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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Rob Gardner, Digest Coordinator

Contents:
  Re: aluminium effects on restaurants (a.e.mossberg)

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Date: Sat, 27 May 89 11:27:09 EDT
From: aem at mthvax.cs.miami.edu (a.e.mossberg)
Subject: Re: aluminium effects on restaurants

In HOMEBREW Digest #161, Mike Fertsch sez:

>I went to my local restaurant-supply store today, looking for a kettle.  I
>found stainless and aluminium, but no enameled steel.  Based on the above
>discussion, I was surprised that restaurants use aluminium pots - do they
>get nasty flavors or Alzheimer's disease? 

What a novel idea -- I've never considered the possibility of restaurants
getting Alzheimer's.  I don't think they're susceptible, though.

>I've was told that enameled steel pots are not allowed in restaurants; the
>health authorities are afraid of chipped pots.  I'm not sure if they are
>worried about the chips themselves, or the reaction of the exposed metal
>with the food.  Either way, restaurants seem to have no problems using
>aluminium, but shy away from enamel because of health risks. 

As I understand it, many cheap enamels contain lead.  So the problem is
the chips themselves.  No new enameled pots use lead-containing enamels.
As for aluminium, while the link has been rumoured for years, only recently
has data been available showing a correlation with high brain levels of 
aluminium and senile dementia/alzheimer's, and the legal machinery moves
slowly and laboriously.   

>Are our requirements that different from restaurants?  My feeling is that
>they are so I'll look around some more for a 8 gallon enameled steel pot. 

That's what I'd suggest.  I think I saw some in the William's Homebrewing 
catalogue, but any big department store should also have them.

aem
-- 
a.e.mossberg - aem at mthvax.miami.edu - aem at miavax.SPAN - aem at umiami.BITNET 
Yo no tomo la guitarra por conseguir un aplauso.  Yo canto la diferencia que 
hay de lo cierto y lo falso.  De lo contrario no canto. - Violeta Parra

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