World Market Mason Cash “In The Forest” Medium Brown Bowl with Owl Design: 5,679 ppm Lead in the interior food surface.

ByTamara Posted: Updated:
7 Comments

Picture of the set, from World Market’s website:

Introduction:

Tamara Rubin is a Federal award winning independent advocate for consumer goods safety and childhood Lead poisoning prevention. She is also a mother of Lead-poisoned children. She began testing consumer goods for toxicants in 2009, and was the parent-advocate responsible for finding Lead in the popular fidget spinner toys in 2017. She uses XRF testing (a scientific method used by the Consumer Product Safety Commission) to test consumer goods for metallic toxicants (including Lead, Cadmium, Mercury and Arsenic). To read more about the testing methodology employed for the test results reported on this blog, please click this link.

These posts today are placeholders JUST with the XRF data for the item pictured. They will be updated with more details a.s.a.p. All readings are done multiple times to confirm the results for each component before sharing one full set of the readings for the item pictured. This bowl broke in shipping to the customer and she sent me the broken pieces for testing.

Outside brown decorative surface of the bowl:
60-second test

  • Lead (Pb): 932 +/- 20 ppm
  • Cadmium (Cd): non-detect
  • Mercury (Hg): non-detect
  • Bromium (Br): non-detect
  • Chromium (Cr): 333 +/- 118 ppm
  • Iron (Fe): 2,380 +/- 81 ppm
  • Cobalt (Co): 263 +/- 32 ppm
  • Nickel (Ni): 67 +/- 32 ppm
  • Copper (Cu): 275 +/- 19 ppm
  • Zinc (Zn): 10,200 +/- 100 ppm
  • Zirconium (Zr): 19,400 +/- 200 ppm
  • Tin (Sn): 622 +/- 12 ppm
  • Barium (Ba): 951 +/- 27 ppm
  • Platinum (Pt): 134 +/- 27 ppm
  • no other metals detected

Inside food surface of the bowl:
60-second test

  • Lead (Pb): 5,679 +/- 62 ppm
  • Cadmium (Cd): non-detect
  • Mercury (Hg): non-detect
  • Bromium (Br): non-detect
  • Chromium (Cr): non-detect
  • Iron (Fe): 1,126 +/- 57 ppm
  • Zinc (Zn): 4,068 +/- 58 ppm
  • Zirconium (Zr): 524 +/- 8 ppm
  • Tin (Sn): 12 +/- 4 ppm
  • Antimony (Sb): 8 +/- 5 ppm
  • Barium (Ba): 643 +/- 17 ppm
  • no other metals detected

Some additional reading that may be of interest:

As always, please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you for reading and thank you for sharing my posts.

Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama

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7 Comments

  1. When I saw this post yesterday, I sent the comapany an email just to see what they would say. They replied very quickly, and for reference, this is what I sent and received from the company regarding the beige pudding bowl version of the Forest pattern I bought a couple years ago.

    Hello,
    A couple of years ago I purchased a Forest beige pudding bowl from Mason Cash. I have been seeing more discussion of lead in glazes and stoneware bases though, and I was wondering if your products have controls to ensure there is no lead or toxic elements in them? If so, is there any third party testing to certify that? Thank you so much for your time,
    Brittney

    Dear Brittney,

    Thank you for contacting Rayware with your enquiry.

    Whilst we are unable to advise all our products to be entirely lead/cadmium free I can advise that any trace would be to minimal and that all our products meet all European and UK standards for metal release.
    I can also advise that any products that we supply directly to our stockist in America do not require a proposition 65 label. We hope you find this helpful. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any further questions.

    Kind regards,
    Customer Service
    The Rayware Group

    Reply

  2. Hi Tamara,
    Thank you for all the informative work you are presenting here.
    Do you have any comments on the above reply from The Rayware Group? If they meet the CA prop 65 limits, is that sufficient?
    I read that all the recent Mason Cash ware uses lead free glaze. Do you know the date of manufacture for the bowls you tested?
    I would hate to unnecessarily toss out the bowls I have.
    Thanks,
    Mike

    Reply

  3. I spent my online holiday shopping season oohing and aahing over these lovely bowls imagining all the baking I would do in them. My daughter gifted me one and I had immediate plans to fill out the set when I saw your post much to my surprise and disappointment. I have cleared my cupboards of my beloved vintage everything so these were my little reward to myself to replace the old stuff!

    Thank you for all of your information!

    Reply

  5. Hello Tamara,
    Thank you for all of the wonderful work you have done to educate people about making safer lead-free choices and advocating for better regulatory measures. Several years ago, I was tested for heavy metal toxicity by a specialist and the results came up positive for lead and other heavy metals. Since then, I have been very cautious about researching and making better buying choices for lead-free products.
    I recently became acquainted with the Mason Cash line of beautiful mixing bowls and other items while watching a cooking show from England where the chef was using some lovely bowls that caught my attention. I live in the U.S. and began doing some research to learn more about where to find those items. I then came across the Mason Cash line and found some of those bowls. One was the green Hedgehog mixing bowl from the “In the Forest” collection (which was the exact bowl that Nigella Lawson was using in her show). I also saw their newer collection called “In the Meadow.” I was so excited and immediately was attracted to these lovely pieces. I researched and read that unlike the older vintage pieces of pottery, the newer products from Masonn Cash were made lead-free in Portugal because the company wanted to maintain their quality and safety. I researched sites that sold the Mason Cash “In the Meadow” mixing bowls and found most of them on the Rue La La website at a significant discount so I ordered a few of those pieces. I then found the “In the forest” green hedgehog one on Amazon. I received two bowls so far from the meadow line and they are indeed gorgeous. After reading your post I am now skeptical and very concerned because there are more bowls coming and I’m going to be paying for all of these pieces wondering if I made the right decision. Do you know if it’s true that the newer pieces are safe and lead free? I don’t know what to do because the ones I purchased from Rue La La are non-returnable since they were on sale at a really good discount price. The bowls are so beautiful that I actually was thinking of using one of them as a fruit bowl and another to hold potatoes and vegetables on my kitchen countertop. The others would manly be on display on my hutch cabinet with the intention of gently using them for baking once in awhile. Now I don’t even know if it would be safe to do that.
    If you have any suggestions or know more information about the newer pieces I would be very grateful.
    Thank you kindly Lee.

    Reply

    1. We generally advise against using any “Made in Portugal” pottery — as even products marketed and sold as “Lead-free” may have concerning levels of Lead. I have sometimes advised families who have an heirloom bowl that they want to keep as a fruit bowl or similar to place a cotton napkin in (draped across the bowl) so any fruit does not touch the bowl, but only touches the napkin. I personally would not use products from this brand without additional testing to confirm any lead-free claims.

      Modern ceramics may not be leaching at the time of manufacture – but they can leach over time with use and wear.

      Here are more examples of “Made in Portugal” products we have tested and reported on – including more newer pieces:

      https://tamararubin.com/category/made-in-portugal/

      T

      T

      Reply

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