Finishing aluminum for cookware?

[sansbury]

I've been looking at some projects involving surfaces that will come in contact with food, only for home use at the moment.

I imagine that anodizing would be ideal, but was wondering if there were any other choices like lacquer, paint, etc, or if a cleaned unfinished surface is considered acceptable. It will not be going in the oven or on the stove but there might be acids like lemon or tomato juice around, though some of the parts would not need to come in contact with any.

[Geof]

Aluminum alloy cooking pots were all the rage about twenty or thirty years ago and they were either untreated aluminum, anodized aluminun or teflon coated.

Acidic foods such as tomatoes or citrus fruits are no problem because aluminum alloys are all pretty much impervious to mild acids. However, aluminum is susceptible to attack from bases (alkalies), and when they are left soaking in a strong detergent such as is used in dishwashers it develops pitting and a white deposit of aluminum hydroxide.

I haven't patronized cooking ware shops recently but I think aluminum pots are now rare. This is mainly due, I think, to a scare that was created about 20 years ago when some medical studies showed that people with Alzheimer's disease had unusual levels of aluminum in their brain tissue; Google 'Alzheimer aluminum' and you will get tons of hits.

The connection may be real but probably not from aluminum cooking ware. Aluminum salts were, and maybe still are, used as a flocculant in water purification so all domestic water supplies used to, and maybe still do, contain aluminum at a level much higher than would ever arise from using aluminum pots.

Notice I said the connection between aluminum and Alzheimer's may be real; it does not and never has worried me because there are so many other factors involved.

[sansbury]

My mother smoked two packs of Camels a day but wouldn't allow a microwave in the house because it might cause cancer.

[Geof]

My mother smoked two packs of Camels a day but wouldn't allow a microwave in the house because it might cause cancer.

Human beings are very illogical. However, to a large extent it is excusable because in the case of microwaves and cancer there is a plausible link at the energy levels involved with microwave ovens. To make the risk as significant as smoking you would have to spend many hours a day in front of a malfunctioning oven operating at full power so while the concern is plausible it is not realistic. The problem is the news media blows things up out of proportion.