So this morning while i was writing (copy-pasting .. obviously) about that Formaldehyde, two friends of mine were having their job interview. The first one is Cicak a.k.a Reza, and the second is Anie (more than just a friend obviously… ^_^ )

Cicak was interviewed at Plant Engineering (somewhere in Shipyard Road, Jurong) and Anie was interviewed at PaninBank (somewhere in Surabaya, which is difficult to find, since PaninBank has 22 offices in Surabaya, 25 Trillion Rupiah worth of assets, 5.4 Trillion Rupiah of networth with CAR 35% …. Hmm i wonder why i know all these informations … =P)

All the best to both of you ….

There has been an uproar in Indonesia recently. They found out that some foods using formalin as its preservatives. Formalin is the substance you used to preserve the frog in the jar, after you dissected it in your Biology Lab. Yep.. its the substance that preserve the deads.

Let see what happen to your body if you consume ‘enough’ formalin: =P

“Because formaldehyde resins are used in many construction materials, including plywood, carpet, and spray-on insulating foams, and because these resins slowly give off formaldehyde over time, formaldehyde is one of the more common indoor air pollutants. At concentrations above 0.1 mg/kg in air, inhaled formaldehyde can irritate the eyes and mucous membranes, resulting in watery eyes, headache, a burning sensation in the throat, and difficulty breathing.

Large formaldehyde exposures, for example from drinking formaldehyde solutions, are potentially lethal. Formaldehyde is converted to formic acid in the body, leading to a rise in blood acidity, rapid, shallow breathing, hypothermia, and coma or death. People who have ingested formaldehyde require immediate medical attention.

In the body, formaldehyde can cause proteins to irreversibly bind to DNA. Laboratory animals exposed to large doses of inhaled formaldehyde over their lifetimes have developed more cancers of the nose and throat than are usual, as have workers in particle-board sawmills. However, some studies suggest that smaller concentrations of formaldehyde like those encountered in most buildings have no carcinogenic effects. Formaldehyde is classified as a probable human carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and as a known human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.” ( taken from Wikipedia , emphasis mine) ( taken from Wikipedia , emphasis mine)

So to prevent yourself getting nasty cancer, please eat more vegetables. Should you really need to resort to those meats and fishes, make sure they are fresh. How to make sure the their freshness ? I’ll leave this to those Material/Chemical Engineers to create another practical indicator test device, just like my previous idea of an indicator for the purity of petrol …. (which is never realised …. >.<)

There is always a time when you opened your fridge and goes, ‘Huh… we still have this thing ?”. Then you turned the thing upside down looking for the expiry date. When you found the expiry date on the package, it makes you wondering what todays’ date is and started using your fingers to count how many days had passed since. And it makes you remember one episodes of ‘Malcolm in the Middle’ where Malcolm and Reese making a competition on eating the expired food.

So that thing happened to me, last Saturday to be exact. I woke up with empty stomach. So I did the same sequence I described above, and I make the same competition as Malcolm and Reese. Me against Myself :P. Yup, good versus evil.

The 2 packs of Tofu had been expired since 12 December, so that’s like 12 days. And another great saying was echoed in my head, “Expired food is still good at most 3 months after its expiry date” said by Eko Yudhi Pratomo 😛 So what the hell.. I’ll just go cook it for lunch. (Actually I fried it.. no additional ingredients, just plain fried tofu. )

Fried two more pieces of Japanese Crispy Chicken, then I’m done. My lunch is ready. Yup, the high carb and high fat diet .. ( Sigh.. contrary to what I’m supposed to eat >.< ).

Finishing my lunch, I was prepared for any ill effect of the expired tofu. But hey, I didn’t feel any ill effects at all. So at night I repeated to fried the last of the expired tofu, but this time I also promoted it to my friend with a disclaimer that ‘this tofu is expired, I ate it for my lunch, but nothing wrong happened to me’. So they bought my claim, they consumed it.

Hmm.. If we keep on doing this, I think we can create our own Fear Factor, Blk 664A Edition 😛