Research on Iron and Nickel Migration from Austenitic Stainless Steels Into Acid Food Products

Abstract

The aim of this paper consists in studying the migration phenomenon of iron and nickel ions from austenitic stainless steel used in food industry. The study on metallographic structure has shown uniform distribution of the constitutive elements, reducing significantly the possibility for galvanic corrosion phenomenon to occur. The chemical composition of material is determined by EDX-Bruker microprobe. The contact between the metallic material and food product is simulated by using a solution of 3% acetic acid, the samples being kept for different periods of time at the temperature of 100ºC. As a result of the analyses made by atomic absorption spectrometry, some strong dependency between iron and nickel concentrations found in food stimulant, processing degree of surfaces and contact time between the two media has been noticed.