G. Ketty, A.A. Aziah, I. Faridah, I., Norakmar and H. Roosnoor Farkhan
The Department of Veterinary Services Malaysia (DVS) is alerted with the issue regarding sodium nitrite content in swifilet’s nest or Edible Bird’s Nest (EBN) exported to China since the year 2009. This has given the opportunity to Veterinary Public Health Laboratory to conduct nitrite analysis using readily available method. The analysis was done with some modification of the Malaysian Standard Method MS 954: Part 14: 1988 to determine the nitrite content in swiftlet’s nest using Ultraviole visible spectrophotometer and expressed as miligramrnes of sodium nitrite per kilogramme (wt/wt) or parts per million (ppm). This study showed that raw-unclean EBN analyzed had higher nitrite content in comparison to raw-clean EBN and EBN products. This may be due to the excess presence of guano in the cave and house where the bird nest was collected. However, the water used to soak and clean the EBN should be checked for nitrite content to prevent contamination of nitrite to the EBN.