Michigan State University Extension
Preserving Food Safely - 01600817
10/13/97

### USING GALVANIZED CONTAINERS IN FOOD PRESERVATION

        Galvanizing  is the process of electrolytically coating

    iron
    metal with zinc,  which protects the iron from rusting.

    Zinc
     is one of several heavy metals which can be  toxic  if

    consumed
     in  large  quantities.   When  acid  foods  (fruit

    juices,
    tomatoes, pickles) are placed in galvanized utensils

    of
     when  meats  or  vegetables  are  cooked  in  galvanized

    containers,
    toxic amounts of zinc can brought into solution.

    Numerous
     reports  of  zinc poisoning can be  found  in  the

    public
    health and medical literature, and essentially all of

    them
    relate the illness to the type of utensils used in food

    preservation.
      Symptoms of zinc toxicity are fever, nausea,

    vomiting,
     stomach  cramps  and diarrhea in three to  twelve

    hours
    following ingestion.

        Galvanized  utensils  (some types of  old  refrigerator

    shelves
     for  outdoor grilling,  galvanized trash  cans  for

    quantity
     cooking,  etc.)  should  never be  used  for  food

    preparation
    or preservation.

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