Is using aluminum foil on food harmful to our health?

Question

How long can you keep food wrapped in foil at

1) Room Temperature
2) Freezer
3) Refridgerator

Is it harmful to keep foods wrapped up for a long time in aluminum foil?

For example: Baked potato, meat?

Answer 1

no it's not harmful or they FDE wouldn't allow places to use it.

Answer 2

The question of how safe it is depends on the type of food. The key is wether or not the foil reacts chemically with the food. An example would be any food with tomatoes. As tomatoes have a high acid content it will tend to dissolve the foil and the resultant material is left on your food. Regardless of what the FDA says large amounts of Aluminum in you diet, aren't good for you.

I assume your question on how long food can be wrapped in foil refers to how long will it stay edible. Actually that has very little to do with the foil and a lot to do with the food in question.

The idea of wrapping food is to protect it from contamination. Bacteria, molds, and fungi are all in the air. The longer something sits out the more contaminated it becomes. However, most food is already well seeded with the agents that cause spoilage. So, other than drying out faster, an unwrapped sandwich isn't gonna go bad much faster at room temperature than a wrapped one.

Now in a freezer, the idea is to provide a vapor barrier. Because the modern freezers have defrost cycles, items with a poor vapor barrier (Foil for one) will get freezer burned. That means the item will loose water and get dry.

In a fridge, bacterial decay is slowed, but not stopped and all the considerations from above apply. Vapor barrier is helpful in MOST cases. Sorry, foil just isn't air tight.

Answer 3

smoking aluminum foil harmful health

Answer 4

There is no harm in using aluminum foil. It is not recommended that your boil tomato sauce in an aluminum pot for a long period as the acid will dissolve some aluminum.

Answer 5

It depends on what food it is. It is actually really bad to drink pop out of the can because as soon as you open it up aluminum spreads into the pop. So yur basically drinking aluminum!!!

Answer 6

To my understanding do not use on acids as they will absorber some of the aluminum into the food.

Answer 7

dyballerna is incorrect but you can always google info about aluminum..it depends on how long and what type of food....