Risk Assessment of Using Aluminum Foil in Food Preparation
Link: http://www.electrochemsci.org/papers/vol7/7054498.pdf
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Ghada Bassioni1,2,* , Fathia S. Mohammed3 , Essam Al Zubaidy3 and Issam Kobrsi2
1 Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
2 Chemical Engineering Department, The Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi, UAE;
3 Chemical Engineering Department, American University of Sharjah, Sharjah, UAE.
* E-mail: gbassioni@pi.ac.ae
Int. J. Electrochem. Sci., 7 (2012) 4498 - 4509
The contamination of food is a major concern not only for developing countries but also for the entire world. In the present work, leaching of aluminum from aluminum foil in different food solutions was studied. Minced meat was used to prepare six different food solutions using tomato juice, citric acid, apple vinegar, salt, and spices. Three techniques for analysis were used, weight loss (WL) measurements, Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy (ESEM), and Inductively Coupled Plasma – Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). The results clearly indicate that the use of aluminum foil for cooking contributes significantly to the daily intake of aluminum through the cooked foods. The amount of leaching was found to be high in acidic solutions, and even higher with the addition of spices. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the obtained values considered to be unacceptable. Finally, excessive consumption of aluminum from leaching aluminum foil has an extreme health risk effects. Aluminum foil may be used for packing but not for cooking.
CONCLUSION The above work shows that the aluminum leaching from the foil into the food solution is the same in liquid and vapor phases. Aluminum foil used in cooking provides an easy channel for the metal to enter the human body. The increase in cooking temperature causes more leaching. The leaching is also highly dependent on the pH value of the food solution, salt, and spices added to the food solutions. Aluminum foil is not suitable for cooking specially with acidic food. It is also possible that excessive consumption of food baked with aluminum foil may carry a serious health risk.
Keywords: Aluminum foil; aluminum leaching; food preparation; aluminum level; toxicity
