Stainless Steel Leaches Nickel And Chromium Into Foods During Cooking

[johns74]

Toxicological studies show that oral doses of nickel and chromium can cause cutaneous adverse reactions such as dermatitis. Additional dietary sources, such as leaching from stainless steel cookware during food preparation, are not well characterized. This study examined stainless steel grades, cooking time, repetitive cooking cycles, and multiple types of tomato sauces for their effects on nickel and chromium leaching. Trials included three types of stainless steels and a stainless steel saucepan, cooking times of 2-20 h, 10 consecutive cooking cycles, and four commercial tomato sauces. After a simulated cooking process, samples were analyzed by ICP-MS for Ni and Cr. After 6 h of cooking, Ni and Cr concentrations in tomato sauce increased up to 26- and 7-fold, respectively, depending on the grade of stainless steel. Longer cooking durations resulted in additional increases in metal leaching, where Ni concentrations increased 34-fold and Cr increased approximately 35-fold from sauces cooked without stainless steel. Cooking with new stainless steel resulted in the largest increases. Metal leaching decreases with sequential cooking cycles and stabilized after the sixth cooking cycle, although significant metal contributions to foods were still observed. The tenth cooking cycle resulted in an average of 88 μg of Ni and 86 μg of Cr leached per 126 g serving of tomato sauce. Stainless steel cookware can be an overlooked source of nickel and chromium, where the contribution is dependent on stainless steel grade, cooking time, and cookware usage.

Full study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4284091/

 

[Dean]

Is there anything safe to cook on, in , with?

 

[johns74]

I wonder if cooking in iron and doing at least yearly phlebotomies is after all the safest thing.

 

[Such_Saturation]

Magnesium pan

 

[squanch]

Is there anything safe to cook on, in , with?

Pyroceram / Calexium glass-ceramics are pretty safe in my opinion

 

[Makrosky]

Great! Just when I thought my stainless steel cookware was relatively safe, then another thing to worry about!!

 

[Such_Saturation]

Well someone was saying it is safe, and I think they were recommending the high nickel version. Anyway, the moral here is don't eat tomatoes

 

[BingDing]

Is there anything safe to cook on, in , with?

Yes, strongly magnetic stainless steel has no nickel in it. With no nickel in the steel no nickel can leach out of it. That is why RP recommends strongly magnetic stainless steel pots and pans.

Chromium is a trace element that we use. I've done little research on it but I think it is safe to say that RP knows that stainless steel has chromium in it and isn't worried about it. The numbers in that study don't indicate problematic chromium levels from what I have read.

 

[johns74]

Chromium is a trace element that we use. I've done little research on it but I think it is safe to say that RP knows that stainless steel has chromium in it and isn't worried about it. The numbers in that study don't indicate problematic chromium levels from what I have read.

What about the corrosion thing I've read about but don't know if it's true? That the one without nickel is corrosive?

 

[BingDing]

Chromium is a trace element that we use. I've done little research on it but I think it is safe to say that RP knows that stainless steel has chromium in it and isn't worried about it. The numbers in that study don't indicate problematic chromium levels from what I have read.

What about the corrosion thing I've read about but don't know if it's true? That the one without nickel is corrosive?

I'm not sure what the corrosion thing is. You mean iron oxide, rusty magnetic pots? Or something about chromium?

 

[narouz]

Is there anything safe to cook on, in , with?

Yes, strongly magnetic stainless steel has no nickel in it. With no nickel in the steel no nickel can leach out of it. That is why RP recommends strongly magnetic stainless steel pots and pans.

Chromium is a trace element that we use. I've done little research on it but I think it is safe to say that RP knows that stainless steel has chromium in it and isn't worried about it. The numbers in that study don't indicate problematic chromium levels from what I have read.

Yeah, that's what I remember.
But...he didn't love chromium either I don't think.
I could be wrong.

But the magnet thing:
take a magnet to the store with you.
Been a long time but...I think the magnetic ones are good.
The ratio of nickel is good.

But I opted for the old Corning glass cookware on Ebay.
Not just that, but...it's a good choice imo.

 

[Tarmander]

I did some research on this...stainless steel without nickel in it degrades, and degrades fast. About six months ago I did a lot of searching for a safe pan and basically I came to the conclusion that the safest pans were either really good stainless steel, like all-clad, or sealed ceramic ones which are an arm and a leg. If anyone comes across a stainless steel pan without nickel that is actually available, I would love to see it, because I never found one in all my searching. That whole bit about bringing a magnet to the store to find a good pan is kind of crap.

 

[johns74]

I think ceramic ones leach lead.

Mercola sells ceramic. He shows the result of a heavy metal analysis, but lead isn't tested.

 

[narouz]

I did some research on this...stainless steel without nickel in it degrades, and degrades fast. About six months ago I did a lot of searching for a safe pan and basically I came to the conclusion that the safest pans were either really good stainless steel, like all-clad, or sealed ceramic ones which are an arm and a leg. If anyone comes across a stainless steel pan without nickel that is actually available, I would love to see it, because I never found one in all my searching. That whole bit about bringing a magnet to the store to find a good pan is kind of crap.

I've done that.
And that's what Peat recommends.
I hereby assume the position.

 

[Tarmander]

I did some research on this...stainless steel without nickel in it degrades, and degrades fast. About six months ago I did a lot of searching for a safe pan and basically I came to the conclusion that the safest pans were either really good stainless steel, like all-clad, or sealed ceramic ones which are an arm and a leg. If anyone comes across a stainless steel pan without nickel that is actually available, I would love to see it, because I never found one in all my searching. That whole bit about bringing a magnet to the store to find a good pan is kind of crap.

I've done that.
And that's what Peat recommends.
I hereby assume the position.

http://butterbeliever.com/how-to-tell-q ... -cookware/

Maybe this will help? I too was unable to find a fully magnetic pan. Maybe you can?

 

[narouz]

There were big differences.
It was harder to find a magnetic one.

Like I said, I went to the Corning glassware stuff.
But I also have used the "non-stick" surface pans,
the ones who promise less gassing off.
Peat has kinda okayed them.

 

[BingDing]

I did some research on this...stainless steel without nickel in it degrades, and degrades fast. About six months ago I did a lot of searching for a safe pan and basically I came to the conclusion that the safest pans were either really good stainless steel, like all-clad, or sealed ceramic ones which are an arm and a leg. If anyone comes across a stainless steel pan without nickel that is actually available, I would love to see it, because I never found one in all my searching. That whole bit about bringing a magnet to the store to find a good pan is kind of crap.

You can do a little more research on this site and find a lot of information. It has all been hashed out in great detail. Tri-clad stainless steel are almost universally 18/10 on the inside, that is, nickel will leech into your food.

[moderator edit to remove insult] I have no advice for you.

 

[Tarmander]

[moderator edit to remove insult]I have no advice for you.

Jeez! I wasn't really asking for your advice, but...I guess it's nice to see such passion over pots and pans?

 

[schultz]

That whole bit about bringing a magnet to the store to find a good pan is kind of crap.

I'm not sure what you mean by this? Stain-less steel with nickel in it is non-magnetic therefore a single-ply pan that is magnetic would contain no nickel (or only trace), like 18/0 stain-less.

"'18/8' is probably the most commonly used stainless steel and contains 18% chromium and 8% nickel.
This steel is also known as '304' (in the American AISI grade designation system) or 1.4301 in the European BS EN 10088 standard. It is an 'austenitic' type of stainless steel and so is not (or only very weakly) attracted by a magnet."

 

[Such_Saturation]

[moderator edit to remove insult] I have no advice for you.

Jeez! I wasn't really asking for your advice, but...I guess it's nice to see such passion over pots and pans?

LOL