Aluminum migration from semi-rigid packaging into foods during storage

Aluminum (Al) is a neurotoxic agent and this element is being associated with Alzheimer disease. The use of semi-rigid packaging has been increased in recent years. In these packages, the main layer is aluminum. The purpose of this study was to determine the Al concentration in foods packaged in semi-rigid packaging in during storage time.
Al concentration of the samples (Joje kabab, khorake morgh, khoresh gheymeh, n=36) was determined at different storage times (0, 60, 120, and 180 days after packaging). Aluminum was determined by ICP-OES after wet digestion method of the samples. A two-way analysis of variance was used to analyze the results with respect to time and food factors.
The effect of storage time on Al concentration was significant p˂0.001. The samples that were stored longer had significantly higher aluminum concentrations. The highest concentration was determined in Joje kabab (3.27 ±0.93 ppm( and lowest Al content was determined in khoresh gheymeh (1.04 ± 0.16 ppm). The results showed that Al concentration of the foods packaged in semi-rigid packaging increased significantly during storage.
Considering the present state of knowledge and the suggested provisional tolerable daily intake of 1 mg/kg body weight per day of according to World Health Organization, Al leaching from semi-rigid packages may add low doses of Al into the diet.