Formaldehyde In 'Koobi', Equally Insidious May Be 'Kau'

A few days ago there was a report at the news section of Ghanaweb alleging the use of formaldehyde by salted fish (“koobi”) sellers to preserve the fish. The salted fish sellers vehemently deny the allegation. Bar the release of any investigation result by national health, regulatory and possibly law enforcement entities, it will not be proper for me to render any judgment.

Formaldehyde is carcinogenic to humans and the human body can tolerate formaldehyde levels below the lethal dosage. Unfortunately, the water solution of formaldehyde (called formalin) is used for food preservation in some third world countries. I leave the rest of this discussion for the health and regulatory experts.

I remember when I was growing up in Ghana, there was a product put on the market by Nigerian petty traders. It was called “KAU” (the vowels are pronounced with a nasal accent). This material was solid and grey to off-white colored and in Ghanaian color description it would be called ash colored. The material was used to cook hard and dried food items. It was so potent that only a few milligrams of it when added to a big bowl of cooking hard dried food item would convert the food item into soft cooked product within a short time. It was a well known ingredient added to cook dried black eyed peas (“adua nsawa” in Twi). Without this item “kau”, dried food item would cook forever (literally). It is quite interesting to note that dried black eyed peas in USA on the contrary, cook in water without the addition of any such ingredient in a matter of minutes.

This material appears very potent and I feel that when added to a bowl of plastic that has been chopped up into pieces and cooked together, it can probably digest the pieces of plastic into gelatinous medium. I remember the potency of this material earned it many humorous but admirable nicknames and references. For example a tough guy was referred to as ‘he is hard (invincible) like kau” in the Twi dialect. Also in patronizing the usage of this material people used to say in Twi, “it works, but only Nigerians (“Alatafuor” in Twi) know the composition”.

Considering the high potency of this material and the fact that it is consumed as part of food by humans, I fell that it deserves an equal amount of scrutiny by health and regulatory officials as is currently given to the alleged application of formalin in “koobi” preservation. Even more serious is the fact that nobody knows the composition of this material and it must be investigated so that health and regulatory officials can educate the public on any health issues of this material or the lack thereof.

It is gratifying that our advancement endows us with complete understanding or justifiable curiosity about matters impacting our environment and what we consume into our bodies.