Chromotropic acid and acetylacetone methods for qualitative determination of formaldehyde were tested in parallel on 48 commercial samples, with high-performance liquid chromotography (HPLC) implemented for quantitative measure. In addition, interference with the detection of formaldehyde was investigated by analyzing 12 other aldehydes and ketones, 7 essential oils and 3 polysorbates. Throughout this comparative study, the disadvantages of the chromotropic acid method, of which 2 variants were used, were delineated and we found that the acetylacetone test proved to be a more efficient screening method for formaldehyde detection in a clinical laboratory.