For ceramics articles in contact with foods, European Directive 84/500/EEC stipulates specific limits on the release of lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) and basic rules for determining their migration. The European Commission (EC) is now considering revising Directive 84/500/EEC to foresee reduction of limits for lead and cadmium, establishing limits for additional metals, and potentially extend the scope to other types of articles for example in particular crystalware. The Joint Research Centre (JRC) was entrusted to provide scientific and technical supporting data on testing options in order to underpin the evaluation of technical means to ensure the feasibility of future measures and aid the decision making process for the EC, Member States and stakeholders.

The Joint Research Centre has published scoping investigations into the release of metals from crystalware, in support of a revision to the ceramics Directive.

For the study, 15 samples of crystalware were tested using three different approaches. The release of metals was also studied into white wine as a benchmark food. The researchers found relevant releases of lead and few other metals occurred with all of the tests. The level of metal released was higher with the test using citric acid than with the test done with acetic acid especially in the first migration, and much higher compared to the most foreseeable test using an acidic wine.

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