Mamavation | Healthy Living | Lifestyle | Detoxify Home | Product Recommendations
November 17, 2022 // by Leah Segedie sustainable dinner plates
Where can you find the safest non-toxic dishes that don’t harbor harmful chemicals for your entire family? Mamavation has produced the ultimate dinnerware guide for this year to help you better navigate non-toxic dinnerware options. Would you like to see the best brands? You’ve trusted Mamavation to bring you topics like the safest cookware, safest air fryers without PFAS, & safest toasters & toaster ovens without PFAS, now join us as we bring you the best (& worst) non-toxic dinnerware for everyday use.
Disclosure: This post was medically reviewed by Sondra Strand, RN, BSN, PHN. This post also contains affiliate links.
For most people, your dinnerware alone is not going to pose a significant health risk. Most of the time, when people are exposed to dangerous contaminants, the dinnerware is not the main culprit. For children, lead in paint from an older home and lead in soil is far more problematic exposures. So you can breathe a small sigh of relief here.
However, in some cases, lead in tableware can be a serious health threat. Some dishes contain enough contaminants to cause severe poisoning in children. Even dishes with lower lead levels may contribute to a person’s overall lead exposure over time. So it’s important to be mindful of what we are using for dinnerware, especially if you are pregnant, can become pregnant, or have small children in the home.
Lead is not the only issue in terms of dinnerware, when searching for non-toxic dinnerware options, this is what Mamavation is avoiding for you:
So make sure to avoid the following types of toxic dinnerware. This is the No-No list:
When evaluating what type of dinnerware you’re going to purchase, these are the most important questions to ask yourself before you make that purchase of non-toxic dinnerware:
The truth is, no dinnerware is perfect and there’s no way to be sure about every brand and every cup and saucer. How do we know? This investigation took over two years to complete. We’ve been going back and forth with these companies for years and all is still not very clear. But we can start by giving you some very solid tips of what you want to prioritize.
Other than that, it’s all about your preference and budget. I know I just threw a lot at you but we will go over everything for you and then end with recommendations of the best dishware.
A toxic dinnerware set can be a huge problem, so it’s important to pay attention to the materials that make up your dinnerware. Dinnerware sets typically include bowls, mugs, dinner plates, and salad plates. But you can also find dessert plates, soup bowls, cereal bowls, special pasta bowls, some platters, saucers, and many other specialty items. For this investigation, we’ve included brands that just sell dinnerware sets and just plates as well. We didn’t focus on tableware, so we won’t be discussing any silverware for the dining room. The selections feel endless, but here you’ll find a variety of materials. Each set of materials comes with its own pros and cons.
I’m starting with the safest selections. Stainless steel is one of our favorite material, especially for children. It also lasts forever as long as you are getting high-quality stainless steel.
In India, most people still prefer stainless steel as a dinnerware material. Americans haven’t warmed up to this safe trend yet, but as kids’ dinnerware, Ahimsa is very popular. Ahimsa also makes Purposeful Plates as regular dishes for dinnerware for the entire family in several shades. (Use code “MAMAVATION” for 25% off Ahimsa products)
The manufacturing process of stainless steel sets is always free of animal cruelty, i.e. It doesn’t harm any animal or make use of bone ash. Stainless steel dinnerware is very easy to use and clean. The food doesn’t stick to the plates and requires hassle-free maintenance. It also doesn’t break or bend easily and therefore is very good for daily use.
Dinnerware made of clear borosilicate glass without decorations whenever possible is one of the safest solutions. This type of glass is durable and nonporous and almost indestructible even when dropped on the floor. In addition, certified lead-free glass doesn’t need a Prop. 65 warning because it has lower incidences of lead. This type of dinnerware looks like ceramic, but it’s glass.
Look for dinnerware manufactured in the USA is safer in terms of regulations. Sticking to clear or white dishes is also safer because cadmium hides in bright red, orange, and yellow pigments. Avoid anything produced before 1970 because that’s when the laws became more restrictive of heavy metals. Products manufactured after 1970 would be safer.
Bamboo dinnerware is becoming more popular, but pay close attention when you are dealing with bamboo. As Mamavation was evaluating bamboo dinnerware, we noticed lots of brands use melamine to bind the bamboo fibers together. Melamine is problematic and we will address its issues further on down.
We also noticed that some brands (not all) are using toxic glues or wood stains as well, which is also not recommended.
This dinnerware is also not safe for the microwave or the dishwasher. Bamboo fibers can catch fire in the microwave, and when you put them into the dishwasher, you run the risk of degrading the glues that hold them together and it falls apart over time. In other words, you’ll need to care for them more carefully if you are getting non-toxic bamboo dinnerware.
This category can also be referred also to as “earthware” or “stoneware” and is mostly made of clay that has been heated to high temperatures and hardened and then cooled. Sometimes additional materials like silica are also present.
Lead compounds, such as lead oxide, have been used for many years in glaze formulations for ceramic dinnerware. This serves to regulate the melting properties of other glaze components and enables the use of a broad firing temperature range in the production process. In other words, it’s cheaper and easier to manufacture dinnerware with lead.
When fired at inadequate or uncontrolled temperatures, the lead becomes a free agent, so to speak, and is not fully incorporated into the glazing structure. Therefore, at that point, it can leach into the food in quantities that may pose a health hazard to consumers.
Today most dinnerware is made from lead-free glazes (NLG) to protect consumers. However, not all manufacturers that use NLG pottery are doing it in a way to safeguard consumers. Sometimes there is contamination with lead during the manufacturing process. If this happens, companies are not supposed to refer to themselves as “lead-free” although it does happen. In some situations that contamination is from old equipment from before the 1970’s when laws were passed to protect consumers from heavy metals.
California Prop 65 standard has a leachable lead limit of 0.226 parts per million. Not all ceramic dinnerware that exceeds those levels will have a warning, but they are supposed to if sold in California. It’s safe to assume that lead may be leaching from most ceramics in trace amounts, but those levels will vary. We recommend replacing your ceramic dinnerware every two years just in case.
Porcelain is also referred to as “fine china” and is made from a lump of clay mixed with various stones like kaolin, quartz, and feldspar. The Chinese have perfected porcelain over 2,000 years. It’s a type of ceramic but very distinct from ceramic. To create porcelain, It’s placed into a very hot furnace and heated to a very high temperature to create some of the strongest ceramics on the market.
Porcelain is known for its milky white appearance and ability to be molded into different dinnerware. It’s used more for formal dining or special occasions instead of everyday use. The same issues around ceramic brands sometimes using old contaminated equipment from before the 1970s is also true of porcelain and that may impact how much lead is present in the porcelain.
But if your porcelain is decorated and is older than the 1970’s chances are it’s going to contain lead or other types of heavy metals at levels that are unsafe. To check to make sure your grandma’s porcelain is safe, pick up one of these swabs to look for lead, and also please make sure to check the decorative rims as well.
Another downside of porcelain is how brittle and very easy to chip and crack. Drastic temperature changes are also very harsh on porcelain and may cause it to crack. Also, watch out for putting it into the microwave. They may have metallic decorations along the rims that may start to spark and could cause a fire.
Bone China or bone porcelain is another type of ceramic that uses bone ash, clay, feldspar, and kaolin as the basic materials for this dinnerware. Bone china is fired at least twice but sometimes 3-5 times at different temperatures — once at high temperatures (1250℃) and then at lower temperatures (1150℃).
The contents of the bone ash vary based on what country produced your dinnerware. In China, the percentage of bone ash is about 36%, but for the United States it’s only 25%. The higher the bone ash, the more difficult it is to create the dinnerware but the brighter they will become. The highest level of bone ash comes from Tangshan, where bone ash is about 40% making it the most famous place to purchase bone china in China.
The amount of lead left over depends on the processing. The same rules apply for the age of the machinery used to make bone china. Equipment older than 1970’s in the United States means there could be some contamination issues with heavy metals.
How to tell if your porcelain is made from bone ash? Hold the dinnerware piece up to a light and check and see if it’s translucent and light shines through the piece and if it does you have bone china.
To check to make sure your grandma’s bone china is safe, pick up one of these swabs to look for lead, and also please make sure to check the decorative rims as well.
Melamine is a nitrogen-based compound that has been used by manufacturers to make several plastic products, adhesives, and industrial coatings. When this chemical is combined with formaldehyde, melamine becomes melamine resin. This resin can be molded to create dinnerware. Melamine is also very lightweight, break-resistant plastic, and is sold as “dishwasher safe” but not “microwavable safe.”
Studies have shown that melamine, along with another chemical called cyanuric acid, which is a byproduct from manufacturing, is found to leach into food when on melamine dinnerware. It also found that highly acidic foods – such as spaghetti sauce, orange juice, & grapefruit juice — tend to leach these chemicals out of the dinnerware at higher levels.
Too much melamine over time can cause serious health problems. A study in 2013 measured the level of melamine in healthy people before and after they ate hot soup in melamine bowls. The researchers found melamine in participants’ urine and that level peaked 4 and 6 hours after eating the soup. The long-term consequences of using melamine dinnerware are unknown but concerning because of the amount of melamine present in the body after exposure from leaching.
“Although the clinical significance of what levels of urinary melamine concentration has not yet been established, the consequences of long-term melamine exposure still should be of concern,” wrote Dr. Chia-Fang Wu, a researcher at Kaohsiung Medical University in Taiwan who led the study.
Melamine is linked to kidney dysfunction at low doses over time for adults. Children can be harmed in similar ways because melamine increases the risk of kidney stone formation and kidney injury.
Even with all these problematic issues surrounding melamine, the FDA has determined that melamine is safe to use. The tolerable daily intake is 0.063 milligrams per kilogram of body weight per day.
Most wheat straw dinnerware sets are made from wheat straw, which is a very sustainable material, but then they add other materials that are basically bioplastic and unknown additives. Although biological materials are better than fossil fuels, it’s still made of plastic. Mamavation has found some indications of PFAS inside some straws made from wheat straw, so we are not putting this material in the “best” category out of precaution.
Most people believe silicone is “safe” or “inert” but unfortunately, our partners at the Food Packaging Forum, who are comprised of scientists from around the world working on “safety” around food packaging & cookware, have not cleared silicone as safe yet for dinnerware. No study has been done to mirror this sentiment. But the absence of studies does not mean something is “safe.” It just means we don’t know the presence or extent of the danger. It’s more about a lack of studies FPF is worried about to demonstrate safety. Therefore, we do not have any links to give you, but the thought was that silicone is similarly constructed to other chemicals that leach into your food. Because of this, we do not recommend you use silicone in ways that would encourage leaching. The situations to avoid leaching are the following:
We noticed more silicone in dinnerware around children’s plates. Because it’s very difficult to use silicone dinnerware without encouraging leaching, we are simply downranking silicone for simplicity. We put these plates into “better” as opposed to “best” based on this issue.
Companies don’t purposely produce toxic dinnerware. Toxic dinnerware is typically an accidental problem arising out of the leaching of chemicals and contaminants over time. Most of the issues that arise out of dinnerware have to do with the leaching of chemicals or contaminants, mostly heavy metals or plasticizers.
To avoid leaching, it’s important to understand the conditions that encourage it to happen, mostly heat and other ingredients that encourage chemical reactions. Here are those instances:
These types of scenarios will increase the likelihood of leaching so it’s best to avoid those scenarios if you are using dinnerware that may leach.
California residents are given more information about the safety of the products they purchase.
When we reached out to different manufacturers to ask about contaminants, we were mostly ignored by brands. This was concerning. Brands were also cutting and pasting quotes telling us they are complying with laws in California, but were very evasive about details. Swimming through all these details looking for toxins was challenging, but Mamavation was up for the challenge.
So what is the best non-toxic dinnerware? The answer to that question was very challenging for us because of the lack of details available and how guarded brands were.
Because lead occurs naturally, it’s also found in the soil. Certain plants uptake heavy metals and concentrate lead in their flowers, petals, and fruit. While other times, the lead contaminates plants (or water) and an animal eats them and those heavy metals are now part of your meal. Heavy metals like arsenic and lead are also found in the soil from the overuse of pesticides.
The Food and Drug Administration monitors the number and amount of contaminants in food and lists their findings here from 2006 to 2014. Here are some foods from your everyday life to give you a comparison.
According to the EPA, lead in the soil can range from 50 to 400 pm with higher concentrations near mining sites. This is why it’s unusual for dinnerware to be the sole culprit of lead poisoning. It’s also important to understand that even though we are told “no amount of lead is safe for children” it’s still a fact that we are exposed to it in places we would not expect. Our food is also delivering it to us. Do we stop eating these foods? Our advisors recommend varying your diet so you are never eating too much of one thing.
Mamavation evaluated over 100 dishware products to be able to rank the most popular brands for you this season. For your convenience, we’ve linked up as many “better” and “best” brands as we could for you on Amazon so you can fill up your cart. We were also able to get some discounts from some “best” brands.
There dinnerware brands are mosly safe and would be fine for your family. These brands are considered “lead safe” whereas they likely have some exposure to heavy metals, but they are not at levels where they would require a Prop. 65 warning to California customers. That’s probably because they use lead-free glaze (LFG) which is very common now, and are not using an older kiln to fire those ceramics. This is the realm of safer ceramics, porcelain, bone china, etc. You won’t find those categories in best.
These sets of dinnerware are our favorites. They are mostly made of stainless steel, glass, & bamboo. These types of materials are the safest. Lots of the glass selections were found to be safe via independent testing. You’ll find other types of materials like ceramic & porcelain in the “better” section.
Mamavation has been working hard to discover where to find PFAS “forever chemicals” inside food & other products we purchase and bring inside our homes. This is why we have decided to commission our own consumer studies on indications of PFAS in different consumer categories and share that information with you.
We also have other non-toxic investigations on products for your children or the rest of your family. Here are some that we thought you may like.
Click here for a complete list of product investigations.
It would be nice if some of the questions could be answered in the comments. I noticed a few on Fiesta dinnerware. I read online from a couple of different sources that since 1986 Fiesta dinnerware is completely lead and cadmium free. Can you explain why it’s on the not recommended list. Thank you
Why do all of your links to products involve data mining and tracking services like url genius and jdoqocy? Are these affiliate links? Are your recommendations compromised?
Maybe I missed it but I reached out to Fable home and they said they’re dinnerware sets are “completely and absolutely free of lead, cadmium, and heavy metals.”
You have them listed on the better category. Did you find something different than their claims?
Thank you for your superb research and inspiring persistence! I was about to buy the Bormioli Rocco White Moon Dinner Plates through your Amazon link when I read in the description that they use fluorine to get the white color. That doesn’t sound good. What do your think?
Imagine indulging in delicious meals while leaving a lighter environmental footprint.
Can you provide more detail as to why the Villeroy and Bosh Artesano line should be avoided?
You have Fiesta USA dinnerware direct listed as a not favorite dinnerware brand. I googled it and there is no fiesta dinnerware direct only Fiesta Factory Direct and USA Dinnerware Direct. Did you mean all fiesta ware? I have fiesta ware dishes in white that is why I am inquiring
My understanding is that only older Fiestaware contains lead glaze. Fiesta ware made after 1986 is virtually lead free except for lead naturally occurring in clay. Do you know something different?
are all stone and lain stoneware safe or only the white ones you posted
Hi, I thought I did a good job researching lead-free dishes and settled on borosilicate ones from Pioneer Woman (the “Cassie” pattern). They came in a beautiful teal color which I thought was the color of the glass but after a few weeks in the dishwasher and microwave, the color started coming off in large patches! It appears these were clear plates that were just painted teal. Do you know anything about the toxicity of these? We’ve been trying to reduce toxins in the home because my husband has cancer; now I’m concerned about what we’ve been ingesting from this dinnerware. I can send pictures which show the paint nearly gone on some of them if you like. Thanks in advance for any info you have on this.
if you recommend a company’s glass salad plate sets, can I safely assume that their glass dinner plate sets of the same company are safe? or is that a bad assumption?
thank you for all your hard work in saving family’s health.
Hi! Can you help me understand the fluorine in Opal Glass? I’ve been searching and searching without finding anything fully one way or the other. Is the fluorine safe in the opal glass even after it’s been used for a few years? I ordered 3 sets based on the recc from Tamara Rubin and Mamavation, but after feeling them I just want to be sure because they don’t feel like typical glass. The sets are all still in the boxes… Thank you so much!
Hi, wondering if you ever found an answer to your question. I too ordered two sets just to leave them boxed up until I get an answer I’m satisfied with. Would love it if you could share your findings with me. Thanks.
Hi! I have a question. Early in the article about picking safe plates there was a mention not to by corning products. Then lower down the recommended plate to use was a corelle plates and bowls which are made by corning. Can you please explain this. Thanks! Tammy :0)
I’m not the author, but I believe older-style Corning and Corelle had lead in their paint. Perhaps cadmium
It seems like you are making the melamine illness sound worse than it was. This wasn’t just a simple case of the pet food and baby formula getting mixed up. It was found that melamine was added to the products on purpose to make the measured protein level look higher than it really was.
Thanks for all of this helpful information! I’m wondering where you were able to find the information that Stone Lain dinnerware is likely an ok product to buy/considered lead safe. I love a few of their products, but can’t seem to find that specific information online. Thank you!
Same!! Neither their Amazon store page nor their website mention anything about being lead or cadmium free, which makes me suspicious.
You have Liberty Tabletop listed in your flatware article but I’m wondering about their Dinnerware? Also seems made in USA? Also, I tried to distinguish between Fiesta Dinnerware and Fiesta Tableware Dinnerware on their website and I can’t seem to find that differentiation. Are you saying Fiesta Dinnerware in Turquoise is also bad? They claim it’s lead free and made in USA?
Hey, what do you think of AmorArc brand for plates? They say online that they are lead free.
Is the Fiesta brand white dinnerware ok? I just bought a bunch befit was made in America and I thought safe!
So there are absolutely no safe plastic dishes? They’re so lightweight and convenient. That’s terrible 🙁
Bormioli Rocco’s opal glass is obtained by adding fluorine. After reading your previous posts about the way you are testing for pfas (fluorine) it seems like this would not be a good option? Could you explain please? I’m thoroughly confused. Thank you!
Best way to do it, order some borosilicate glass from Schott in Germany, a 4 foot long tube is like $5. Laboratory grade glass. Totally unreactive. Nothing leaches. Acid resistant, chemical resistant, fire resistant.
Fire up the old oxy-propane torch and your kiln and start making some glass. But wear proper protection while doing it because working with hot glass puts out a ton of toxic fumes.
I would love an answer to this question as well. Thank you for your help!
Is all Corelle nontoxic or only the ones you linked?
I’d love to know the answer to this too. I am interested in the https://www.corelle.com/product/cusco-16-piece-dinnerware-set-service-4 set.
I’m curious about the fortessa Fortaluxe and Vitraluxe plates you have listed in the ‘best’ section. They seem to be made in China of some proprietary ceramic formulation. Are they safer than the other ceramics in the ‘better’ section? If so, how do you know? Thanks!
Any thoughts on wood plates that claim to be made from non-pesticide treated wood and finished with natural, food-grade oil? i.e https://rainforestbowls.com/collections/wooden-plates/products/oval-teak-wood-plate-medium?variant=42997853421789
Any recommendations on shatterproof non-toxic dishes?
Don’t get Corelle. The ones recommended in this article shatter quite easily
The list for best brands ones from A to L. Does it stop at L with Libby or are there other brands from M-Z?
That’s where it stops alphabetically.
For the Fable Dinnerware how was that tested. When researching it appears that they are lead free. Do you have any additional sources to look at?
Did you ever find out anything about made in?
What??!!! I have spent a ton of money collecting pieces from Fable believing it was a safe product! How can this be? Also my everyday dishes are Made In and I did not see them on any of the lists. Do you have any information on them? Or maybe I don’t want to know 🙁
Did you ever find out about this? I reached out to made in about their mugs and they said that their mugs and dinnerware was all lead and cadmium free and when I asked about the glaze they gave the same response. I love made in’s non stick so much. I cook at low to medium heat so I don’t think it’s the worst. I want to get their mugs but articles like these make me question everything. I’m starting to think the stress from this is more harmful than actually just using this stuff😵
I was wondering if Lenox China is on your list.
I am so glad to see that my Corelle is on the best list but I am wondering if the ones listed are the only ones that qualify as best or are just the ones tested. There are more varieties of Corelle, like the square style, and more with different prints on them. Would they pass the test?
I am wondering the same!
It feels like you are misrepresenting the melamine poisoning events. This was not a simple contamination of the pet food and infant formula. It was discovered that melamine was intentionally added to the products to artificially elevate the measured protein content. Protein content is determined by measuring the amount of nitrogen. Melamine has several nitrogens and therefore gives an artificially high protein result. As you mentioned the adulteration of these commodities led to significant poisonings to both pets and infants and was a tragic event. However, it does seem like a bit of leap to compare the criminal adulteration of melamine to using melamine dinnerware. That being said, I personally don’t use melamine dinnerware and would also advise against it.
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