Stainless Steel Leaches Nickel And Chromium Into Foods During Cooking

[Tarmander]

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."

Maybe I should clarify, take a magnet to like bed bath and beyond, or one of those types of stores and test the pans. What you will find is that there are no completely magnetic pans because companies will not put 18/0 on the inside of the pan because of its corrosiveness, it will rust quickly. You will find pans that your magnet sticks to because usually the bottom layer will be very magnetic.

I am open to being wrong, I looked on Amazon and online stores for awhile for a 18/0 complete pan and could not find one. I said it was kind of crap because even in the highest quality, I ran into 18/10, and the more I read, the more I saw that a pan made completely of 18/0 is going to oxidize and rust fairly quickly. It seemed like unless I was willing to invest in ceramic or glass, the later being a bit scary to me, I would have to settle for stainless with some amount of nickel.

 

[nograde]

The Ikea 365 cooking series are all Nickel free and cheap. They have been tested here by an independent institute.

 

[johns74]

The Ikea 365 cooking series are all Nickel free and cheap. They have been tested here by an independent institute.

Main parts: Stainless steel, Coated with Teflon(R) Platinum Plus

So it's basically a Teflon pan with chromium in it?

 

[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."

Maybe I should clarify, take a magnet to like bed bath and beyond, or one of those types of stores and test the pans. What you will find is that there are no completely magnetic pans because companies will not put 18/0 on the inside of the pan because of its corrosiveness, it will rust quickly. You will find pans that your magnet sticks to because usually the bottom layer will be very magnetic.

I am open to being wrong, I looked on Amazon and online stores for awhile for a 18/0 complete pan and could not find one. I said it was kind of crap because even in the highest quality, I ran into 18/10, and the more I read, the more I saw that a pan made completely of 18/0 is going to oxidize and rust fairly quickly. It seemed like unless I was willing to invest in ceramic or glass, the later being a bit scary to me, I would have to settle for stainless with some amount of nickel.

I think you make a good point, especially in regards to pans having multiple layers of metal, some magnetic and some possibly not.

Would a carbon steel pan leach iron just like a cast-iron pan?

What about enamel coated cast-iron pans? Could the enamel be contaminated with various metals?

 

[Tarmander]

The Ikea 365 cooking series are all Nickel free and cheap. They have been tested here by an independent institute.

Main parts: Stainless steel, Coated with Teflon(R) Platinum Plus

So it's basically a Teflon pan with chromium in it?

Yeah they are basically using magnetic steel and then the part you cook on is Teflon. Supposedly there are new materials that are not as harmful as Teflon, but I tried to avoid them as I was not sure.

 

[Tarmander]

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."

Maybe I should clarify, take a magnet to like bed bath and beyond, or one of those types of stores and test the pans. What you will find is that there are no completely magnetic pans because companies will not put 18/0 on the inside of the pan because of its corrosiveness, it will rust quickly. You will find pans that your magnet sticks to because usually the bottom layer will be very magnetic.

I am open to being wrong, I looked on Amazon and online stores for awhile for a 18/0 complete pan and could not find one. I said it was kind of crap because even in the highest quality, I ran into 18/10, and the more I read, the more I saw that a pan made completely of 18/0 is going to oxidize and rust fairly quickly. It seemed like unless I was willing to invest in ceramic or glass, the later being a bit scary to me, I would have to settle for stainless with some amount of nickel.

I think you make a good point, especially in regards to pans having multiple layers of metal, some magnetic and some possibly not.

Would a carbon steel pan leach iron just like a cast-iron pan?

What about enamel coated cast-iron pans? Could the enamel be contaminated with various metals?

What I have read is that carbon steel reacts similarly to cast iron. I was unable to find a source but that seemed to be the consensus. If you have to season it, I'd trust that it's probably leeching some iron. As far as coatings go, like the le creuset, I really don't know. I know there are a lot of new coatings out there; a bunch of companies are trying new things and ditching Teflon. Some are claimed safe, who knows?

I used to have a pan with a nice ceramic coating, suppose to be totally safe. Yet after about a year, I noticed ding marks and scuffs where the metal was starting to show through. So even that may be a problem. I settled on high quality steel, and I don't cook tomatoes or vinegar. If I had the money I'd probably try the full ceramic stuff, but like someone else said maybe that leeches lead?

 

[Amazoniac]

http://www.constructalia.com/repository ... CE_PDF.pdf

 

[nograde]

The Ikea 365 cooking series are all Nickel free and cheap. They have been tested here by an independent institute.

Main parts: Stainless steel, Coated with Teflon(R) Platinum Plus

So it's basically a Teflon pan with chromium in it?

Of course I meant the non-teflon cookware in these series like this one:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10101169/

 

[johns74]

Of course I meant the non-teflon cookware in these series like this one:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10101169/

It kinda bothers me that they don't even mention that it has no nickel on their website or the manual on the page.

 

[nograde]

Of course I meant the non-teflon cookware in these series like this one:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10101169/

It kinda bothers me that they don't even mention that it has no nickel on their website or the manual on the page.

As I said it has been tested especially for nickel allery. Here is the link (German):

http://www.oekotest.de/cgi/index.cgi?ar ... 1&seite=03

It says that 365+ cookware does not contain any Nickel. I think Ikea does not mention it because this kind of "not-stainless" steel would be considered cheap/inferior by customers.

 

[johns74]

As I said it was tested. Here is the link (German):

http://www.oekotest.de/cgi/index.cgi?ar ... 1&seite=03

It says that 365+ cookware does not contain any Nickel. I think Ikea does not mention it because this kind of "not-stainless" steel would be considered cheap/inferior by customers.

I see. So they found a way to make a chromium product that doesn't corrode and is durable.

 

[nograde]

As I said it was tested. Here is the link (German):

http://www.oekotest.de/cgi/index.cgi?ar ... 1&seite=03

It says that 365+ cookware does not contain any Nickel. I think Ikea does not mention it because this kind of "not-stainless" steel would be considered cheap/inferior by customers.

I see. So they found a way to make a chromium product that doesn't corrode and is durable.

I use those products for years now and they stain more quickly than other cookware, but the stains can be cleaned away very easily.

 

[johns74]

I use those products for years now and they stain more quickly than other cookware, but the stains can be cleaned away very easily.

Can you cook acidic foods without a problem? Chromium is actually a metal we need I think.

 

[nograde]

I use those products for years now and they stain more quickly than other cookware, but the stains can be cleaned away very easily.

Can you cook acidic foods without a problem? Chromium is actually a metal we need I think.

Yes, i make applesauce once a week. No problems ...

 

[Such_Saturation]

Natural Magnesium Pan

 

[Amazoniac]

Natural Magnesium Pan

What a great find!
But the predominant material is aluminium with a coating on the interior, isn't it? Al+Mg+Ti; Am I missing something?
http://global.rakuten.com/en/store/euro ... nd_item_en

"Material: surface machining / inner: fluorine resin coatings film
{Court United States, Whitford Xylan (the Iran)}
Exterior: ceramic coating
Body: aluminium alloy (12% magnesium, trace titanium), iron
(Bottom thickness 6 mm, the base is iron arc thermal spray coating)
Knob: phenolic resin "

 

[Such_Saturation]

That isn't it, they're from HAAN. http://www.ihaan.com/html/newpage.html?code=49 Good luck navigating the website, though. I think I will write them and ask.

 

[Amazoniac]

Right..
Such_a_great_find, thanks for posting!

 

[tara]

The Ikea 365 cooking series are all Nickel free and cheap. They have been tested here by an independent institute.

Main parts: Stainless steel, Coated with Teflon(R) Platinum Plus

So it's basically a Teflon pan with chromium in it?

I wouldn't trust myself with a teflon pan. They say it's safe as long as you don't over heat it. You don't want to know how often I burn my pans. I don't keep canaries in my kitchen, but if I was cooking with teflon, I could probably have killed quite a succession of them.

Glass won't leach. There was discussion about the more mechanical risks of cooking with glass.
I use suitable glass dishes for cooking in the oven regularly, but still using stainless on the top. If I'm cooking anythig acidy, eg fruit, I get it out of the pan quickly after it's cooked. Mostly I don't cook a lot of acid.

 

[pboy]

pots..and pans? what is this the dark ages?!?!?

( I kid, but its funny I haven't used a pot in months now)

you can just use a enamel coated pot like a dutch oven kinda thing