Filo Sofia Kamila Mukmin (on the left) and Ferdi Saepulah after receiving the Silver Medal at the ISTEC international event in Bandung

ITS Campus, ITS News – Another proud international achievement in the beginning of this year was successfully carved by students from the Department of Chemical Engineering of Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS). Namely Ferdi Saepulah and Filo Sofia Kamila Mukmin, who successfully won the silver medal in the Science College category in the International Science Technology Engineering and Competition (ISTEC) event at Graha Pos Indonesia, Bandung, for three days until Wednesday (1/15).

Thanks to the innovation of Kitoshelium, a natural preservative for fruits, they won second place at this prestigious event. The ISTEC competition held by the Indonesian Young Scientist Association (IYSA) conducts three contest categories, namely Science, Engineering, and Technology.

Due to having participated in a similar event held by IYSA, it was suggested that Ferdi and his colleagues take part in this event which was also attended by several participants from the elementary school level to the tertiary level.

As a representative of ITS, Ferdi revealed, each team or participant was given a booth and was able to put up posters to showcase their products as attractive as possible. Then the jury will give the assessment to each product. “Our products are in the form of fruit preservatives and we happen to get a jury from South Africa and Thailand,” he explained.

Ferdi Saepulah (on the left) and Filo Sofia Kamila Mukmin in their booth to display Kitoshelium products

This Bandung-born young man expressed that his inspiration came from his mother’s friend who had a fruit salad business. But a problem they experienced was that the fruit is easy to rot even if put in a cooler, where the fruit will eventually lose its freshness.

“My friend at that time challenged me to find the solution to this problem because I am from chemical engineering, so therefore I took the challenge and tried solving it,” revealed Ferdi.

With the existence of Kitoshelium, continued this student of the 2019 batch, the fruit that initially will only last for two to three days, will now take up to a week of freshness. The concept of this product is like formalin that can preserve food, but the difference is that Kitoshelium is based on natural ingredients; from extracts of onion oil and green mussel shells which usually become waste.

This basic ingredient will then be mixed with citric acid solvents. After becoming a solution, the needed fruit is soaked for three minutes and then drained. “Before it is used or consumed, the drained fruit still has the smell of onions, but that can be removed by washing it first,” he conveyed.

The team, guided by Setiyo Gunawan, S.T., Ph.D., mentioned that the judges’ evaluation was the reason why they could win the silver medal, it stated that the product this team produced had never been found by other researchers. “This research is the latest innovation we have produced, and we plan to make the journal to be patented,” added Ferdi.

Kitoshelium products, natural preservatives for fruits by ITS Chemical Engineering students

Not only that, he added, they also made a factory-scale roadmap, sales design, and was also commercialized. “Sales from Kitoshelium are still being promoted to students here and there (ITS, red) anyway, hopefully in the future, there will be more enthusiasts,” hoped this student who was born on April 29, 1999.

Winning the silver medal itself is something beyond their expectations. The reason is that they competed with opposing teams that have better and more interesting innovations, especially rivals from foreign countries such as Brazil. “There is Andalas University who also issued a similar product in the form of meat preservatives, but it turns out that the innovation was developed from previous journals, which means that it is not really new,” he explained.

Ferdi hopes the results of his work with the team can be further developed. “Hopefully, more people will be interested in our products, and will always try and move forward to find new breakthroughs that focus on the field of technology,” concluded Ferdi. (zar/ory/ITS Public Relations)