Naked Science Forum

General Science => General Science => Topic started by: peachy123 on 22/06/2016 01:28:58

Title: Is accidentally eating rust bad for you?
Post by: peachy123 on 22/06/2016 01:28:58

I baked muffins in a steel tray. Unfortunately I noticed a metallic taste as I was eating them and I looked underneath to find spots of black rust on the bottom of the muffins. Sure enough the tray was rusty and I hadn't noticed.

Is it dangerous to eat rust? Also some went down the wrong way. Is it dangerous is rust comes in contact with your lungs? Can you have an iron overdose?

Title: Re: Is accidentally eating rust bad for you?
Post by: chiralSPO on 22/06/2016 07:29:37

It is possible to have an iron overdose, but you would need to eat a lot of iron for this to be a problem. How much did you eat? Did you notice any change in color of your poop afterwards?

I would probably not worry if it was just some transfer of iron residue, but I wouldn't recommend eating rusty nails either...

Title: Re: Is accidentally eating rust bad for you?
Post by: chris on 22/06/2016 08:08:51

Run a strong magnet over a packet of cornflakes and you'll pick up lots of little pieces of iron (http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/experiments/exp/magnetic-cereal-1/).

The amount of iron you'll have ingested from an average muffin tray will be trivial. But, to avoid falling into the obvious trap of making assumptions, are you sure it's iron?

Title: Re: Is accidentally eating rust bad for you?
Post by: Karen W. on 27/06/2016 03:40:33

IF THERE IS RUST GIVE YOUR MUFFIN TIN A GOOD SOAKING IN VINEGAR TO REMOVE THE RUST.SCRUB IT UP WITH SOAP AND WATER..DRY IT THOUROUGHLY AND DEPENDING ON TIN SURFACE SAY CAST IRON MUFFIN PAN..GVE YOUR PAN A NICE RUB DOWN WITH A SMALL AMOUNT OF OIL TO PREVENT FURTHER RUST..it should not hurt you and for future muffins if you are concened toss in paper muffin cups and prevent the neex to grease an flour the pans cups before adding batter... Happy muffin eating... Just make sure you clean your pan next time and keep in mind that vinegar is a great rust remover!