Why does aluminum foil have two sides?

This question has been going around the internet for quite some time.

Most aluminum foils (or tin foils) in our kitchen have two sides – the shiny and the dull side.

If you haven’t noticed this, go check the ones you have at home right now, and you’ll see.

The answer is simple: it is because of its manufacturing process.

Making aluminum foil is a long, arduous process.

It entails repetitive thinning out of a large block of aluminum, and it takes 27,000 kilograms of aluminum ingots melted in a 1,382 degrees Fahrenheit natural gas furnace.

From this, they must test the melted aluminum to verify its contents.

Then, it gets melted and cooled multiple times until it is clear of impurities.

The ingots would then be molded and solidified into roughly 14.4×4.6×1.5 feet, weighing around 8.27 US tons.

These ingots would then be continuously milled and stretched until they reached the needed thickness.

The aluminum block passes through and gets crushed between two hot mill rollers.

They do this repetitively until the block is only 0.2 inches thin and gets spooled before the last milling stages.

The machine had to mill two sheets simultaneously because they were now too thin.

Since two sheets pass through the mill, one side will face the metal, and one doesn’t.

This process gets repeated until it reaches the desired thickness for an aluminum foil, which shines on the side that touched the metal, leaving the other side dull.

And this is why there are two different sides to aluminum foil.

Now, people also debate if there is a “right” side or which side they should use.

There is no right or wrong side to use since both sides of the aluminum foil can be used in cooking and storing food.

You can use the tin foil on whichever side you want, especially if you’re not very specific about it.

However, a Canadian aluminum foil manufacturer posted on their Facebook page that there is a difference between the two sides.

There is a non-stick side to the tin foil. Can you guess which side it is?

They asked their Facebook followers this same question and revealed the answer after they posted it for a week.

It’s the dull side! Did you know this already?

But here’s the catch: this is not always true.

According to experts working at Reynolds, the world-famous foil brand, the dull side is only non-stick if the packaging specifies it as such.

While the shiny and dull sides happen to be an effect of the entire manufacturing process, the dull side being non-stick is because of a particular formulation they apply to make it so.

Now you got all your aluminum-foil-related questions answered, you know what to do the next time you use it.

Other brands may have special products specific for grilling and baking, but we use tin foil the same way anyway; shiny or dull, non-stick or not.

Watch the video below for complete details of the manufacturing process.

Please SHARE with your friends and family.

Source: Facebook – Lagarto Travieso, TODAY