[secretslol]

Another thing not mentioned on there about aluminium foil is how clean it is. We work with a laminar flow hood and pull a fresh layer of foil anytime we are working to create a clean base to work on. I can guarantee you that if you run a swab over a fresh sheet of foil and smear it onto sterile nutrient agar that it won't grow anything - that said, we use costco foil which is thicker gauge and not the budget thinner stuff which is definitely inferior.

[MezzoDelCammin]

any tips on how to reliably get that "thicker gauge" one? I've been craving it since maybe 20y ago when I got a roll from my old stint in a restaurant. I've tried buying some rolls by "heavy duty" labels and these days it's just as likely to be one of those thin "look at it funny and it tears".

[secretslol]

Costco sell two different types of foil, one is shorter and has blue packaging and the other is longer and has red packaging... It's the red one which is much thicker.

[Perz1val]

Wasn't it a think that "stuff" dies on exposed metal?

[secretslol]

I think it's the high-heat manufacturing process which kills all microbes. Spores would be unaffected by aluminium foil, so it's defo something else like heat is my thoughts - basically being sterilised during manufacturing.

[kragen]

I had no idea about that!