Facts about Aluminium Foil
EAFA thanks those who have agreed to share the reports and studies. Why not help to build this valuable reference source by submitting your own? EAFA is particularly interested to give wider exposure to any scientifically-based studies which demonstrate the protective properties and applications of aluminium foil.
Important studies and reports related to aluminium foil.
Surface Characteristics of Aluminium Foil
This catalogue was developed by the foil rollers organised in the European Aluminium Foil Association (EAFA) with the purpose to facilitate discussions between business partners. It describes the most common surface characteristics in more detail and is intended to provide common language for any potential discussion caused by potential visual surface characteristics on the aluminium foil. Click here for more details.
Tasty recipes using aluminium foil
This booklet contains 14 mouth-watering recipes, and has been issued on the occasion of the celebration of 100 years of aluminium foil at a special ‘live cookery using aluminium foil’ event in Brussels. We hope that you will enjoy reading it, and that you have a taste while preparing these recipes at home!
Life Cycle Analyses (LCA) of various food products
Different LCAs of some food products have beenevaluated by EAFA. These evaluations of the environmental performance include thepackaging and the sustainable consumption and production of packed goods. More detailed information about the food LCAs can befound here.
Recycling and recovery
Recycling of materials and metals in particular,is as old as mankind and is driven by the inherent value of the material itself. Today recycling is not only value driven, it is also part of a waste prevention strategy to reduce the amount of industrial and household waste created and – where environmentally significant – to replace primary production. Aluminium - as are all other metals – isendlessly recyclable. However, its unique property is that 95% less energy is needed to recycle the metal compared with primary production. This high energy efficiency is the reason why aluminium scrap is such a valuable material source.
More detailed information about Recycling and Recovery can be found here.
Carbon Footprint
In recent years, the ‘carbon footprint' has become a popular way of comparing the relative environmental impact of goods, services or industrial activities. Companies have seized on it as a way of building a competitive advantage (‘our product has a smaller footprint than yours'), or measuring improvement (‘a smaller footprint means a better product'), while environmentally conscious procurers and consumers use it to decide between competing offers.
And yet, in practice, simply comparing carbon footprints is rarely fair or scientific. Indeed, as a measure of environmental impact or sustainability, it can be quite misleading.
Aluminium foil and microwave ovens
Aluminium foil packaging can be used safely in microwave ovens following scientific evidence dispelling the myth that they are unsafe for microwave from the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging.
More detailed information about aluminium foil and microwave ovens can be found here.
Alufoil: functional & absolute barrier - scientific proof by FABES
The results of the study show that aluminium foil of a thickness of at least 6 micron is not only a functional barrier but even an absolute barrier in terms of food contact applications:
'Based on the theoretical evaluation of the experimental data, especially those obtained from permeation experiments performed at 100°C, it could be demonstrated for the laminates containing an Alufoil with a thickness of at least 6 µm that at 100°C the migration limit of10 ppb will not be exceeded before 30 hours.'
Such severe conditions would never be encountered in the use of a packaging material even under a worst case scenario. The experimental conditions therefore demonstrated unambiguously, and by the resulting scientific data, that an alufoil layer of at least 6µm thickness has to be considered an absolute barrier in terms of food contact applications.
Download here.
Basics of aluminium rolling technology
Future concepts in thin-strip and foil rolling
On the occasion its 550th anniversary, Achenbach Buschhütten has sponsored the publication of an 84-page booklet 'Aluminium Rolling Mill Technology'. With the kind permission of the publishers and of the authors, EAFA includes here an extract from the chapter entitled 'Basics of aluminium rolling technology'. A printable pdf version of this extract can be downloaded here.
The booklet can be purchased from the publishers (www.mi-verlag.de)
Download an extract here.
E-Commerce: good trading practice guidelines
Several major European packaging associations developed guidelines to ensure fair trading and to avoid misuse in electronic bidding processes (in particular: reverse auctions).
Download the guidelines here.
1974 – 2004: EAFA’s 30th anniversary
EAFA summarized its history and the market development of aluminium foil in a special leaflet.
Download the 30th anniversary leaflet here.