QUANTIFICATION OF ALUMINUM CONTENTS IN COOKED FOODSTUFFS FROM THREE REGIONS IN JAVA USING NEUTRON ACTIVATION ANALYSIS

Aluminum is widely available in nature and the third most abundant element on earth. Improper intake of aluminum can increase toxicity and correlate with Alzheimer's disease. One source of aluminum comes from food. In this study, aluminum content in foodstuffs was analyzed using neutron activation analysis. Various foodstuffs were purchased from markets in three regions in Java, namely Bangkalan (East Java), Magelang (Central Java), and Cianjur (West Java) and cooked at a temperature above 80°C until the ready-to-eat condition. The cooked samples were freeze-dried and irradiated in the G.A. Siwabessy research reactor with neutron flux of 5x1013 neutrons.m2.s-1. Post-irradiation samples were analyzed using gamma spectrometry. The results show that the aluminum contents in each foodstuff from one region have a strong correlation with other regions (Pearson correlation coefficient r>0.9, P