[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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