We love our vintage Corelle dishes at the cottage. They are the same brand that I had growing up as a kid; Corelle dishes by Corningware. They were lightweight, practically indestructible, and easy to clean. Whenever we are thrift store, it’s not uncommon for us to snatch up an old piece or two that matches our pattern. As a result, we have a nice set that can sit up to twelve guests on those summer days when we have a walleye fish fry on the back porch. 

We discovered we have to get rid of all the old Corelle.

My wife was looking up something on cookware and ran across this nugget of vital information on the Internet. A website called  Lead Safe Mama, (LSM) was testing and presenting lead testing results of vintage cookware. We were floored at what the site was showing, picture after picture of dishes and cookware in our cottage and in our home. They all have high lead levels in the decorative pattern on each piece. It turns out that Corningware and others were using lead in the pattern paint up until 2005! Yet we never received notice that this was present…until now. 

While the independent consumer goods testing work of Lead Safe Mama, LLC is frequently challenged by vintage dishware fans (who are usually quite upset when they first learn that their dishes may not be safe for food use), it turns out that even Corelle recommends that you stop using vintage/”older”* (pre-2005) decorated Corelle pieces for functional food use purposes.

Lead Safe Mama reached out to Corelle® after they found high lead levels in the painted colorful decorative elements of many Corelle® pieces. A representative from Corelle® confirmed that the company knew that they used Lead in their pieces through the mid-2000s and told the site the company stopped using Lead in their decorative dishware patterns in about 2005. Yikes!

In an email exchange with a fan of LSM and Corelle®, the company issued the following response about lead on their older products:

“Prior to the 1990s, virtually all glass and ceramic ware made anywhere in the world contained Lead as a primary ingredient in the decorating fluxes and glazes. All our products have been Lead-free since the mid-2000s. Lead content has never been regulated until recently. We recommend using the items you have as decorative pieces. We hope this information is helpful.”

Lead Safe Mama has been writing and altering folks on this topic for over ten years. LSM found that Corelle pieces have been high in Lead (and Cadmium) for about a decade now — since shortly after LSM started testing consumer goods for toxicants using XRF technology in 2009.

LSMs site has many dishes, bowls, casserole dishes, and Pyrex® measuring pieces that they have tested and reported on. Too many to list out here. Needless to say, we likely have about 50 pieces between our cottage and home that will be headed to the dumpster. 

According to LSM, Corelle® is currently a worldwide leader in producing lead-free dishware. They promote their basic white items as one of the most reliable Lead-free dishware solutions on the market today.

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One of their designs, Bella Faenza, has the detail embossed into the glass (as a texture, not a painted design). These “embossed” Corelle dishes are all lead-free (as long as there are no colored elements.) Lead-free simple white ones with no ornamental embellishments.

It just takes a tiny quantity of lead to poison a child (or any human), and no one is presently examining the potential impact eating from leaded vintage dishware has on the users. However, if you remember the Flint Water Crisis, changes in drinking water sources and treatment resulted in the lead poisoning of thousands of Flint kids. Lead poisoning can lead to learning disabilities and health issues. Kids affected will have to deal with that crisis for the rest of their lives. 

Lead Safe Mama is doing a great service. The site’s author has been working on this issue for years and her efforts look to continue. It’s sad that we will be getting rid of these old dishes, but I’m glad to know this bit of food safety information that no one else seems to have covered.

For more information about the Lead found in these and other vintage dishes, click here: Corelle® recommends using their pre-2005 dishes as “decorative pieces” due to concerns for high levels of Lead.

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