How safe is the use of metal kitchen utensils?!
Oct 6, 2025 - Foods
How safe is the use of metal kitchen utensils?!
Uncoated and enameled metal objects that come into contact with food can release elements that may transfer to the food and could potentially be harmful to health. In an investigation by the German supervisory authorities, the release of 21 elements from 194 metal objects was examined. The results show that most products release only small amounts of elements that do not pose any health risks. However, in some cases, exceedances of toxicological limits were found, leading to a recommendation to review manufacturing processes and, in certain cases, to refrain from using these objects.
In 2022, supervisory authorities from ten federal states conducted an investigation into uncoated and enameled kitchen utensils made of metal to check the possible release of elements into food. Although there are currently no uniform legal limits at the EU level for the release of elements from metallic or enameled food contact materials, the general rule is that such materials must comply with the state of the art and must not release substances in quantities that could endanger the health of consumers. To clarify this general requirement, the Council of Europe has set specific release limits (SRLs) for numerous elements in its current technical guidelines (EDQM, 2024). For enameled objects, the revised standard DIN EN ISO 4531:2022 also applies, which also regulates release limits (DIN EN ISO, 2022). The Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) took the monitoring results as an opportunity to assess the release of the 21 elements analyzed from metallic food contact materials, taking into account current toxicological data.
Result:
The assessment was based on the SRLs of the Council of Europe's technical guideline (EDQM, 2024) and the standard DIN EN ISO 4531:2022.
99.1% of uncoated and 53.2% of enameled products were below the limits. The most common exceedance involved aluminum. Overall, 80.4% of the 194 samples showed safe values.
In the health assessment, 186 samples were below the respective HBGVs. Eight samples exceeded the toxicological guidelines significantly, and for an additional 39, this was the case when considering additional exposure sources—mostly for individual elements, in 11 cases for several.
The BfR recommends manufacturers optimize raw materials and processes to further reduce the release of problematic elements such as lead and arsenic. However, most products are considered to be harmless to health.
Source:
https://www.bfr.bund.de/stellungnahme/kuechenutensilien-aus-metall-gehen-stoffe-ins-essen-ueber/