Ikea Dishes, #LeadSafe (under 90 ppm lead):
When tested with an XRF instrument, the readings on the two particular pieces (pictured below) were:
- Lead (Pb): 86 +/- 16 ppm
- Lead (Pb): 62 +/- 26 ppm
- Mercury (Hg): Non-Detect / Negative
- Cadmium (Cd): Non-Detect / Negative
- Arsenic (As): Non-Detect / Negative
These levels are considered safe by all standards.
For context: levels in the 90 ppm range or below are considered TRACE lead, meaning a very small amount. When this amount of lead is found in a consumer good that is made of ceramic, it is generally a contaminant in the clay or glaze and is not usually an added ingredient that is intentionally part of the manufacturing process.
To read more about XRF testing Click HERE.
Read more about the concern for lead in pottery and dishware here.
In general I am comfortable feeding my children off of Ikea dishware. A lot of Ikea dishware is, in fact, lead-free and we have a few lead-free Ikea dishes in our home. Newly made Ikea that I have been testing in the past year or so has all either been lead-free or lead-safe (in the range of 90 ppm lower.)
Please note: We do only have lead-free dishes in our home so I would not choose these particular dishes personally, but if I was visiting and you served me food on newer (post 2010) Ikea dishes I would not be concerned about lead in the dishes.
Lead at this level (below 90 ppm in a newly manufactured piece) is also very unlikely to leach or to cause any harm to humans, especially given the Ikea pottery is mass manufactured and high fired.
I am much more concerned about so much of the vintage pottery I have tested that often has lead levels in the THOUSANDS of parts per million (or even the tens of thousands of parts per million.).
Click here for more #SaferChoices for your family!
As always, thank you for reading and please let me know if you have any questions.
Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama
Some of the links on this page may be affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking on an affiliate link I may receive a small percentage of what you spend at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my advocacy work in this way!
Hi Tamara, so Ikea newer dinnerware made in Thailand are safe? All of them ? Thank you
I can never really speak for all of anything, but the majority of Ikea items I have tested in the past several years have been lead-safe (under 100 ppm) or lead-free, with very few exceptions.
Thank you
What about the Cat bowls? It’s the Lurvig. Doesn’t say in the description.
Hi, the link to Ikea dishes no longer work. Do you have any other recommendations from Ikea? Looking for a few new plates for the kids, preferably light weight or plastic.
Also, any recommendations for regular diner plates with a little decoration around the trim or something other than plain ivory white? I like mainstays simple design white with a little blue around the trim. But can’t be sure if it’s safe.
Hi! Thanks for all the great work you do. I have only recently become aware of the possible lead content in the dishes that I and my family use daily, and I am looking to find alternatives. Naturally I want to invest in the safest options that I can. I see that you recommend Ikea dishes, and on their website they state that there has been “no lead or cadmium added”. From what I understand it would then only be trace amounts naturally found in the raw materials present. However, I heard someone (in a forum, no sources) claim that they made some of their glassware from recycled glass, which could very well contain lots of lead, but not be regarded as “added”, if you know what I mean. Do you know anything about that? Would you say Ikea dishes and glassware consistently can be regarded as lead-safe? I am very new to all of this and super confused.
All of the NEW recent Ikea dishes and glassware I have tested recently has been lead-free or lead-safe, but I do not test them on a regular basis – so something could sneak in there. As a general rule I recommend Ikea.
Thank you for replying!
Of course! 🙂
Hi Tamara,
I love what you are doing!!! Thank you for being a wonderful resource. I have fiestaware plates because at one point my research showed that they were one of the only lead free dinner plates. Now I am learning about the cadmium…. and I’m looking at the Ikea dinnerware. I am hoping you can clarfy something though… in your details on the white fiestaware plate you note that it contains 33 ppm lead and that you would feel safe eating off of it at a friend’s house but not eating off of it regularly in your own kitchen. However, you note that the Ikea Thailand dishes contain almost 90 ppm lead and that you would feed your family off of them. Am I misunderstanding part of this? Please advise. And thank you again!
Both are in the “safe” range but I would not have them in my home, just on principle – everything in my home is lead-free.
Ok so you wouldn’t have Ikea Thailand in your own kitchen.
Ok so you would not have the Ikea Thailand dishes in your own kitchen.
Not personally. The Ikea dishes I have are lead free. Some of their dishes from Thailand have been lead-free. These particular ones were not.
Hi Tamara,
I’m confused about Ikea dishes. At one point I saw that you said the ones from Thailand were lead safe at 90 parts per million but not lead free. And then I saw the post earlier this month about Ikea and Corelle dishes and you mentioned the following:. “You can also buy a similar lead-free set piece-by-piece at Ikea for even less (it is Ikea’s directly branded white glass dinnerware and I have seen the individual pieces online for as little as 79 cents each!)”
Is it true that there are lead-free dishes at Ikea or just low lead? Inter they the Thailand ones that can be found in the box sets or are there a different type that are sold individually?
Have the white feldspar porcelain Ikea 365 + dishes been tested?
I am also interested in the IKEA 365+ line of dinnerware and glasses to know If they have been tested for lead or cadmium. I cannot find any information online or on this blog.
Please look up “Ikea 365” in the search bar. There are a couple of examples here on the blog.
Also check out this video on how to use the site: https://tamararubin.com/2020/12/how-to-use-the-lead-safe-mama-website-video/
Tamara
Does your research on Ikea dishes only pertain to the white dishes? Have you tested any of their colored dishes?
Pretty much all of their newer dishes.
Thank you for replying so quickly! And thanks for all your research.
😉
Hi, I just found your site and love it. I recently came across polmedia pottery which is supposed to be lead and cadmium free. Is that possible with a glaze? Has anyone tried it? Thank you
Hi Jane!
Welcome and thank you for being here. I am not familiar with that brand. It is possible for glazes to be lead-free, there are a lot of examples of that here on the blog. With any specific brand I usually need to test several examples from the brand to be sure and call it one way or another (lead levels can very by color)
Tamara
Thank you. The bright colors in this pottery throws me a bit, am only experimenting with a mug from them. I bought it from Amazon but researched it online and info on their factory. Guess there really are no guarantees unless you test your own. Thanks so much
I placed an IKEA dish over a pan heating on the stove, which I realize isn’t its intended purpose. It got too hot to the touch, and when I picked it up, I noticed a chemical odor. The odor went away, so I used it, but seemed to be transferred to paper towels underneath. What do you think accounted for the odor?
Hi John – no idea, sorry. I haven’t experienced that.
T
Thanks. I’ll just avoid doing that. They’re not meant for high heat, I assume.
Hello john,
I also notice a chemical odor in my ikea dishes. I’ve been wondering about it. Did you find anything out about the odor you noticed?
Thanks,
Seun
Seun,
No, I never found out what might have caused it. I just keep the IKEA stuff away from heat!
Hi Tamara,
thanks for your work! any idea why only some of IKEA dishes and glasses have the note “no lead or cadmium added” in their description? I would imagine that there is no lead added in any of IKEA dishes and they would put it in the description of every item.
Thanks
Hello. Interested in buying all lead free dishes. Can you point me to what I can buy for this? Thank you!
Hi, i owned these made in japan stoneware dishes that says oven to table and dishwasher safe. I bought it in the 1980s. They are labelled sierra stoneware behind. May i know how much level of lead these have?
Thank you.
Hello:
Would you provide a link for the lead free IKEA dishes please?
Hi Mary,
If you click the “Ikea” tab (at the top of this post) and look through the examples on the blog there are a few that have tested Lead free.
Tamara