Background: The use of aluminum in everyday life leads to increasing in Aluminum consumption. Food stuffs are made from various chemical compounds. Therefore, an interaction between these compounds and the contact surface of aluminum cook wares during cooking process is possible. Aluminum has been blamed for several human diseases. According to the approval of Joint FAO/WHO expert committee on food additives, the Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intake of aluminum is 7 mg /kg body weight. This study was carried out to evaluate the leaching content of aluminum from new and used aluminum cook wares to three common Iranian foods.

Materials and Methods: The selected foods were quince jam, rice and Gheimeh which cooked twice in a pyrex, new and used aluminum cookwares. Aluminum in cooked foods was determined by inductively coupled plasma after wet digestion with nitric acid and perchloric acid. The aluminum values in foods were reported in terms of wet and dry weight of the foods.

Results: The leaching aluminum values were calculated by subtracting the aluminum content of foods cooked in the pyrex and the aluminum cookwares. The values for Gheimeh, jam and rice prepared in the new cookware were 20.72, 26.35 and 2.45, and for the used cook wares 23.59, 9.76 and 11.63 (mg/Kg dry weight), respectively.

Conclusion: In case of the daily consumption of 100g of the mentioned foods which is prepared in aluminum cookwares, uptake of the metal aluminum is less than the internationally recommended (WHO) maximum permissible limits.