What's Eating My Aluminum Foil?

The other night I made myself a DiGiornio’s Four Cheese Rising Crust Pizza and wrapped the leftovers in aluminum foil for storage in my refrigerator. The tinfoil now has five or six holes where it has made contact with areas of cheese (but not the sauce). Worse yet, the holes left tiny spots of grey sludge on my pizza which I assume to be the leftovers from whatever chemical reaction dissolved the aluminum (note: this is not a simple case of aluminum foil sticking to the cheese and tearing).

My questions is, what’s eating my aluminum foil? Also, is it safe for me to eat the pizza?

–Caliban

The acid from the tomatoes (Yeah, I know it didn’t touch the sauce) reacted with the Aluminum.

I wouldn’t eat it myself.

Good graphic example of why you shouldn’t store acidic foods in Aluminum foil or pans.

I think it got on the cheese because cheese is also a conductor, being moist, and has other minerals in it.
So what you have is a tiny organic battery, like the ones that power “potato clocks”.

As with all batteries, the ions are free to travel and end up at the “terminals” or places where different materials come together, as corrosion= various salts.

Aluminum is one of the earth’s most plentiful elements, so in itself it’s not considered harmful, but some salts are found in the brain stems of alzheimer’s patients, so Reader’s Digest created a scare connecting the two in a yellow journalism cover story. The connection has been disproven, but the fear remains widespread. Me, I’d just toss scrape off the ugly part and eat the rest.

I think oxidation plays an important role as well.

In fact, if memory serves me, the acid acts as a catalyst, speeding up the process.

Shoulda paid closer attention in Chemistry class.

Do you have any cites for the fact that the connection between aluminum and Alzheimer’s has been disproven? I’m just curious, since I have not ever heard or read otherwise.

Thanks for the answers, everybody. I will store the pizza in tupperware from now on.

That’s what I ended up doing. It would be a shame to waste all that good pizza.

–Caliban

But…but…but if you take the tin-foil hat off the poor innocent little pizza, you’ll never know whether or not it’s being controlled by the electromagnetic waves. Please rethink your position on this!

:wink:

It apparently causes a strange disease that prevents people from searching the archives.

Here’s Cecil on dissolving aluminum foil, and here he is on aluminum and Alzheimer’s, along with an update.