Consumer use effects on nanoparticle release from commercially available ceramic cookware

Food preparation and storage materials are often subjected to stressful conditions such as scraping and cleaning with abrasive pads throughout their lifecycle. In general, understanding potential nanoparticle migration when in contact with food is important in assessing their safety. A ceramic-coated fry pan and a ceramic sauce pot (both commercially available) were evaluated for nanoparticle migration under three consumer use conditions. Washing, scouring, and scratching conditions were simulated by linear abrasion using scrubbing pads, steel wool and tungsten carbide burr attachments, respectively. Migration of titanium (Ti) and silicon (Si) was evaluated using 3% acetic acid as a food simulant. Ti and Si concentrations in simulant were generally higher under the consumer use scenarios than in fresh/unused pans. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) and silicon dioxide (SiO2) nanoparticles were detected in the simulant under the most aggressive use scenario simulated by abrasion with the tungsten carbide burr attachment. TiO2 and SiO2 particle number concentrations were on the order of 108 and 107 particles dm−2, with median diameters of 250 nm and 460 nm, respectively. The aluminum (Al) concentration migrating from the sauce pot was also higher under the consumer use scenarios than in fresh/unused pots, but without any detectable nanoparticle migration.