Is eating food cooked on a chromed cast iron griddle a health concern?

A. Yes it is safe to cook on.

Q. Thanks for responding to my question about the safety of cooking on chrome plated cast iron. I need to know the source of the information you provided that it is safe. Since I am getting conflicting information on this subject I would like to know on what resource of facts determined that it is safe. Please anyone that can share this info with me to respond. Thanks!

A. If you search the internet using the following phrase metallic chromium toxicity you'll find plenty of references referring to the non-toxicity of metallic chromium. In fact in my oven at home all my baking racks are Ni/Cr plated as are almost, if not all the ones I see for sale. I would hazard a guess that people are confusing the element metallic chromium with some of its compounds such as Cr VI which is toxic. Though personally I would prefer to cook on a seasoned griddle, not for health reasons just personal preference.

Regards,

A. No-one in their right mind will give you a cast iron, legally binding certainty that using a chromium plated article will not be harmful to you. If you want to know about its potential hazards, you must refer to an MSDS for chromium metal; this is freely available on the internet. Chromium is usually considered to be safe as it is an essential part of stainless steel and most people cook with stainless steel utensils without any adverse effects. However, if you are using chromium plated articles you have to be aware that if they are not done correctly and are not fit for purpose, you may run the risk of losing adhesion of the chromium layer by thermal cycling, thereby causing the adhesion bond to fail. In this event, you could end up getting flakes of chromium metal in your food. These flakes could be very thin and will have sharp edges that could (conceivably) lacerate your mouth, gullet and gastric tract. I could envisage this happening on a chromium plated griddle where it exposed to quite high thermal cycles and could have abrasion from any spatulas used on the griddle. If you want to use a chromium plated griddle that has been restored, get a professional chromium plater to do it and get written confirmation that the process used will ensure extremely good adhesion even when thermally cycled.

A. Hi Christa. When we consider powerful new pharmaceuticals, double-blind tests are run for their safety, and we can say with good surety exactly how safe they are or aren't. But when you talk about products used around the house for the last 80 years and more, there is just no such thing as a yes/no, safe vs. unsafe answer, or even quantitatively saying how safe or unsafe they are.

Is a glass of red wine a day safe, or two cups of coffee, or two glasses of milk? There is a new guess every month, with data like 2% higher chance of cancer, but 4% lower risk of heart disease, plus 3% higher chance of liver disorder, but minus 1% chance of dementia.

So when you ask whether the chrome plating on mixer blades is "safe", all we can really say is that chrome plating has been used on kitchen stuff for something like 80 years now and nothing ever jumped out to make researchers concerned. I'm personally not concerned whatsoever, but you will find "alternative medicine editors" who are concerned about every single material you can name. I feel that stainless steel blades are no "safer", but would probably usually be longer lasting. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Hi Shery. Copper is not generally considered a food-safe cooking surface. For a century or more tradespeople have done periodic retinning of copper pots & pans for that reason. If you could get a consistent copper surface, it might be vaguely possible to do that old-world retinning yourself, but you cannot do chrome plating yourself.

Regards,