Cookware is a part of everyday life for many of us. Moreover, the food you prepare comes in contact with utensils on a daily bases, so it is very important to be sure that they are safe for your health.
I come from a scientific background(See About me Page) and I have spent the last several years trying to understand what cookware is the safest option for me and my family. Even, It is impossible to generalize about the safety of cookware pieces belonging to a certain type, pure ceramic cookware is at the top of my safe cookware list.
However, not all of the,,Ceramic” labeled cookware is actually pure ceramic, and not all of the pure ceramic utensils provide the same safety levels. So, In this post, I would give you some tips for distinguishing what is pure ceramic cookware and how to recognize if the certain pure ceramic piece is safe
As a general rule, non-glazed pure ceramic cookware made from certified natural clay is safe to use. In contrary glazed pure ceramic vessels can be contaminated with heavy metals, as they are commonly used in the production of ceramic glazes. These metals are well-known as strong health hazards.
This would be just a short answer, however, I would cover it much more in detail within the post.
Preparing food in pure ceramic cookware brings different benefits to Cooking like enjoying a special taste of the food from ceramics and keeping dishes juicy and tender. Because of this and the natural origin of ceramics more and more people have started to turn back to pure ceramic cookware. The same is true for me, and my journey with ceramic utensils that I have started several years ago.
However, it is important to consider a few things before choosing the right pure ceramic utensil, since, not all of them provide a safe and natural solution for your daily cooking.
In this article, I will gather guidelines given by the government bodies as well as the conclusions of scientific publications on which ceramic cookware should be avoided and what can be taken as safe. Moreover, I will give a comparison of different types of ceramic so you can get a better view of the safety of each of them.
Is pure ceramic cookware safe?
The term “ceramic cookware” is widely used. Companies love to put this attribute because it makes their products feel more natural and related to tradition. So, I would first like to make things more clear about terminology.
In general two groups of cooking, vessels are called ceramics: pure ceramic utensils, and ceramic-coated cookware. The first group also known as earthenware or clay pots is fully made from ceramics obtained through the thermal processing of clay. The second one only has a “ceramic appearance” but it is not from ceramics(see the last chapter).
Clay is a naturally originated substance, a common part of the soil all around us, composed of different elements including silica and alumina with the addition of other elements from the earth. It will be interesting to notice that some clay minerals are even used for oral applications as a form of detoxification.
So, since pure ceramic cookware is based on clay it should safe for use?
Pure clay pots coming from natural clay are a great option from a safety perspective since it is made from earth. However, not all pure ceramic pots are produced from purely natural clay. Particularly, it is important to note that some of them are glazed, which means that food is not in direct contact with ceramics but with the glaze coating, which dictated the safety of the utensil.
So let’s first talk about which pure ceramic vessels it will be good to avoid to ensure that you are getting a natural and safe product.
In some pure ceramic vessels, glazes are used to color or finish these cookware pieces(1). They act like glass layers on the top of ceramics which makes it look shiny and less porous, which eliminates the clay from soaking liquid. This has some benefits, including the ability to wash the glazed clay pots with soap, which couldn’t be applied when maintaining clay cookware pieces.
Glazes are commonly made in powder form, which is applied on top of ceramic vessels and melted to form a glossy coating, However, to reduce the melting point of glazes for the application on ceramics, lead is commonly in use.
Lead is well known for its negative effects n the function of the nervous, renal, and reproductive systems (1). The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) set the Maximum Allowable Dose Level (MADL) levels of lead to 0.5µg. This is the amount 2 million times less than 1g! I hope this illustrates how harmful is this heavy metal and why it is important to avoid exposure to it.
This is especially true for the glaze ceramics that can be bought from local producers from developing countries. In the US a large amount of ceramic cookware comes from Mexico, where lead contamination of glazes is still commonly present. Regarding this U.S. Food and Drug Administration stated:
,, FDA has received reports from local health authorities that traditional pottery from several manufacturers in Mexico labeled as “lead free” in fact contains levels of extractable lead comparable to levels that may be found in lead glazed pottery, and in some cases, in excess of FDA’s action levels for extractable lead in ceramic tableware”
Reference
Additionally, a recent scientific study has tested lead contamination of water boiled in glazed and non-glazed pure ceramics(clay pots) and has concluded:
,, Bring the clay pots for cooking would be unglazed and natural forming, even if glazed may be having certified lead free.”
,, Bring the clay pots for cooking would be unglazed and natural forming, even if glazed may be having certified lead free.”
So to avoid exposure to lead and to be able to access the benefits of pure ceramic it will be important to avoid buying glazed ceramic vessels from local producers based in developing coutries even if they are labeled as lead-free.
Glazed ceramics from well-known US and EU brands can be a different story, which I tackled more in the next chapter.
Finally non-glazed pure ceramic cookware in general is a much safer option. These vessels are produced from thermally processed clay, which is a fully natural material.
So now, that we made it clear what cookware vessels to avoid, let’s see some directions on how to recognize the pure ceramics products that don’t trigger safe concerns.
Where to find and how to recognize safe pure ceramic cookware?
I personally buy mainly non-glazed pure ceramic cookware coming from local craftsman production in non-industrialized areas. This way I fully benefit from this traditional type of cookware that has been used by our ancestors for millenniums.
One extra piece of advice here will be to buy non-glazed ceramic cookware from local producers that get the clay from deposits away from industrial and agricultural activities. In nature, clay can be sometimes contaminated by the activities such as mining, the metal industry, or chemical applied in agriculture(2,3), so it is good to inform yourself about where the manufacturer supplies the clay.
However, if you don’t have the access to such places, and you live in urban or industrialized areas, Another option is buying from a few reputable international brands. Such brands usually publicly present the certification of the clay and glazes. Additionally, because of the shipping to countries around the world, they need to pass product control, especially if they sell in regions such as the EU.
If you want to see where and how I choose my cookware, and what you expect from a few international brands take a look at this post. There I covered the information about safety standards and testing certificates that these companies provide together with other information that can help you see what you can expect from them.
Which type of ,,Ceramic” cookware is safest?
Nowadays the market is full of cookware sold under the name ceramic. Moreover, intensive advertising about the health benefits of different,, ceramic cookware pieces” leads to massive misconceptions.
As mentioned, ceramic cookware can be divided into pure ceramic utensils made from clay as raw material and ceramic-coated cookware, made basically from metal covered with a silica coating.
With all of the existing options and brands, frequent confusion comes out about which ceramic cookware is actually the safest.
As a general rule, non-glazed pure ceramic cookware produced from certified clay is the safest option. Ceramic-coated cookware has a metal base, which can come in the contact with food when the ceramic coating is damaged. Furthermore, this can lead to metal leaking into food while causing health concerns.
Ceramic-coated cookware is made based on gel-sol spin coating technology, which adds up a tiny layer of silica(silicon dioxide) on the top of methal through
As a short conclusion, silica coating is pretty inert with food, however, it easily gets damaged and the silicon-based surface starts to lose its nonstick abilities.
Moreover, the metal body usually made from aluminum alloys starts to appear in a matter of a year or earlier. This can finally lead to significant exposure to some metals I cover the safety of ceramic-coated cookware in depth, in one of my previous posts where I summarized scientific literature about this topic.
It is one of the many pans that I could find when I stay in accommodations during traveling, Unfortuantelly people use them massively
Finally, the sense ceramic coated cookware is not made from ceramic it doesn’t have some of the unique properties of pure ceramics, and its interaction with food(Likovati positive).
In one of my upcoming posts about the pure ceramic cookware benefits, I will summarise the personal experiments that I have performed to prove/deny some of the common beliefs about the pure ceramic cookware benefits, so you can more clearly see what good sides you can expect from them(as well as some downsides).
Final words
In my search for safe and healthy cooking, pure ceramic cookware was my best bet. Now, for more than a few years I am enjoying using this traditional way of cooking while preparing delicious dishes for me and my family.
Don’t get me wrong, love to experiment with different other types and I enjoy my utensils from enameled cast iron, stainless, and carbon steel. However, preparing different stews, braise, beans, and roasted chicken has a very special place in my kitchen.
Slika nekog jela koje sam sprmao
Moreover, it has been interesting for me to see that more and more people have been turning to this type of cookware and the benefits that it provides.
If you are interested to see the statistics of the type of dishes that people love to prepare in pure ceramic utensils more than n other cookware take a look at this post. Maybe you will get good inspiration for what you can try preparing in these natural utensils.
