Analysis Of The Dissolved Aluminum From Aluminum Cookware And Influence Of Food Components On The Speciation And Amount Of Aluminum

Intake of aluminum, a known toxic element, causes health problems in human. Unfortunately, aluminum cookware is still commonly used in China nowadays. The ingestion of the dissolved aluminum from the cookware induces certain diseases. The correlation in between cardiovascular diseases and the usage of aluminum cookware was investigated. Factors that might influence the release of aluminum from the cookware were investigated by quantifying the total amount of aluminum, by speciation of the aluminum ions, by the study of the interaction of aluminum with proteins and carbohydrates, and by the analysis of the influence of food components on aluminum displacement in the foods.In this study, 544 persons (272 with cardiovascular diseases and 272 as the control group) in Beijing City were interviewed in order to investigate the correlation between cardiovascular diseases and the usage of aluminum cookware. The results showed that the usage of aluminum cookware would worsen cardiovascular disease symptoms 300% comparison to the control group. Therefore, we concluded that the usage of aluminum cookware was directly correlated to cardiovascular diseases.This study was designed to observe the attributions of cooking conditions on the aluminum released from the cookware of different manufacturers. Atomic absorption chromatograph was applied to assay the total aluminum in cooked rice, tomato, and pork, with salt. The results showed that the amounts of aluminum released from the cooking vessels were closely correlated with food types, salt concentrations, and cooking and storage time.The amount of aluminum of a stewed pork soup, in a simulated cooking model, was analyzed by using an ion exchange methodology. This was the first time using continuous static extraction, which has been used in aluminum speciation in soil, in analyzing food samples. The results showed that the amounts of aluminum in the liquid portion of the soup and in the pork meat of the soup were significantly different after the cook.. About 99% of the aluminum showed up in the pork meat portion. About 71.3% of the total aluminum was in the forms of organometal and about 27.8% was in the forms of inorganometal. It was found that aluminum hydroxide was the dominant inorganicmetal species.In order to investigate the interactions between aluminum and proteins, and aluminum and carbohydrates, aluminum standard solutions were mixed and reacted with fat-free milk, soy protein, and starch solutions. The results showed that both animal proteins and plant proteins had high affinities to aluminum and reacted with aluminum readily. But aluminum showed less interest in coupling with carbohydrates, even under a heat condition.