7 Reasons Why Using Aluminum Foil For Food Packaging Is A Health Hazard

In the earlier days, when we need to pack food material to carry with us during our travel or outing, we used natural material for the same. Today, the moment we need to pack lunch for our children or elders at home or travel, we search for aluminum foil or tissue paper. These artificial package materials we use are highly hazardous to health. The possibility of the chemicals present in the artificial package material we use seeping inside the food is high. While packing is easy using these materials than the natural ones used in olden days, the risk factor is huge. It is better to understand the consequences of packing hot food items in the aluminum foil or tissue paper.

Let we see some of the reasons why we must not indulge in packing hot food in tissue paper or aluminum foil.

1 Ingredients that make a tissue paper

The regular tissue paper we use is made of 30% softwood and 70% hardwood. Apart from these woods, the other ingredients used to make a tissue paper are chemicals for breaking down the tree to good matter, water and bleaching material. The base material used for producing tissue paper is the old low-quality paper created by the recycling method. For recycling old paper chemicals like artificial oxygen and sodium hydroxide are used. Peroxide is the chemical used to remove the old stains and make the paper look bright white.

2 Ingredients that make Aluminum foil

As the very name suggests, the Aluminum foil is directly the metal named aluminum. This foil is expected to be made of pure aluminum since the foil manufacturers usually use the metal which is pure to the extent of 92% to 99%.

3 Do you prefer tissue papers over Aluminum foils?

If you are one of those people who prefer using tissue papers instead of Aluminum foils, then read through to understand certain facts about the same.

The bleach used to make the tissue papers look white is just one concern. If the tissues you use have been produced using methods which take the help of Elemental Chlorine, then the risk factor is very high. When tissue paper is produced through methods using Elemental Chlorine, harmful chemicals like dioxins which are a carcinogen and furan which a health affecting mutagen are released by the same. Our immune system and reproductive system tend to get affected by these chemicals released while eating food items packed in Tissue papers

4 Printed tissue papers

Now, we know how safe people who go in for colored or printed tissue papers feel. While such printed tissue papers may look attractive for usage, the reality is, they can do more harm than the normal white tissue paper. In the process of printing or coloring, more harmful chemicals go into the same resulting in serious health issues.

5 What happens when food is packed in Aluminum foils?

Let us understand the exact equation of Aluminum foil and hot foods.

Most of us use Aluminum regularly foils for wrapping hot chapattis so that the heat can be retained till we eat. We also use these foils for packing freshly cooked chicken and colorfully roasted vegetables. While cooking foods using aluminum vessels is acceptable, packing them in aluminum foil must be avoided. This is due to the normal aluminum acceptance levels of the human body. While a normal human body is capable of evacuating certain quantity of aluminum regularly, an overdose of the same remains inside the body as toxins.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), human beings can take 40 milligrams of aluminum per kilogram of their body weight. This means anyone weighing 65 kilograms can intake a maximum of 2600 milligrams of Aluminum. The problem of excess intake of Aluminum comes when we pack food in Aluminum foil over and above eating Salt, Spices, Corn, herbs and cheese which also have aluminum content. Our food intake adds up to the aluminum consumption when food items are packed in Aluminum foil where the metal seeps into the foods packed in them. We end up taking more than Aluminum than recommended.

The experience with human health which is having a direct impact due to the lifestyle factor makes the modern scientists worried. Researchers are trying to find out the impact of excess aluminum consumption on human health.

6 Other packing material in Aluminum

Like Aluminum foil, another packing material made out of aluminum is the containers in square and rectangle forms. The medical field is astounded by the fact that high levels of Aluminum are found in patients who have Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's is one of those resultant diseases of the evil effects of industrialization and modern unhealthy lifestyles we live.

7 Foils must not be used while cooking

Irrespective of whether we cook in a pot, pan or foil, what is more, important is to keep the content of Aluminum that goes inside us regularly. Cookware and another type of aluminum vessels that are sold for the purpose of cooking have a coating between them and the food they contain. This is to avoid the aluminum content from seeping inside the food that is being cooked in these vessels. The real problem enters when this inner layer gets worn off due to regular cleaning of the vessels making the aluminum content mix with the food inside them.

This wearing out of Aluminum in vessels can be avoided if you use the vessels for heating water multiple times. Heating plain water makes the aluminum matter settle strongly in the vessel not giving up later when other types of food get cooked. This happens since the cookware gets oxidizes during the water heating process.

However, cooking your food placing the same on the foil is altogether a different story. When food is cooked placed on the foil, the extent of aluminum that gets migrated into the food heated is very much great above the permitted amount.

Now that we have clearly seen the health hazards tissue papers and aluminum foil cause when food items are packed in them, it is better to avoid the same in the future at the least.