Amco Houseworks Enameled Aluminum Handheld Lemon Squeezer: 181 ppm Lead

This handheld citrus juicer from Amco Houseworks was positive for Lead (Pb) at 181 +/- 21 ppm when tested with an XRF instrument.

This is very typical of these handheld citrus juicers (from all brands). I have tested dozens of them and in my experience, they are always positive for lead [some in the range of many thousands of parts per million!]

Without “digestive” (destructive) testing of the juicer it is impossible to know if all the lead is coming from the the painted surface or the substrate (the aluminum/potmetal base underneath) or some combination of both. However, the precise source of the lead in this particular type of product is irrelevant — as it is a particularly bad type of product to have any lead…

With regular use (under normal circumstances/normal intended usage patterns), the citric acid in the lemons, limes or oranges you would use with this type of juicer will immediately begin to attack and wear away the paint. So if it is in the paint  – the paint is wearing off into your food (juice in this case) and if it is in the substrate, the paint is wearing off (with normal use) and the substrate comes into direct contact with the food you use in the juicer. Either way, not good!

#SaferChoices: As an alternative, I recommend a (modern) clear glass table-top juicer, or if you MUST have something of this type (a metal hinged one) please consider a stainless steel model (also actually not 100% ideal for using with acidic citrus — but far better than something with accessible lead!)

Here are other citrus juicers I have tested.

Here is a link to a stainless one I found on Amazon.*

Here is a link to the glass one I intend to buy the next time I have some available funds for that sort of thing. [We currently use a plastic one and I am not too keen on using plastic for juicing citrus either!]

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

Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama

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