The Food and Drug Administration has warned lead could be leaching into food from certain imported cookware.
The FDA had tested cookware products from the Indian company Saraswati Strips and found them to leach lead into food when used for cooking, according to a new warning.
The affected product is called a kadai or karahi, which is a deep pan, similar to a wok. These pans were made from aluminum, brass, and aluminum alloys known as Hindalium/Hindolium or Indalium/Indolium.
The FDA does not authorize the use of lead in cookware so it has advised retailers not to sell the pans and consumers not to use them. The pans have been sold at Mannan Supermarket in Queens, New York.
Lead is toxic to people of any age or health status, but “young children, women of child-bearing age, and those who are breastfeeding may be at higher risk for potential adverse events after eating food cooked using these products,” the administration warned.
Low levels of lead exposure can cause children to experience trouble learning, low IQ, and behavior changes, the FDA says. Higher levels of lead exposure can cause people to experience fatigue, headache, stomach pain, vomiting and neurological changes, according to the administration.
The FDA advised consumers to throw away any cookware that could leach lead into food, either when cooking or when used for food storage. The administration explicitly says not to donate or refurbish the affected cookware.
People who are concerned about lead exposure should contact a health care provider, the FDA warned.
The administration is working to remove the cookware from the U.S. market as it has yet to identify and contact the distributor to initiate a recall.
Saraswati Strips says on its website it manufactures cookware “from finest quality aluminum” that is “subjected to stringent process controls at all stages of production for absolute hygienic performance rendering them completely safe for cooking and storage purposes.”
