Consumers worried about dangerous preservatives in fresh foods like tofu, fish and meatballs, could soon be buying foods processed with the safe "liquid smoke" treatment, a university lecturer says.

The Coconut Processing Center (PPPT) in Yogyakarta has been developing the technology since 2003.

Center head and Gajah Mada University lecturer Bambang Setiaji said the method, which uses the smoke produced in the burning of coconut shells, was a safe alternative to the illegal and dangerous use of formaldehyde in foods.

Bambang said the smoke had the ability to safely preserve food because it contained 4.13 percent phenol, 10.2 percent natural acids and 11.3 percent carbonil, all ingredients that functioned as antioxidants and antibacterials, and prevented the natural breakdown of food.

Liquid smoke also flavored food, with a taste that could be regulated through the intensity of the smoking process, he said.

Bambang and Indonesian Cooperatives Council (Dekopin) head Adi Sasono recently signed an agreement with the blessing of the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency to develop production centers for liquid smoke throughout Indonesia.

Adi said the cheaper, safe preservative would hopefully end producers' use of formaldehyde to preserve foods like tofu, fish and fresh noodles.

"Using liquid smoke, fishermen would only have to spend Rp 25,000 to preserve a single catch," Adi said.

This amount was about a sixth of what fishermen paid for ice to freeze fish and half the estimated Rp 50,000 a catch spent on cheaper formaldehyde, he said.

Adi said Dekopin would cooperate with the center to provide liquid smoke to producer cooperatives throughout Indonesia. Dekopin would also start workshops about how to produce liquid smoke, he said.

Around 500 fisheries cooperatives, 300 primary food and beverage cooperatives, and 153 tofu and tempeh producer groups in Indonesia were ready to adopt the technology, which would cost between Rp 50 million and Rp 60 million per smoking machine, Ali said.

Liquid smoke producers would be obliged to get certification from the center so that the quality of their product could be monitored and guaranteed, he said.

BPOM head Sampoerno said that his office was drawing up guidelines for liquid smoke safety standards. Sampoerno said liquid smoke had long been known internationally and that the U.S government had classified it as "Generally Recognized as Safe." "We will use that reference for the meantime, before we get our own laboratory results," Sampoerno said.

Indonesia has about 3.71 million hectares of coconut fields, the most extensive plantations in the world.