Arsenic and Old Plates
July 24, 2015 3:24 PM   Subscribe

I like the look of vintage and antique dishes and utensils, but unlike certain old ladies, I don't want to slowly poison anybody. How do I choose items that are food-safe when I'm in an antique store or thrift shop?

I'm interested in picking up the occasional bowl for fruit, pretty teacups, interesting plates, and so on, whether ceramic, wood, glass, enamel, or whatever. I assume the risk (whatever that is) is lower if I'm not heating food in the items, but, you know, what if I find the perfect oatmeal bowl? I've tried googling, but I only seem to find information about finding valuable collectibles, which I don't care about. I just want the fun of picking up unique items to use in my kitchen and on my table, rather than getting Yet Another Thing from Target.

For example, I've seen decorative chargers and lacquer trays in thrift store kitchen sections that I'm 100% sure were never meant to have food on them, but I would be oblivious to the potential problems of any other item.

I guess I might be overthinking this (lead-painted melamine) plate of beans, but are there any specific tips or handy rules of thumb--things I should look for or try to avoid? Brand names, styles, materials, countries of origin?
posted by wintersweet to Home & Garden (3 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Some of the old Fiesta Ware is radioactive due to it's glazes. It depends on the color and the year.

I grew up eating off it and no ill effects yet,
posted by 26.2 at 3:55 PM on July 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


If a plate or tray is hand-painted, you should lay a glass charger plate over it and put the food on that. Not only will this keep lead or other toxins that may be in the paint out of your food while allowing you to enjoy the sight of the dish, it will also preserve your hand-painted item because it won't need to be washed.
posted by orange swan at 9:03 PM on July 24, 2015 [3 favorites]


Best answer: Here is an article from the Smithsonian Magazine, where the author asks the same question, and gets an answer from the FDA.

There is no way to really tell if lead is present just by looking at a dish, but this PDF from a California health service does list certain types of pottery to steer clear of for eating purposes. Some things are definitely labeled "not safe for food use," so that's the first thing you should be looking for.

To determine if something has lead in it, you would have to purchase it and run a test using a home lead test kit. Note: as stated in the above PDF, it doesn't really tell you if it had acceptable levels of lead, it only tells you if lead is present.

Here is an article about Depression glass, and how glass is made in general. Of note is that lead crystal and hand blown items are most likely to contain lead (and referring back to the health PDF, you should not allow children to eat or drink out of lead glass crystal).

The only test you could feasibly perform in a retail environment would be to test for the presence of uranium (tho' the article on Depression glass says it's negligible after the manufacturing process). You can use a hand held blacklight, as outlined in this Ebay instructional article. I think the only value in doing that would be to see if an item were collectible (although it might pick up hairline cracks, and you would probably want to avoid serving food on old cracked plates).

More detail on Fiesta Ware and lead in vintage dish ware here. Newer Fiesta Ware has a "lead free" stamp on the back.

Since lead in dishware was not regulated in the U.S. until 1971, you might want to avoid serving meals in dishware manufactured before then. You can look up the manufacturer and see if you can determine when something was made, but when it doubt, don't use it, especially not on a regular basis.

I personally would not have a problem using an old fruit bowl to display fruit with the skins on, such as lemons or bananas. But would probably avoid serving something acidic, like tomato soup, in an old china bowl. That may be overkill, and some websites say it's okay as long as you only use old china on holidays, but I'd have to vote on the no side and get something newer with a vintage look and save the old dishes for display.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 6:59 AM on July 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


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