QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF RHODAMINE B IN 4 TYPES OF FOOD PRODUCTS IN MALANG CITY AND REGENCY USING THIN LAYER CHROMATOGRAPHY METHOD

The misuse of rhodamine B as a food coloring can cause consumer health problems, such as gastrointestinal tract irritation, liver function disorders and is carcinogenic. Rhodamine B is a textile dye in the form of green or reddish purple crystals, odorless, and easily soluble and produces a fluorescent bright red color. Food products suspected of containing rhodamine B show an attractive bright red color. Rhodamine B dye analysis was carried out on 4 types of food products consisting of 8 rainbow cakes, 6 shrimp paste, 6 tomato sauces and 18 sand fried crackers which were sold in the city and district of Malang. The results of the analysis of a total of 38 test samples showed that 1 shrimp paste (16,7%), 1 tomato sauce (16,7%) and 4 fried sand crackers (22,2%) were positive for containing rhodamine B, while the 8 rainbow cake samples analyzed did not contain rhodamine B dye or in other words or in other words 15,8% of the total samples contained rhodamine B dye.