Lead in dishes.

The plates and bowls in your cabinet can shed lead into food — especially acidic food. Imported pottery, vintage pieces, and bright hand-painted glazes are the most likely offenders, and the only way to know for sure is to test the food-contact surface itself.

Acidic foods leach lead from glaze.

Lead-bearing glazes are usually stable when dry, but acid pulls lead out of the glaze and into whatever you’re eating. Tomato sauce simmered in a vintage bowl, lemon vinaigrette in a hand-painted dish, citrus juice in a brightly glazed mug, vinegar dressings on a decorative plate — all of these accelerate leaching dramatically.

The FDA caps leachable lead at 3 µg/mL for plates and 0.5 µg/mL for cups, mugs, and pitchers — the limit is tighter on hollowware because liquids sit longer. Plenty of dishes on store shelves, and many already in American kitchens, exceed those limits.

Leaded crystal is its own category: decanters and bottles can leach lead into liquor and wine stored long-term, sometimes over months. Even modern brands aren’t a guarantee — Anthropologie, Ikea, and Williams Sonoma have all had lead-positive recalls in recent years.

The dishes most likely to test positive.

If anything in your cabinet matches the list below, it’s worth testing before the next acidic meal touches it.

• Imported pottery — traditional Mexican, Chinese, Indian, and Eastern European glazed ceramics are repeat offenders.
• Vintage US dishware — pieces made before 1971, when domestic glaze rules tightened, are high risk regardless of brand.
• Brightly colored or hand-painted glazes — reds, oranges, and yellows historically used lead to make pigments pop.
• Decorative pieces labeled “for decorative use only” — that label is a warning, not a suggestion.
• Leaded crystal decanters and glassware — lead leaches into wine and liquor stored long-term.
• Modern dishes that have appeared in recalls — mainstream retailers including Anthropologie, Ikea, and Williams Sonoma have pulled lead-positive items.

How to test a dish.

FluoroSpec gives you a yes/no answer in about 30 seconds. Test the surface that actually touches food — the inside of a bowl, the well of a plate, the inside rim of a mug.

1. Wipe the food-contact surface clean and dry.
2. Place one drop of FluoroSpec directly on the glaze where food sits.
3. Wait 30 seconds for the reaction to develop.
4. Shine a UV light on the drop. Lead-positive glazes fluoresce; clean glazes don’t.
5. Wipe and label. Repeat on any other dishes from the same set, since glazes can vary piece to piece.

If a dish tests positive, the safe move is to demote it to display only. Don’t eat off it — especially anything acidic like tomato sauce, citrus, vinegar, or wine.

Test your dishware.

The Detect Lead full kit includes FluoroSpec drops and a UV light — everything you need to clear the cabinet, the heirloom set, and the souvenir mug shelf in one afternoon.