COOKING UTENSILS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 August 1938, Page 8

COOKING UTENSILS

USE OF ALUMINIUM. " Every year or so a discussion crops up regarding the use of aluminium for cooking utensils and its effects upon health; yet there is no need to worry, as the possibility of danger arising is so very remote. Nevertheless, it would appear that there is still some doubt whether aluminium pots and pans — especially when left overnight in contact with milk, fruit juices, and such foods—may not have some harmful action. .

The basis of any fears is doubtless the fact that some metals, such as copper and lead, have an unwholesome action upon food, and such vessels are avoided or used with extreme caution. The fact that canned foods should always be removed from their metal container immediately after opening because of the dangers involved is also well known. These fears are probably the reason which has placed all metals under suspicion. After investigating the problem, .however, the English New Health Society reports that leading chemists, physiologists, and medical men are food acid, and that for jam and pickle convinced that aluminium utensils are perfectly safe and harmless. They

point out, moreover, that aluminium is one of the metals least acted upon by making it is ideal. Then the Society of Public Analysts in England investigated the possibility of danger. They found that aluminium in the form of its soluble salts could be added to the diet of guinea pigs and rats in relatively large amounts without having any disastrous action on growth, health,, or reproduction. In some cases, the feeding experiments were continued over a period of 600 days and through many successive generations, and still the ill-effects were negligible. In America, twenty-six university students were given "doses of aluminium salts varying from three to 150 grains daily over a period of six months with no harmful results. In fact, doses up to 20 grains daily can be taken .with impunity.

Now the question arises as to how much aluminium enters food while cooking. Practically all food contains small amounts of aluminium, and careful experiment has shown that this content is increased after cooking. Milk can be taken as an example and this contains .4 parts per million, which is increased to .6 parts on boiling in an aluminium saucepan, and to 2.5 parts after standing overnight. Other foods show similar increases; but without exception, these amounts are always extremely small.