An article published on November 6, 2018, in the peer-reviewed Journal of Food Processing and Preservation, reported on the leaching of aluminum (Al) from aluminum foils into baked meat. Elif Inan-Eroglu and colleagues from the Faculty of Health Sciences, Nutrition and Dietetics Department, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey, compared an aluminum-only foil with a foil that had aluminum on the outer surface and baking paper on the inner surface. In the leaching experiments, four different types of meat (beef, mutton, and chicken’s white (breast) and red (drumstick) meat) wrapped in two different foils were subjected to three different cooking regimes, “at 150 °C for 60 min, 200 °C for 40 min, 250 °C for 20 min.”
The authors detected a tangible migration of aluminum with both foils into all meats with all cooking regimes, with aluminum content of meat increasing up to ≈12 times compared to background levels. The foil that had baking paper on the inner surface resulted in a somewhat lower migration of aluminum compared to the aluminum-only foil; the difference was statistically significant only in about half of the cases examined. The meat type as well as cooking conditions also had a significant effect on aluminum migration, as “aluminum leaching in both foil types increased with the increasing of fat content, acidity and cooking temperature.”
Based on the demonstration of lower aluminum migration from the foil with incorporated baking paper, the authors suggested that “policies should be developed in order to encourage consumers to be informed and use the foil, whose one side is baking paper and the other side is aluminum.” The authors did not discuss, however, the possibility that other migratable chemicals of concern could be present in the non-stick backing paper, such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) (FPF reported) or adhesives (FPF reported).
Reference
Inan-Eroglu, E., et al. (2018). “Determination of aluminium leaching into various baked meats with different types of foils by ICP-MS.” Journal of Food Processing and Preservation 42:e13771.
