- Toxicity in Food -

Cookware and contamination

Cooking utensils can be made from a variety of materials: aluminium, copper, iron, steel, stainless steel, glass, earthenware. Some of these materials can find their way into food.

Usually very little aluminium migrates during cooking and at present there is no conclusive evidence that the amounts of aluminium normally consumed with our food are hazardous. Higher amounts of aluminium can transfer to food from cookware if highly acidic foods such as vinegar-containing sauces, tomatoes, and citrus fruits are left in contact with aluminium for periods longer than 5 or 6 hours. Similarly, unlined copper utensils containing acidic foods can result in migration of some copper into the food. This can cause rapid destruction of vitamin C and also possibly can lead to harmful levels of copper in food. It is better to use copper vessels that are plated with tin, stainless steel or some other material that will prevent this occurring.

Glass, enameled iron and steel and stainless steel are unlikely to cause potentially hazardous levels of material to migrate into food. Some glazes on pottery utensils that have been wrongly mixed or fired have caused potentially harmful amounts of the heavy metals lead and cadmium to migrate into acid foods that have been stored or cooked in these vessels. This is not normally a problem because modern methods of glazing produce resistant products.