shell's Liquid Smoke as Food Preservative’ by Dr. Bambang Setiyadi, Director, Coconut Centre of Yogyakarta, and Researcher of Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta

Indonesia covers an area of 3.712 million hectare, it has 96.6 % people's estate crop 2.7 % private estate crop and 0.7 % state owned estate crop. Taking into account the huge area of estate crop where coconut being grown, the increasing coconut based business activities would enhance the community empowerment. Recognising the great potential of coconut based industries in Yogyakarta, the Provincial Government of Yogyakarta has taken various efforts to promote coconut based industries to enhance the income of its community. In this regards, the Government of Yogyakarta through the Coconut Centre of Gadjah Mada University is developing the production of the coconut shell's liquid smoke as health friendly Food Preservative. The liquid smoke was produced through “hydrolysis” process of coconut shell under the temperature of 350 - 400 degree Celsius. The liquid smoke composed of a mixture of 11.39 % acid 5.13 % phenolat and, 15.23 % aldehyde.

e) ‘The Requirement of the Use of Additional Food Ingredient’ by Ms. Anna Susilaningtyas, Yogyakarta Consumer's Agency

Based on the observations made by the Consumer's Agency, it was found the following:

- Not all additional food ingredients being used by the community are safe/not hazardous to human's health

- Many of Hazardous Additional Food Ingredient were still being sold in various markets

- A lot of community members were not aware of the hazardous additional food ingredient

Unpleasant Impact of Hazardous Additional Food Ingredient, among others:

- Short term:  Headache; Allergy; Poisonous

- Long term: Health disturbance, in some cases may cause death; May cause physical disability

What action should be taken ?

- Reduce, avoid using the additional food ingredient in food processing;  Maintain critical attitude;  Remain care of consumer's interest;  Doing fair business; Always attach proper labelling of the product in accordance with Ministerial Regulation Number 722/Menkes/Per/lX/88;  Provide education and control to children's consumers; and  Implement fair and appropriate law enforcement

f) ‘Impact of Hazardous Additional Food Ingredient to Human's Health’ by Ms. Rahayu Lasmintosasi Headquarters of Food and Drug Control Yogyakarta Province.

The matters elaborated in the Paper include among others, the characteristic of food using formaline (formaldehyde solution), as follows:

Dried fish

It can be maintained fresh in good condition more than one month in room temperature (25 degree Celsius); Its colour is bright; Does not have specific dried fish smell; The fly does not like to bite although it lies on an open place

Bean curd (Tou Fu)

Its colour is clear white and has elastic characteristic; Longer time of freshness

Chicken

Its colour is clear white; More durable and longer fresh condition

Outcome of the Workshop

Considering the detail information contained in the six papers/workshop materials presented during the workshop by their respective experts and taking into account the views expressed by the participants, the Workshop endorsed the following recommendations:

I.       The distribution and circulation of the hazardous substances should be properly arranged and controlled. The regulations stipulated in the Decree of Trade Minister Number 4/M-DAG/PER/2/2006 should be widely disseminated to the community as the consumer and the food producer;

II.     To avoid the use of hazardous additional ingredient (AFI), the following actions should be taken:

-  The Government should provide alternative AFI with fair price and could easily be obtained by the food producer;

-  The officials of the Industry, Trade and Cooperatives Service at Provincial level should be furnished with Test Kit to identify the use of hazardous AFI;

-  To ensure the effectiveness of the control on the use of AFI, working groups should be set up to protect consumers against the use of hazardous AFI;

-  Control should be undertaken periodically.

III.    The Ministerial Regulation issued by Minister of Health is functioning as guidelines for food producers in implementing Good and Manufacturing Practices. In this regard more attention should be given to the use of AFI that could be hazardous to human's health; statement in this regard and subsequently to continue monitoring the matter.

IV.    The Agency for Food and Drug Control identified that formaline, the hazardous additional food ingredient was found in some food products such as fresh fish, dried fish, wet noodle and bean curd. On the other side, there were some food producers stated that they never use formaline in the food they produced. To maintain good image of those 11 clean 11 food enterprises, the Government were requested to issue official written

V.     Beside using Formaline and other preservatives, some kinds of food were also using the hazardous dye such as Rhodamine B which usually be used only for textile and hazardous to human's health. It was also identified that hazardous additional food ingredients were also found in some food products being sold in various schools. Therefore appropriate information should be given to school children regarding the danger of AFI as well as the concerned food producers which mostly were home industries.

VI.    Finally the workshop agreed that the liquid smoke of coconut shell could be used as heath friendly alternative food preservative.

Closing Session

The closing session was attended by Mr. Syahbenol Hasibuan, Head of the Industry, Trade and Cooperative Services, Yogyakarta Province. Before delivering his Closing Remark, Mr. Syahbenol Hasibuan disclosed the recommendations agreed upon during the final session as the outcome of the workshop.

In his Closing Remark, Mr. Syahbenol pointed out that the workshop was a very appropriate effort that has produced important input to overcome constraints being faced by SMEs in food sector and giving directives to implement Good Manufacturing Practices particularly for food sector so as to be able to avoid using the hazardous additional food ingredient since the earliest stage of production process.

Mr. Syahbenol expressed appreciation and thanks to SOCSEA for their cooperation extended to ITCS in organising the workshop. He also thanked the experts and speakers as well as the participants in making the workshop a success. After the closing remarks, Mr. Syahbenol handed over Certificate of Attendance and Appreciation to all participants and the speakers. The workshop was held in the traditional spirit of cooperation and friendship.