[Sca-cooks] pots and glaze RE: OOP but WANT!!!!!
Lilinah
lilinah at earthlink.net
Sat Sep 6 14:13:13 PDT 2008
Phlip wrote:
>Yes, specificly Macedomia, where he bought the pot, which was just
>like many others used by Macedonians to cook in ;-) That's why he
>bought it.
Even if most people in some country use the stuff, that doesn't mean it's safe.
I was involved in preparing educational materials about lead in items
used for foods for the State of California a few years ago.
The materials were available in English, Spanish, and Chinese,
because so many people from Mexico and China bring ceramics with lead
glazes with them, or have it sent, or if they or their families have
been in the States a while, are likely to have old lead glazed
ceramic pieces.
Besides old "heritage" items that have lead glazes, lead glazes are
still used in many places. In some cultures they are preferred for
cooking certain dishes because apparently the lead imparts a "sweet"
flavor to foods cooked in items glazed with lead.
BTW, these warnings also apply to lead crystal.
It is not safe to store potables in lead crystal. So if anyone is
using such things to store beverages, you're better off discarding
the contents and using the lead crystal decanters only for display.
And i recall that lead crystal baby bottles were fashionable not so
long ago, with those who could afford to risk such things. Really a
bad idea. So if anyone was gifted with or purchased such things - do
not use them for babies (or anyone else). Even milk can leach lead
out.
Using lead glazed ceramics to eat from, or lead crystal glasswear to
drink from, is not a great hazard if one does it only for 2 or 3
holiday meals a year. But daily use can be hazardous. So can cooking
or storing foods in such items, since the lead has a greater chance
to leach into the food.
--
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita
My LibraryThing
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/lilinah
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