A study has demonstrated that during food preparation and storage, aluminum foil can release aluminum particles into the food it comes into contact with.
The researchers say these findings may be troubling as aluminum has been documented to be a neurotoxin.
“Aluminum can be released into food by aluminum-containing food-contact materials (Al-FCM) during preparation or storage,” the study said in the ‘Abstract’ section. “There is considerable concern that extra aluminum intake may have negative effects on public health, especially with regard to its high background exposure and neurotoxic properties of aluminum in high exposures.”
The researchers provided a useful graphic of their findings, linked in the study.
The researchers conducted the study using 11 participants which ate the same meals over a 10 day period, repeated three times, totaling 30 days of experimentation. The participants were exposed to aluminum-containing food-contact materials (Al-FCM) between days 11 to 20, while control meals with no (Al-FCM) were eaten in the first 10 days. Aluminum in the body was measured in the urine.
“Urinary aluminum excretion showed a strong dependency on the creatinine concentration in urine and required adjustment in further analyses. The creatinine-adjusted aluminum excretion during the exposure phase (median 1.98 µg/g creatinine) was higher than in both control phases (1.78 µg/g creatinine each). Two different mixed-effects regression models showed a significant effect in the exposure phase. Considering a discrete time effect, the creatinine-adjusted mean increase in the exposure phase was estimated to be 0.19 µg/L (95% CI: 0.07–0.31; p = 0.0017),” the study said in the ‘Materials and Methods’ section.
The researchers concluded that the aluminum-containing food-contact materials increased people’s aluminum concentrations by 8 percent.
“This study demonstrated a measurable but fully reversible additional Al burden in humans from subacute Al-FCM exposure under real-world conditions. The estimated increase from Al-FCM corresponds to 8% of the baseline concentration. These data enable a more robust assessment of human health risks by Al-FCM,” the study said in the ‘Materials and Methods’ section.
Those health risks mostly concern the brain and exposure can come from many sources, mostly entering through the mouth.
“The most relevant adverse effect of Al belongs to neurotoxicity. Neurotoxic effects are therefore the basis upon which guidance values are derived for a safe exposure level in the general population as well as for occupationally exposed groups,” the study said in the ‘Introduction’ section. “Outside of certain occupational or medically induced applications with inferior relevance for the general population, ingestion is the major route of human Al exposure, which mostly comes from the everyday diet due to the natural occurrence of Al in food and drinks. However, exposure might also occur via ingestion of pharmaceuticals or other consumer products; and the dietary Al content may further increase as a result of food processing or preparation.”
One point about the method of measurement the researchers used was that they measured not just aluminum but creatine as well.
“Urinary Al concentration is often evaluated with regard to creatinine concentration and several reference values are therefore creatinine-based (µg/gC). As a result, the relationship between urinary Al and creatinine concentration was assessed before evaluation of the Al course in the light of the intervention,” the study said in the ‘Results’ section.
One positive the researchers found was that the increases in aluminum in the body from foil was reversible.
“…the results demonstrated a measurable but fully reversible additional Al burden in humans from subacute exposure for the first time,” the study said in the ‘Discussion’ section.