Migration of lead and cadmium from ceramic food packaging materials into foods

Ceramic food packaging containers with improperly formulated glazes could release some toxic heavy metals such as lead and cadmium into foods, which would contaminate the foods and even endanger consumer’s health.In order to study the leaching behavior of lead and cadmium, long-term contact experiments were carried out on certain glazed tile specimens with white spirits, rice wine, vinegar and juice of cowpea pickled under 20℃ and 40℃ conditions.Results indicated that both of the amounts and the release rate of heavy metals migrated into foods increased with the temperature.The migration of heavy metals also increased with the acid strength of foods, the lower pH value of food was, the more amounts of lead and cadmium released.Furthermore, the amount of lead migrated from ceramics into food decreased with the alcoholic strength.