Comparative Gravimetric Studies on Carbon Steel Corrosion in Selected Fruit Juices and Acidic Chloride Media (HCl) at Different pH.

Food contamination due to metal corrosion and the consequent leakage of metals into foods is a problem. Understanding the mechanism(s) of metal corrosion in food media is vital to evaluating, mitigating, and predicting contamination levels. Fruit juices have been employed as model corrosive media to study the corrosion behaviour of metallic material in food media. Carbon steel corrosion in fresh juices of tomato, orange, pineapple, and lemon, as well as dilute hydrochloric acid solutions at varied pH, was studied using scanning electron microscopy, gravimetric and spectrophotometric techniques, and comparisons made between the corrosivity of these juices and mineral acids of comparable pH. The corrosion of carbon steel in fruit juices and HCl solutions manifests as a combination of uniform and pitting corrosion. Gravimetric data acquired after one hour of immersion at ambient temperature (22 °C) indicated corrosion rates of 0.86 mm yr