Is it Food-Safe? | Thoughts on Ceramic Safety

When I give glaze workshops around the country, I get a lot of questions about glaze safety from participants. Most of these revolve around the question, “Is this glaze food-safe?” As you can imagine they are hoping for a yes or no answer but, unfortunately, this seemingly simple question often leads us into a complex discussion about leaching, crazing, firing safety, toxic and vol- atile ingredients, etc. After an hour of this discussion, the potters themselves are glazed over and have forgotten the question. So I decided to write this article to lay out some of the many factors that need to be considered when answering the question “Is this glaze food-safe.” I will also attempt to put some context around our cultural expectations and inject some common sense into the discussion of glaze safety.