A Dip Test Strip Based on Immobilized Pararosaniline for Detection of Formalin Adulteration in Tofu

A sensitive dip test strip for detection of formalin (HCHO) in tofu samples based on immobilized pararosaniline (PR) has been developed. The test strip has been fabricated by immobilizing PR reagent on filter paper. By using image color analysis (ImageJ) as the average of ?RGB value as color sensor response, the analytical parameters are obtained from an area of the sensing zone of the test strip using digital output of the color scanner. By using this scanometric method, it is possible to determine HCHO as low as 0.05 mg/L with the concentration range of 2-80 mg/L and the response time of 3 minutes. The reproducibility was found to be 8.04% (RSD) for good recovery. The test strip has been successfully applied to detect formaldehyde in tofu samples, and the results show in good agreement with the Nash method using UV/vis spectrophotometry.