Health cookware are pots of high quality, initially used by the chefs for the professional use and after favourably used in the domestic field.
They are made with food Aluminium grade, so they are very light and manageable (1 / 3 of the specific weight of stainless steel) and they are produces with the most recent and innovative treatment G.H.A. Golden Hard Anodizing (Patent N. EP1207220): a special hard anodic oxide that, together with SILVER IONS, gives to these products biotechnological characteristics of extreme interest, constituting the winning secret for a HEALTHY CUISINE which inhibits the bacteria proliferation, conserving the original foods flavours, with indestructible pots.
The used Silver at the atomic state makes these tools highly hygienic and healthy, because they are free from metal’s bacteria and toxins. Moreover there isn’t any proliferation of bacteria neither during nor after cooking, and for this reason it is possible to keeps safely food inside these pots.

Silver (Ag+ ions) is a key ingredient in the GHA technology. As a well-known natural antimicrobial, it has been recognized throughout history.
Silver is a precious metal which in ancient times was considered in competition with gold and even exchanged at the same rate (thanks to its exceptional antibacterial properties) up to the moment gold was established much rarer.

4000 B.C.
Egyptians line water cisterns with silver as a way to reduce illness caused by contaminated drinking water.

1200 B.C.
Phoenicians use silver-lined containers during long sea voyages to maintain water purity.

500-400 B.C.
Through archaeological finds it is been able to ascertain that the Greek and also the Etruschis put some silver plates on the wounds, kind of war, to accelerate their scaring.

78 A.D.
Pliny the Elder, a Roman naturalist, describes silver's healing properties in wound care.
The Roman put a small bar of silver inside the aqueduct to purify the water.

700’s
Chinese emperors use silver utensils to prevent the transmission of disease.

980-1037 A.D.
Avicenna, an Islamic philosopher and physician, uses silver pills and filings as a blood purifier.

1000 A.D.
The Vatican decrees that communion chalices should be made of silver to reduce the spread of disease between parishioners and priests.

1350’s-1600’s
Wealthy families in Europe use silver utensils and plates to protect themselves from the plague.

1700’s
Babies who were fed with silver spoons were healthier than those fed with spoons made from other metals, and silver pacifiers found wide use in America because of their beneficial health effects.

1819
Silver first used as an ingredient in dental amalgams (fillings)

1850’s
Pioneers place silver coins in water and milk containers to prevent the growth of bacteria and algae

1881
Carl Crede, a German obstetrician pioneers the use of silver nitrate drops in the eyes of newborns to prevent eye infections.

1893
Karl Wilhelm von Nageli, a Swiss botanist, publishes research demonstrating silver’s antibacterial properties.

1900’s
Numerous silver-based medical products appear on the market including Argyrol - a silver-based antibiotic

1960’s
NASA uses Silver to purify water on spacecrafts.

1970’s
Silver becomes commonly used as a topical ointment for wound and burn care.

1990’s
A group of Japanese researchers of Kyoto University study some coating that, on a metallic base, they are perpetually a durable antibacterial thank to the action of Silver ions.
It notices that silver ions (Ag+) practice in the environment to them surrounding, an action antibacterial very more effectiveness in comparison to that practiced from the same solid silver and with notably inferior costs.
The surface of oxidized aluminum was chosen from those researchers as the base for the fixing permanent of silver ions Ag+.

Today in the face of antibiotic resistant pathogens, silver is re-emerging as an important antimicrobial agent because it has a unique ability to attack and kill infection causing microorganisms.

The market is getting closer to natural solutions when it is possible to face bacterial, mold and fungus; few technologies nowadays use silver ions to guarantee top hygiene standards, but thanks to the combination of the biotechnological properties of hard anodizing (high hardness, very high melting temperature, high wear resistance) and of silver ions Ag+ (natural antimicrobial, dry self lubrication, anti corrosion, anti static) GHA treatment provides a much longer life of the coating.

• High antibacterial and antimildew capability
• Corrosion and wear resistance
• High thermal conductivity
• Uniform cooking temperature
• Energy saving

With bacteria, unfortunately, we have to live together. If we consider the meats, bacteria are present and develop since the slaughter and also during packaging and distribution of goods. During the freezing of the meat, bacteria don’t die, but they stop their proliferation which continues from the thawing and above all it increases strongly during cooking stopping completely at temperature of 100°C when we can consider them all died. It is also important to note that originatge from the degradation of bacteria are toxins of a more or less toxic nature according to the bacterial species that produces them. The G.H.A. treatment, by the Silver ions inhibits the bacterial proliferation and it absolves either the elimination of toxins and the conservation of the fragrance of the original flavors of foods.

Example:

The graph shows the growth of bacterial in fuction of the temperature. The are under the two curves represents the mass of bacteria that contamine food by altering its original flavor. Notice that in the containers without the treatment G.H.A., the bacterial biomass develop particularly in the are between 20° and 90° C, while in those with the silver ions treatment (GHA) the bacterial biomass remains the original one and of very low levels dying then to 100° C. It is worth remembering that in the pots with GHA treatment the silver ions are implanted permanently in the surface layer of the hard anodic oxide, which is no more pure Aluminium, which melts at 680°C, but it has been transformed into Al2O3 (aluminium oxide) wich is harder that the tempered steel (550HV) and it melts at 2100°C. Therefore, the pots with GHA treatment are pratically indestructible and preserve all the peculiar properties unchanged over time.

G.H.A. treatment is the most recent and innovative technology applicable to the surface of all the aluminium alloys. It is a special anodic oxidation treatment, with adjustable thickness from 1 to 130?m, and subsequent sealing of the nano porosities by Silver ions (Ag+).
The high hardness of the anodic oxide, HV 500-600, together with the extraordinary properties of silver ions give to the treated surface biotechnological characteristics of the utmost interest of applications (see table 1), ranging from the pharmaceutical and fodd industry to the technical and scientific fields.
It is worth to notice that this special superficial layer, very hard and heat resistance, is not removable, and it

Note that the thickness of treatment, ranging from 1 to 120µm, è unremovable as the anodic oxides are formed directly on the surface of the piece, which constitutes the anode, generating an oxidized layer that about 50% diffuses into and for the other 50% increase on the surface (see Fig. A).

Fig. “A” es. of oxidation G.H.A. ® with thickness 30µm

The GHA ® treatment is also very interesting from an economic as it uses silver, noble and expensive atomic state, small size and evenly distributed, particularly effective, because the Ag + ion is always ready to interact giving the properties listed in the table.

Corrosion resistance

To many designers and technologists it is by now very well known the G.H.A. treatment of the aluminium alloys which consists in the improvement of the hard anodizing thanks to the sealing of the micro porosities by silver ions.
It is well remembering that the anodising transform of the outside surface from Al into Al₂O₃ produces a layer which hasn’t an amorphous structure but it is composed by very compacted crystals with hexahedral shape, disposed as honeycomb.
This structure is very hard (500÷700 HV), it is heat refractory (it melts at 2.100° C) and it is chemical agents proof.
Unfortunately the presence of tubular nano-porosities, placed in the middle of the hexahedral crystal, make the layer permeable and vulnerable if it is put in corrosive environment.
The Japanese Patent (Patent N. EP1207220) consists in the silver sealing of the micro. Then the corrosion resistance SST of the G.H.A. silver ions layer increases exponentially going from 200÷500 hours of the standard anodizing to the 10.000÷15.000 hours of the GHA.
From laboratory tests it has been able to verify that also for the porous surfaces, as the ones of the sand casting and shell molding, particularly difficult to anodize, the corrosion resistance can further increase by surface varnishing previously G.H.A. treated. In fact the varnish produces a barrier effect that protects the below surface which offers to the varnish film, a good adherence, and a better base on which to lean on.
Moreover eventual porosities not perfectly G.H.A. treated, being filled by the varnish, reduce the negative effects of the defects. (Suggested varnish: galvanized primer + polyester varnish).
The varnished G.H.A. surface finds applications in all cases where the particular, besides the corrosion resistance, must respect determined aesthetical rules.