Potential Health Threat Due to Migration of Lead and Aluminum into Food Cooked with Recycled Metal and Alloy Pots

Artisanal cooking pots constructed with recycled aluminum and scrapped car body parts are widely used in the developing world for large scale cooking of food for ceremonies, roadside sells and small-scale food processing. Assessment of the potential health risks of pots fabricated with recycled metal/alloy is the objective of this work Three food stuffs; rice, beans and tomato, and five pots; new aluminum pot (NAP), pitted aluminum pot (PAP), artisan aluminum pot (AAP), stainless steel pot (SSP) and artisan alloy pot (AAY) were used to conduct the study. Each pot was used to cook and store each food item for 0, 12 and 24 h. This mimics the usual style of overnight keeping of cooked food inside these pots. Metal contents of the cooked and stored foods were determined with a spectrophotometer and estimate of health risk was calculated based on the tolerable limits specified by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in 2008.. Specific Release Limit (SRL) of metals based on ALARA principles for food contact material (FCM) was also referenced (Council of Europe, 2013). Lead migration into cooked food occurred most (4.32 ± 0.18 mg/kg) in AAY pot and least (0.13 ± 0.05 mg/kg) in SSP while Al migration occurred most in AAP. The mean quantities of Al and Pb ions released by all the pots except SSP into cooked food were above the tolerable limits (Pb = 0.01 mg/kg food; Al = 0.1 mg/kg food). In all cases, metal ion migration increased with increase in food/pot contact time. The average range of Pb content in the food samples were 0.03 to 00.75 mg/kg, 0.23 to 2.63 mg/kg, and 0.84 to 4.19 mg/kg for the raw, cooked and after 24 h storage, respectively. In terms of SRL, AAY and AAP were least favored. Irrespective of pot type used, tomato had the highest level of metal ion content followed by beans and then rice. The work demonstrates that the problem of Pb and Al leaching into cooked food correlates with the type of cooking pot, contact time between food and pot as well as the nature of the foodstuff. We conclude that artisanal cooking pots as FCM release Al and Pb ions at potentially toxic levels that poses health risks to the population. Stainless steel surface is suggested as better FCM at all levels of food processing. Our results support the need for countries in the developing world to ban the use of artisanal (uncoated) metal/alloy as FCM. This research was self sponsored.