I have seen posts saying that persons have baked in garden clay pots (vs. clay pots made for cooking).
My 2 cents worth: I wouldn't want to baking in anything made for the garden and not made specifically FOR cooking. I know people do this, but I think this calls for thought on one's part before doing it.
I will say that I have never heard that it IS dangerous, but I have never researched ("googled" it. It seems like common sense to me not to cook in garden utensils where there are not manufactured under Safety Cooking Regulations. I don't know what these regulations are called, but I do know that I have purchased plastic containers that have had a Code on them for safety and I have seen warnings about lead being in dishes made in certain countries for their ceramic cookware, as well as lead in crystal.
I'm sorry that I wrote the information in the previous posting because I now do indeed have to eat crow, as I said in a previous posting (although in fun) quote, I know better than to ask for health advise from doctors and people on-line. unquote.
I just got back from a stay in a resort hotel. In the front lobby was a large sign warning that alcoholic beverages are served on site and they may be harmful to pregnant woman. Next to the fireplace was a sign warning that the combustable material used in the logs may contain substances known to cause blah blah. And that's just the lobby.
The only thing you really have to look out for is this:
In lesser-developed countries (mexico, for example), BTUs come at a premium, so anything that can lower the firing temperature of your clay saves you money.
Adding small amounts of mercury or lead (or other heavy metals) easily accomplishes this, and their use is fairly common practice.
Glazed ceramics, since they're glazed, pose no danger. There's a layer of mineral glass between your food and the ceramic.
The FDA has strict import regulations regarding unglazed ceramic for culinary use, basically it must not contain heavy metals.
However, there is no such regulation on other ceramics.
The amount that's likely to be in a flower pot (or tile, or whathaveyou) is very small. It's not enough to worry about. On the other hand, I'm not in the habit of consuming heavy metals.
In developed countries, heat is relatively cheap and nobody uses these techniques.
I would say that there is basically no danger, unless you plan to cook with it every day and it has 'heche en mexico' pencil-scratched into the bottom. And no danger at all if it came from anywhere in north america, europe, or even asia. And flower pots are so cheap to make *here that there is basically little to gain by importing them, unless you're right on the border.
I personally know a potter who, outside of his teaching job and the commissioned work he does at his own studio, regularly cranks out #8 flower pots -- because it takes him maybe 5 minutes to throw them, and he knows he can always sell them at a profit. It's unreal to watch him absent-mindedly spinning a few while conversing at the same time. They're just not very hard to make, even by hand, and most of what you can buy in major stores was pressed in molds.
There is no possibility of biological or even chemical contamination - all that turns to carbon in the kiln. Ever see the blackish ceramics with an oddly iridescent glaze? that's actually fired *in *manure. The only possible components you have to worry about are heavy metals.
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