Sur La Table beechwood spoon “Made in China”: no metals detected! Natural wood is generally a good choice!

A simple wooden spoon!

In the Rubin household we love plain, natural (uncoated, undecorated, unpainted, unsealed!) solid wood cooking utensils. We’re funky hippies after all, lol! My mom actually used to date a wooden spoon salesman named Norm (late 1970s I think, possibly early 1980s!) After Norm and Mom were no longer dating I even babysat Norm’s young son Jesse a time or two (I think Jesse was about 5 years old when I was maybe 12 or 13 – the height of my childcare career!) This wooden spoon salesman later changed his name from “Norm” to “Noah” and started a little business selling bagels and the rest is history! [Family lore has it that he asked my dad if he could borrow $10,000 towards buying a $30,000 bagel making machine and my dad said “No!”] In addition to knowing Norm, my mother’s best friend (Suzanne) owned the “Bowl & Board” stores (in Hingham, in Cambridge and on the Vineyard) while we were growing up. Bowl & Board sold lots of natural untreated wood kitchenware options too. Needless to say – we had a lot of natural carved wooden spoons (and bowls and cutting boards, etc.) in my house when I was growing up!

Continue reading below the image for the full XRF test results for the spoon pictured here.

Back to the topic at hand (sorry about the diversion – lol)

Natural wood spoons don’t normally contain any toxic heavy metals (although they may contain some metals that were naturally absorbed by the plant as it grew) and natural wooden spoons can last for years (even for decades – with proper care.) Because my readers have asked for me to share some safer choices that can be bought today, I thought the large beechwood Sur La Table spoon was an excellent example of a safer choice (in spite of it coming from a vendor – Sur La Table – that I generally don’t like because they still manufacture Leaded dishes under their brand.) Another good thing about this spoon is that it has an etched (not painted) logo – so there is no concern for metals in the logo area of the product as well… and on top of that – while the price tag says $24… it is now marked down to $18 on Sur La Table’s website (with their December 2019 holiday sale.)

Continue reading below the image for the full XRF test results for the spoon pictured here.

Compared to a similar product from a different vendor…

Last year instead of shopping at “Sur La Table” to select a few new products for testing and reporting here on the blog we shopped at Target and tested a selection of products from Chrissy Tiegen’s Cravings cookware line. We got a similarly sized spoon (pictured below) but my husband was quite concerned that the bowl of the spoon would eventually (sooner-rather-than-later) become unglued (with normal anticipated use of a large spoon like that.) His concerns played out as anticipated and the bowl of the spoon became detached from the handle in about 8 months time. With a solid wood spoon you don’t need to worry about the bowl detaching (!)  – plus you usually don’t have to second guess what might  be in the material – at least from a heavy metal perspective!

Please continue reading below the image (or click through on the image to read the post about the Chrissy Tiegen Cravings brand (by Target) spoon pictured below.

Below are the full XRF test results for the Sur La Table spoon pictured on this post:

• Lead (Pb): Negative / Non-Detect
• Cadmium (Cd): Negative / Non-Detect
• Mercury (Hg): Negative / Non-Detect
• Arsenic (As): Negative / Non-Detect
• Antimony (Sb): Negative / Non-Detect
• This Sur La Table Beechwood spoon was also Non-Detect for Barium, Chromium, Selenium, Bromine, Tin, Gold, Zinc, Copper, Nickel, Iron, Bismuth, Vanadium and Titanium.

All testing reported on this blog is from tests done for a minimum of 60 seconds using a freshly calibrated XRF instrument testing in “Consumer Goods Mode”. Testing is repeated multiple times to ensure accuracy. Results are replicable, science-based and accurate across the board.

As always, thank you for reading and for sharing my posts.

Please let me know if you have any questions and I will do my best to answer them personally.

Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama