The Food Technology Lecturers at ITERA, namely Masayu Nur Ulfa and Amalia Wahyuningtyas, served as speakers in the Workshop to Improve the Quality of Beryodium Salt in Lampung Province, which was held by the Food and Drug Control Agency. This workshop activity was held on 27 June 2023 at Hotel Novotel, Lampung. This event was attended by salt packaging business actors in Lampung Province.
This workshop provided extensive discussion on Beryodium salt, covering health, technical, packaging, and quality control aspects of salt products. The Food Technology lecturers from ITERA explained the good salt iodization technique. Iodization is the process of adding iodine, which is usually in the form of potassium iodate (KIO3) to salt produced by salt farmers. This iodine addition cannot be done arbitrarily, because many low-iodine salt products are found in the market.
“Iodine is one of the important salt quality parameters besides moisture content and NaCl content. The iodine content is in accordance with the SNI standard, which is 30 ppm. This amount may seem small, but the right technique is needed so that the iodine content in the salt is evenly distributed. This homogenization process can be assisted by tools such as a rotary mixer, belt conveyor, screw conveyor, or a regular spray,” said Masayu Nur Ulfa.
Currently, many salt packagers add iodine by spraying (spray) using sprayer tools. This method is not wrong, but many factors will affect this method, such as uneven spraying, addition of moisture content, and others, so a better technology is needed.
The participants warmly welcomed this activity by actively discussing with the speakers. This activity is expected to be able to improve the quality of the salt circulating in Lampung Province and is expected to improve cooperation in the industry, institutions, academia, and the general public (MNU).
