Is your cookware safe? How to pick pots, pans and pottery

With more and more attention being paid to the quality and purity of what we feed our families, most cooks pay little attention to the possible toxicity of what we cook our food in. Surprisingly, the type of cookware you select and the temperature you use to cook your food may be posing a threat to your health. Before purchasing your next pot or pan, consider some of the safety facts outlined below.

Pottery
Lead from pottery cookware and dishes can leach into a meal without changing the taste or smell of the food. Lead poisoning is extremely dangerous and can be especially toxic for pregnant women and children. Symptoms associated with lead poisoning are developmental delay, behavioural disturbances and neurological disorders.

To ensure the safety of using pottery dishes or cookware, make sure the item carries a label that reads, "Safe for food use." It is also best to avoid using pottery items such as pitchers or mugs from Mexico or Latin America due to the potentially high levels of lead. Leave items in question for display purposes only.

According to Jane Houlihan, vice president for research at the Environmental Working Group, "At 554 degrees fahrenheit, studies show ultra-fine particles start coming off the pan. These are tiny little particles that can embed deeply into the lungs."

The hotter the pans, the greater amount of noxious chemicals are released. In a demonstration for the ABC program 20/20, an experiment was conducted to determine just how quickly a Telfon pan heated up. It was found that a piece of bacon was just getting crisp when the Teflon pan went beyond the initial warning point of 500 F.

If you plan to continue using Teflon, only cook foods at low heat. To be safe, replace Teflon pots with stainless steel pots with copper bottoms for better heat conduction.

Stainless steel
Stainless steel cookware is durable, resistant to wear and has a good safety record. Stainless steel is a combination of iron and other metals such as chromium, nickel, molybdenum and titanium.

As stainless steel does not conduct heat evenly, most stainless steel cookware is made with copper or aluminum bottoms. Manufacturers caution against allowing acidic or salty foods to remain in stainless steel pots for long periods.

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