Factors that Determine Food Grade Aluminium Quality
Blog | December 14th, 2018Food grade aluminium has become an incredibly useful material in kitchens throughout the country. Whether you are looking for food grade aluminium for your commercial or residential kitchen needs, you’ll be glad to know that it is available. With that being said, food grade aluminium is still relatively new to the public’s lexicon. What is food grade aluminium? What factors go into deciding what makes this aluminium safe for food at all? Today’s discussion will be focused on explaining how food grade aluminium works while outlining a few key benefits of the product.
What Factors Decide Food Grade Aluminium
As we highlighted above, the term ‘food grade aluminium’ can end up causing some confusion for people who are shopping for kitchen materials. What is food grade aluminium? What factors go into deciding what makes the metal actually safe? The first thing that you should know is that food grade aluminium is a relatively general term, it doesn’t reference a specific type of aluminium. Confused yet? We’ll clarify for you. Listed below, you’ll find the major factors that decide what makes 1100 aluminium ‘food grade’.
1) Quality of Metal – Obviously, the most important factor when looking for food grade aluminium is making sure that you pick the right quality of metal. When we talk about food grade aluminium, we are typically talking about 1100 aluminium alloy. This grade of aluminium is considered ‘commercially pure’ which means that it is at least 99% aluminium. There are no other alloys at work within the metal that could impact whether your metal is food grade or not. That’s it. The other common grades of aluminium you might end up using include:
A) 3003 Aluminium – One of the most commonly used grades of aluminium. Consists of manganese and is considered stronger than 1100 aluminium.
B) 3004 Aluminium – The heaviest duty aluminium available, most commonly tied to the foodservice industry.
C) 5052 Aluminium – Highest fatigue strength of all alloys, most resistant to water corrosion.
2) Style of Usage – What do you plan on using your aluminium for? This will also be a consideration as you shop around for food grade aluminium. Some lower purities of aluminium can contain trace amounts of led and manganese. You obviously don’t want to be cooking at a high heat with those metal alloys in your aluminium, but they’d be fine for other applications.
When shopping for food grade aluminium, keep your eyes open to the quality of the metal being used. So long as you pay attention, you’ll find the right aluminium for your food-related needs.
Stecor Engineering & Fabrication
1/13 Crawford St, Braeside VIC 3195
Mobile: 0419 562 284
Phone: (03) 9028 4130
Fax: (03) 8669 4400
Optimized by NetwizardSEO.com.au