Orange painted metal handheld citrus juicer, c. 2013: 2,104 ppm Lead. For context: 90 ppm is unsafe for children’s items.

Orange painted handheld citrus juicer:

This “newish” (c. 2013) hand juicer (tested in 2014) which has chipping peeling paint (including around the holes where the juice comes out!) tested positive for lead at 2,104 ppm. [Two thousand one hundred and four parts per million!!!!] Most of the juicers like this that I have tested have been positive for high levels of lead.

How much Lead is too much Lead?

The amount of Lead that is considered toxic in the paint or coating of a modern item manufactured and intended for use by children is anything 90 ppm Lead or higher. The amount of Lead that is considered in the substrate of an item intended for use by children is anything 100 ppm Lead or higher. Dishware (and things like juicers) is not generally regulated for total Lead content as detectable with an XRF instrument. Leach testing (the main standard for regulating dishware) is not done on all items (primarily just on vessels like pots and pans and bowls) and does not take into account potential leaching in the future – as might happen with a juicer like this when the coating wears off to expose a bare metal substrate (in these hand juicers) that is general some sort of Lead-contaminated pot metal.

A unique concern with this type of product

Of course this is especially concerning for two reasons…

1. 1. 1. you don’t notice the item has worn until AFTER it has worn and
      2. these are specifically intended to be used with citrus fruit – a high acid food that is (of all things) most likely to leach Lead from the bare metal substrate of the item.

Some additional reading for folks interested in this post:

• For more #SaferChoices for your family, click here.
• Here’s a link* to a #LeadFree citrus juicer that is a safer choice.
• To see more citrus juicers I have tested, click here.

Thank you for reading and for sharing my posts.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions.

Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama

*Some of the links on this page may be Amazon Affiliate links where a purchase made after clicking may generate a small commission for me without costing you any extra!