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Dangers of Rusty Flatware?

Quickstart:
     The site operator claims that casual and occasional ingestion of rust is not dangerous, with the possible exception of people with hemochromatosis, a rare disorder that causes excess iron accumulation.
     But everyone gets to have their say in this quite long but interesting dialog which includes both references to authoritative studies as well as personal opinions. Unfortunately we've yet to receive a comment from an actual epidemiologist who has studied rust  🙂
     Read on, join in ...

Q. Dear Sir/Madam,

We use Stainless Steel Flatware (Spoon, Forks and Knives) for eating while at home. I have been under the impression that by using SS flatware in Dishwasher the former shall be prone to rust. However I have been using the dishwasher since long to clean my flatware. of late I have noticed that many of my spoon forks and knives have rusted. I have confirmed and they are certainly rusted. not have found the pattern we use, we are reluctant to replace these flatware unless we find new flatware with the same pattern. hence my family members and I have been using this flatware for eating. the rust has appeared in places of the flatware which is directly in contact with the food we eat. this has raised fears in my mind that I might be poisoning myself when eating from such rusted flatware.

I would like to be informed whether eating out of such rusted flatware might poison me or lead to any health hazard. if it is so I shall refrain from using such flatware as I would not like to put a few lives at risk. this in mind I have contacted you with the confidence that you shall be of valuable help in this regard. looking forward to your prompt response.

Thanking you

With best regards

A. Hi Jacob. I remember my grandmother reciting the old mantra "you'll eat a peck of dirt in your life". There is no need to worry about the rust spots; your stainless flatware will not poison you. I don't worry about rust myself -- and we use a bunch of grandma's rusty old can openers, tongs, and so on that are plain steel, not even stainless steel, so they are quite rusty  🙂

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

Q. Dear Ted,

"Exposing the Hidden Dangers of Iron"

on Amazon or eBay
or AbeBooks
(affil link)

We would like to thank you for the information provided by you. As mentioned in my previous mail, I have noticed and verified that the same flatware we use is rusted. However we at our family are still using the flatware. I would be obliged to you if you could provide with information, as to whether eating from such rusted flatware is potentially dangerous and hazards to health. If so please let me know in detail because right now I am under constant fear and apprehension that I might be slow poisoning me as well as my family. Also would like you to mention the journal quotes regarding health hazard caused by the same enabling me to study in detail. Looking forward to your prompt response. Thanking you

With best regards,

A. Hello again Jacob. I've already said that my family uses rusty utensils too. I believe they are harmless and that your apprehension is misplaced.

But this is a public forum about metal finishing and I am not an epidemiologist specializing in rust; sorry, I have no special qualifications for composing medical reports ... so please visit a library which has medical journals you have confidence in and look it up yourself  🙂  

If anyone else feels that it is something to worry about, we have plenty of space here and are more than happy to post their reply and data! But sorry, I can't spend my limited time visiting a medical library to generate a research report just to prove it to you via medical journal quotes. Apologies  🙂

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

A. Hi Jimmy,

That was a good reply you got from Ted ... and I wouldn't dare argue with him as he's 6' 4" tall !

I think that many people using stainless steel cutlery will have noticed rust marks now and then ... some 'stainless' will not rust too easily but some knifes, for instance, show rust marks BUT they are invariably made, I think, from a low grade 400 series AND they take a good edge and stay sharp.

May I suggest that you go to a local sheet metal shop because they should have mesh 'pads' they'll use, especially for aluminum and stainless, to remove scratch marks somewhat. I occasionally use them to remove the minuscule rust marks on some of our knives.

Also rust is iron in its NATURAL state ... and I wouldn't think that mini amounts of it would harm you. However, probably curry in excess might do so !

Freeman Newton [deceased]
(It is our sad duty to advise that Freeman passed away
April 21, 2012. R.I.P. old friend).

Dear Jimmy,

I just opened a can of food for my daughter with a screwdriver (because our can opener just broke). After I got it open, I noticed a small rust stain on the tip. I made my daughter something else to eat. Then I ate the can of food so it wouldn't go to waste. At this point I thought that it was pretty stupid of me to eat something that I thought might be hazardous to begin with, so I went online to find out if it is indeed hazardous (tetanus was my concern). I've had absolutely no luck finding out anything substantial.

I was searching for about 30 minutes when I came across your correspondence here. I can't believe that some from the "The home page of the finishing industry" told you to "look it up". Like there would be any other way to reach something as obscure as "The home page of the finishing industry" if you weren't actively trying to "look it up".

I want you to know that I can't believe the response you received. I hope that all of your experiences with Americans aren't like this was. I am NO expert in my field (educational multimedia production), but I help anyone who asks to the best of my ability.

Just one question: If you were worried, why continue to use the flatware until you found a concrete answer?

Hi Ed. I answered cousin Jimmy's question to the best of my knowledge, replying that the rust is not anything to worry about.

It is certainly Jimmy's right to be unsatisfied with my personal opinion; but he then made a polite demand that I "promptly" conduct "in detail" research, and provide "journal quotes" I replied again that my own family uses rusty utensils -- and that if he needed that kind of in-depth research he'd have to locate those journals himself. I included two 'smilies' so he'd understand the friendly and light tone of my answer.

In a world of limited resources with endless things needing our attention I can't spend a day at a medical library as he asked. But I've answered hundreds upon hundreds of questions from the city of Mumbai in this forum, and thousands upon thousands from the Indian subcontinent -- please don't feel obligated to apologize to the people of Mumbai for me, Ed. Rather, help him to the best of your ability by going to the library and finding the medical journal articles that he wants. We'll post your findings here and pass them on to Jimmy.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

A. There are many websites with information pertaining to Tetanus which do not include a single sentiment related to the ingestion of rust, therefore, without conducting a test yourself (many extensive tests have been conducted and published by various private companies) you can deduce that rusty objects are not toxic if ingested. Please note that there are products that do produce toxic substances when they come into contact with rust.

Kristan Wifler
- Burlington, Washington

A. You will get a little iron in your diet, that is a good thing. We use an iron skillet all the time and so did my mother. I have been around for over 50 years. Don't worry, just eat well.

Chuck Crouser
- Athens, Alabama

Q. We have been boiling water in an enameled cast iron kettle. I just discovered that the bottom surface on the inside of the kettle has rusted. I have been suffering with a sudden onset of asthma. I am 52 and have never been asthmatic. Could there be a correlation between the rust contaminated tea water and asthma attacks? ⇦ Answer?

I think the original question was a good one and deserved a sincere response. A simple "I don't know" would of sufficed. As opposed to a snide, "you'll live" response. I'm sure the gentleman utilized this site for info and if you just said, "I don't know", he would have moved on to do other research.

Sharon, please don't demand that I reply "I don't know" if a little bit of rust on stainless steel flatware is poisonous when I'm sure it's not.

"The Iron Time Bomb"

on Amazon or eBay
(affil link)

News agencies, politicians, and others profit from promoting paranoia. They'll do a teaser with "Toxic Time Bomb in Your Kitchen? News at 11" and we'll stay up to hear it, but they never tease with "Harmless after all".

That relentless drumbeat makes people fearful of everything they could eat with -- aluminum, Teflon, plastic, pewter, bronze, cast iron, etc. ... to such an extent that Jimmy is "under constant fear and apprehension" of rust spots on stainless steel. When we reassure him that it's harmless, we're attacked with "You don't know that! Admit it!", and all attempts to reassure are interpreted as "snide".

I was listening to NPR the other day. A noted psychologist explained that humans have perennial psychological needs, and that as religion is increasingly abandoned, something "psychologically similar" to the fear of that unknown must fill the vacuum, hence paranoia. Between that NPR show and Jacob's "I am under constant fear and apprehension that I might be slow poisoning me as well as my family", I'm sold  🙂

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

A. After cleaning my bar-b-q grill and seeing the racks that have sat out in the humid weather here under the cover of the bar-b-q all year I realized that rust must indeed be ingested by many, and in large quantities that we cannot see. As we do brush the crusties off the grill, inevitably we expose more rust. It is especially noticeable when a buttered bun comes off with lines. Well, we are not dead, however the toxicity will never be known unless we conducted an experiment. As many of us smoke or drink coffee, the taste buds have a tinny flavor most of the time, and metals would be hard to detect. If it interferes with your digestion, then be on the lookout for the source of your unfriendly meal, avoiding the same in the future.

Lillian Joubert
- Port Alberni, BC, Canada
2007

! I just noticed while looking at the bottom of my Betty Crocker kettle that the element has rusted in many places and that there was a lot of rust residue at the bottom of the kettle. Like others in the column, this rust have been ingested with my coffee, did worry me. I have sent an email to General Mills about this subject and I am waiting for a response. Will keep you updated.

Renee from Montreal

Ed. note: Thanks Renee

I obviously wasn't the 1st person to wonder if rust ingestion would harm me. I'm sure I won't be the last. I am not a person paranoid that toxins are chasing after me nor would I like Ted to waste his life freeing the world of their socially induced thinking and paranoia. I just simply stumbled across this site like many others before me in search for the answer as to whether my recent ill feeling was related to discovering that the opened and refrigerated can of fruit I just ate out of two days ago had some rust around the inside of the can. I had not noticed it at 1st and wasn't really concerned after I had already eaten and did notice it. When you start feeling bad sometimes in your mind you do start to wonder if you may have eaten anything or done anything to contribute to the problem. That's only natural.

I was a bit amused, concerned, and surprised to see the slight conflict going back and forth about the initial question of the rusted eating utensils. I completely understand the reason for the request of the medical information concerning the issue, although it may not have been necessary. I think that all that was really wanted or needed was a explanation of why rust was or wasn't something to worry about ingesting. Kristan seemed to give a short, simple, and reasonable explanation for why it is probably not something to worry about. Ted's initial response was not as direct as what you expect or are used to getting from a medical informer. I believe he meant well and tried to answer the question in a way as to say "ease your mind about it", and we probably should. This did not include a direct yes or no or even any explanations as to why he thought what he stated were his thoughts. Many people respect doctor's in their professions but are still aware that their thoughts and feelings are still human and subject to error. General explanation clarifies these thoughts for the person seeking information. He may have not understood the reason for further questioning but the answer would leave most feeling like they were not informed much more than if they had picked up the phone and just asked their neighbor what they thought about it. Providing research on the answer may be worth more than the answer so I can understand not wanting to go that route but when people spend a lot of time looking up information to finally get to this site it would not seem like too much to ask just to get a small explanation.

Whether it was meant or not the tone of Ted's last few responses to this issue seemed more annoyed, defensive and condescending rather than reassuring, informative and confirming. This is my 1st time on this site. I don't know how this normally works but I hope to see less conflict surrounding future responses if I choose use this site in the future.

Sha ... I appreciate that you spent time searching before you got to this site. Still, as I've said a few times, I'm not a "medical informer". This is a public forum which focuses on metal finishing. People ask questions and anyone anywhere is encouraged to answer. When no one else replies, I do so because it's common courtesy to acknowledge people who do me the favor of posting on my site. I have an excellent metal finishing library at my fingertips and use it often to help readers, but I don't maintain a medical library. If you find any info, we'll be happy to print it! Thanks.

We've managed to stay on the air for 18 years and 60,000+ threads by avoiding ad hominem comments -- they always degenerate as they have here. I printed criticism of my own response, considering the postings to be "site suggestions". But you've seen what happens: it goes on & on & on and a topic which was supposed to be the possible dangers of rust ingestion no longer is. If you dislike my answer, sorry, but we need to get back to "ingesting rust", not my attitude. Thanks again!

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

Q. My son is renting a home built in the 1980's and it has the original dishwasher. The racks are so rusty that the rack posts are falling off in the wash cycle. I have been looking for documentation to back him up in requesting a new dishwasher and have not found anything. Does anyone know the hazards of washing dishes in this type of environment?

A. I did a gig as a home inspector for a year or so, PJ, and I don't think any home inspection company, testing organization, or regulatory body considers the life of a dishwasher to be 20 years :-)  

I'd suggest trying to convince the landlord that 20 year old units are unsatisfactory rather than trying to prove that the rust is hazardous. Good luck.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

! I would estimate that the dosage of metal is small if you can't taste it or get sick within twenty minutes of eating and entering your bloodstream. The bigger, and probably obvious issues are if the flatware can be cleaned well enough, and what kind of metal are you eating. Plain old iron is abundant in nature, and I would think is only absorbed by your body at a modest rate. Now they have discovered aluminum in Alzheimer's patients, but I would suspect the control patients as well. There are even publicly funded messages in the media now about not breathing flatulence. I don't recommend it either.

I'm guessing that you already made the decision not to use the flatware anymore, and you mainly wanted the proper reasoning behind it. My advice is to stop using them until replated by an expert, and then use them with pride.

A. Hi, G. Thanks. Although silverplate is routinely plated and replated, I've never heard of stainless steel flatware being plated or replated; and we have several threads on line here about brand new stainless flatware constantly rusting (topics 15689, 18486, 23891, and 29294 for example) -- with many people reporting that they have been unable to find any stainless flatware that doesn't rust anymore. :-(

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

A. I, too, stumbled upon this website looking for answers to the question about ingesting rust. Inspired to continue searching, I stumbled upon the following website:

http://www.realsimple.com/realsimple/content/meal/0,21770,1619581,00.html ⇩

What I thought particularly useful was the fact that they cited an apparent expert. Here's probably the most useful quote from that site:

"If you accidentally cook on a rusty surface, the food may acquire a metallic taste, but it won't warrant a trip to the ER, says Elena Juris of the American Association of Poison Control Centers."

Tom P.
- Fullerton, California
2007

Ed. note: That site still exists but that page doesn't.

I found Tom P.'s response very helpful--I followed the link and learned that Cream Of Tartar + water can help remove some rust. I wasn't terrified of ingestion, just wondering because the pan seemed to be giving off a lot and was wondering the effects. I cleaned the pan gently with cream of tartar and water, and it removed some of the rust and lessened the amount of rust particles/ residue that came off when wiping/ using. I'm about to use it now!

Kate M [last name deleted for privacy by Editor]
- Austin, Texas

S       I    T D    E E    F B    L A    O R    N

Q. Call it O.C.D., but Teflon or any surface I cook on must be an impartial element giving off nothing into the food. A look at the chemical reaction has the answer. Chris Kydd - Encinitas, California March 5, 2008 ? Hi, Chris. I certainly have no issue with people who wish to use some types of cookware and avoid others. But out of curiosity I do ask what you consider to be safe materials to use. Regards, Ted Mooney, P.E. Striving to live Aloha finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

S              I     C    K D    O    E E    P    T B    P    T A    E    L R    R    E

Stumbled onto this site because I was curious about the possible effects of my old Revere Ware tea kettle that was producing green water from the oxidized copper bottom that had apparently penetrated all the way through to the surface that touches the water. Needless to say, I threw out the old kettle and went to Costco and bought a new one. It was my impression that Revere Ware was lifetime cookware, but that's apparently false where the kettle's concerned. Tea drinkers beware. Cherie Swanlund - Fallbrook, California July 3, 2008 Hi, Cherie. Copper pots are a bit different than stainless steel flatware. Copper is not considered a food-safe surface. Your tea kettle and similar cookware probably originally had tin plating on it. Restoring the tin is an "old world" trade for a very long time. You might find topics 25553 and 29192 interesting, but I don't see a practical way of "tin wiping" the inside of a tea kettle. Good luck with the replacement! Regards, Ted Mooney, P.E. Striving to live Aloha finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

Perhaps the concern here is not so much over cause and effect (i.e.. does rust harm me) but rather the broader issue of correlation (i.e.. whether or not rust harms, is rust usually found with something that IS harmful, and therefore is rust a good sign that here is something bad and I shouldn't use the utensil).

E.g., I step on a rusty nail or knife - isn't this the usual reason why tetanus shots are encouraged? It's not the rust, it's the fact that it has been there so long it has rusted, therefore it has been there long enough to pick up harmful organisms that might hurt me. Similarly, a rusty BBQ might imply an old BBQ, hence lots of cancer-causing leftover stuff not properly cleaned off over the years, hence making an otherwise less dangerous pit more dangerous to human health.

I came across this discussion in the course of seeking information to either support or refute my wife's contention that rust (in fact, ANY ferrous iron other than stainless steel) cookware causes cancer. We recently married late in life, and her carbon steel phobia has led to the disuse of an authentic Chinese wok; a set of very high quality carbon steel Sabatier kitchen knives; and all of my mother's, aunt's and grandmother's cast iron cookware. Nothing but "stainless" (which we all know isn't REALLY stainless) steel for my better half.

Sabatier Knives

on eBay or Amazon
(affil link)

My search for any shred of information even remotely suggesting a link between rust on cookware and cancer (or any other medical condition known to modern science) has proven absolutely fruitless. My own solution is to humour the wife and use the el cheapo "stainless" knives when she's around, but when she is traveling and I am cooking only for myself -- out come the Sabatiers and the cast iron pots and pans.

In short, my most diligent searching has disclosed nothing that even suggests eating off slightly rusty carbon steel utensils has any deleterious health implications.

Hi Ted, Just want you to know that I appreciate your response to rusted cook ware. Jimmy from India, My counterpart by the way got the answer he was looking for and if he wasn't satisfied has to look further or elsewhere. I too stumbled on this site looking for answers to using a iron skillet - which was bought recently by my wife. it has a rusted surface when washed and kept away and I was concerned about using it. I do not yet know whether I should continue to use it but from the responses I have received it is not harmful - as my wife suggested. So thanks any way for shedding some light on the subject. Have a great week and thanks for your effort in answering the question to the best of your ability and knowledge. regards, Adrian Lobo - Dubai UAE Thank you, Adrian. For a skillet, you can nearly completely prevent rusting by keeping it well seasoned with cooking fat or oil. Thread 49/88 offers several people's suggestions for the best way to season cast iron skillets. Good luck. Regards, Ted Mooney, P.E. Striving to live Aloha finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

Q. Thanks to all for the comments, suggestions, etc.

Vintage Hobert
Meat Grinders

on eBay
(affil link)

We use cast iron skillets all the time, and one was really rusty when we got it. I don't worry about using it at all now.

We recently acquired a Hobart 1/2 HP meat Grinder that is really, really old. When my husband found it, it was very rusty. We have soaked it in vinegar ⇦ in bulk on eBay or Amazon [affil link] and used 00 steel wool ⇦ on eBay or Amazon [affil link] and now some sanding. It is cleaning up quite nicely.

I guess the main question is, would you be afraid to use the meat grinder?

Thanks for your continued support of this subject.

Butcher Block Conditioner/
Mineral Oil

on Amazon or eBay
(affil link)

Hi, Laura

I'd probably be more leery of old meat and botulism than rusted metal. If it has been disassembled and is clean, I think it's fine. You can deter future rusting to a pretty good degree with any kind of edible oil. Try to "wax" the parts with bacon grease for example or wipe them with mineral oil. Don't use petroleum oil (3-in-1, machinery oil) pf course as those are poisonous.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

A. Rust in and of itself is not harmful to eat. It is simply iron oxide. You can find an MSDS sheet for Iron(III) Oxide, also known as rust, here:

www.iolitec.de/Download-document/534-MSDS-NO-0006-HP-Fe2O3.pdf.html ⇩

Note that the only precautions are against getting the dust in your eyes or lungs as it will be rather irritating.

The principal concern with rust is that it is often more porous and thus retains more moisture than the original material, which creates a good colonization site for bacteria, and places for dirt to hide. Additionally, since it may cause flaking of the metal, in severe cases of rusting (not surface rust like you would see on stainless utensils), you cannot clean deeply enough to reach contaminants that may be hidden behind the flakes.

In the case of the meat grinder, I personally would worry somewhat about cross contamination, if the rust is so deep that you can't get it off with a wire brush or sandpaper.

Kip Frances
- Renton, Washington
January 8, 2009

Ed. note: That link has broken. Don't follow abandoned links!

In response to the rust issue. I looked up the MSDS info (which sounds very scary) but realized this must be some sort of industrial strength and quantity they were referring to. Then I looked up Iron (III) Oxide on Wikipedia. Here's the link:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron(III)_oxide

Wikipedia may not be the best authority but I think it balances out the MSDS info. It's interesting that this compound is used in cosmetics and as an FDA approved dye. Also, at the bottom it says under biochemical uses that nano-particles are non-toxic. It appears to me that as long as we're not actually going out and finding large amounts of rust to eat that we'll be fine:)

Smashing! This is the second time that an odd search has taken me to this amazing site. I wish you WERE medical experts, since this site is generally better able to handle the obscure and far more interesting in tone than medical sites. Thanks to the last few posters for excellent documentation to support poor Ted's very practical and correct advise. I'm amazed that he doesn't go mad or close the thread entirely, but very grateful. I'll go make some tea in my rust dotted kettle now, with no further concern. Mary Morris - Duarte, California January 24, 2009 Thanks for the kind words, Mary. Regards, Ted Mooney, P.E. Striving to live Aloha finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

A. I just found this site while I was looking for an answer about the same question, "Will rust harm you if ingested?"
After reading many articles on the subject, the best response I read here was "It appears to me that as long as we're not actually going out and finding large amounts of rust to eat that we'll be fine:) heh heh.
This seems to be a really informative site. I'll be stopping by a lot in the future. Thanks!

Hello Ted,

I too want to say thank you for your answer and I am sorry you took so much heat for it. Quite frankly, you are in the business of finishing products, so I'm not sure why you are supposed to be an expert on the affects of unfinished/de-finished" products, but this thread has answered my concerns about ingesting rust, so thank you.

Ed. note: thanks again to those who provided links & resources, and thanks for the kind assessment of our efforts.

Hi Dana, I went to the Wikipedia entry you provided and would like to amend the website address you supplied. The type of iron used in cosmetics and tattoo inks is Iron (II) oxide (2 rather than 3), which is common rust. Iron (III) Oxide (3) is known as magnetite. Wikipedia also states: "Iron pigments are also widely used in the cosmetic field. They are considered to be nontoxic, moisture resistant, and non bleeding." Visit en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron(II)_oxide or en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_oxide for more information.

Hello everyone here, very nice website which I found, like a lot of you it seems, by Googling whether my rusty pan will kill me hahaha

All the answers here are quite good, Iron oxide as far as I know doesn't pose a major health risk in the doses that we're talking about....I'm Australian and half the dirt in my country is made of it!
I'd just like to add a couple of points. Can I first just reiterate and remind everyone that tetanus CANNOT be caused by rust. It is caused by a toxin produced by type of bacteria that may be found on rusty surfaces, but also other types of surfaces as well (say a dogs mouth or something else that's been on the ground), and is usually contracted through a wound (as I believe someone posted above) ! I believe you will never hear of it being contracted through consuming of rust :)
It's also easily prevented by routine immunization so please don't worry about this one too much.

The other thing I wanted to add to make sure people don't get the wrong idea concerns copper corrosion, which was also mentioned above. While iron rust doesn't pose a massive threat to our health, copper, and copper compounds(which commonly form on copper products exposed to air and water for a long period, you may see a blue-green and/or black coating on the surface) are toxic and should not be used to prepare anything for human or animal consumption. Copper is naturally found in the environment and is essential in our diet in trace amounts (which is already found in food, taken in from the soil), but anything above this should be limited.

here is a link to an Australian government fact sheet on these substances which has a little information and is quite easy to understand:

www.npi.gov.au/database/substance-info/profiles/27.html ⇩

You can also look up a little more if you're interested, and I realise most people might already know this stuff, but I just thought it was important to clarify that iron and copper corrosion are NOT the same in their impacts on human health, since someone mentioned copper in the same thread here :)

Thanks!

Ed. update: The above link has broken. Thankfully, the Internet Archive preserved a copy here  🙂
Please consider a donation to The Internet Archive.

Despite the diligence of the owners of this site, I have to take exception to many of the answers presented here.

"I'm 50 and I'm not dead yet" is not at all an acceptable answer to the original question of the gentleman from India, nor are any boorish references to curry. The post providing the MSDS was the first logical answer here, everything else was simply anecdotal and, therefore, useless.

Need I remind you all that science is the process of gathering large amounts of data to make statistical statements. You don't have to be a statistician to know that a single observation does not make for a good statistical statement. Furthermore, authority does not pass for truth. Having many years in the metallurgy business is good, but certainly a more informative answer, perhaps including theoretical or empirical evidence, was called for in this case.

Thanks, Ryan. I agree with your science point! But mankind using iron for food service for thousands of years without alarms sounding about ingesting rust is not anecdote, it's in fact very very big data.

We all have limited time but limitless things calling for our attention, and there's nothing wrong with answers to the effect that "with all the things going on, this isn't an issue I'd suggest worrying about". With non-inspected food being imported to America from every hovel in the world today, some doubtless grown right next to latrines, I'm far more concerned with listeria, e coli, and salmonella actually in my food than rust on my utensils. If you feel that theoretical or empirical evidence is called for but lacking, please cite a study that found rusty stainless steel flatware to be harmless or dangerous rather than limiting yourself to criticizing others for not doing so :-)

As for "boorish references to curry" : Freeman Newton didn't have a mean bone in his body and certainly didn't mean offense to anyone. But he wrote cleverly maybe too cleverly in this case with his allusion to the special renown that cumin/curry has long held for its exceptionally high iron content (well under an ounce offering more than 100% MDR).

I hope that you'll re-read Freeman's response in a charitable light: "Also rust is iron in its NATURAL state ... and I wouldn't think that mini amounts of it would harm you. However, probably curry in excess might do so!" It's warm and friendly, while putting into perspective that the amount of iron/rust ingestion accidentally added is surely far less than what is deliberately added. Hundreds of postings of that sort made Freeman a beloved and dearly missed contributor to this forum

Thanks again, and Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

This is quite a discussion! Still going strong after years! I looked in for the same answer - and found it. I like gathering numerous opinions and gleaning a consensus.
It's usually fairly easily to discern those with knowledge from the discussion. I understand what you mean about the critical statements, they seem to strengthen as time goes on, but those are usually from people who aren't really looking for dialog; they either love to be negative, or they are irritated at not getting their "way" (i.e. the kind of answer or info they hope to get.) In either case, they aren't considering any other input then their own as valid or important, OR they just plain don't comprehend the point made. Sometimes you just can't connect - you're best off to just let it go early. Unless of course you need their agreement for a sale! (don't know how to make that smile symbol)
We sell tools, and sometimes, you know, you just have to think, "Never mind".

Anyway, thank you for your faithfulness, it's apparent you love what you do!
P.S. so I'm now using the big old cast iron dutch oven I had outside as an ornament (rustic decor) ha,ha!
It's been consigned as THE popcorn pan - since our microwave died, not being replaced.
What I treat I forgot about- that fire popped corn!
It only is hard to shake - it weighs about 10 lbs!

I googled "cast iron rust" and found some great sites (and methods, and products) about restoring cast iron - also the chemistry of the iron, the rust, and the various cleansers was posted with chemical reaction explanations. Very interesting. Now I remembered that I think I failed to master the balancing of equations in chemistry. Something about taking an element from one side and putting it on the other, but it applies to cast iron and rust believe it or not!
Bye

Just a quick note, which I find is lacking from an otherwise great resource:
"Ingestion of greater than 50 to 100 mg of iron per day may result in pathological iron deposition in body tissues. Repeated iron ingestion can produce cardiac toxicity" (my source is http://www.jtbaker.com/msds/englishhtml/i7500.htm ⇩)

One thing I learned in a toxicology class: "the dose makes the poison" Iron is not toxic in low doses, but it is at repeated and high doses.

So, instead of just dismissing the iron on your pots and pans, take a little time and clean them or season them. That takes care of the problem altogether.

Ed. update: The above link is broken. Thankfully, the Internet Archive preserved a copy here  🙂
Please consider a donation to The Internet Archive. Don't follow abandoned links, old URLs are sought out by hackers!

Q. Is it unhealthy to use stainless steel flatware that is showing signs of spotty discoloration (darkening, blotchiness, some rust color)?

A. Pat Van Wert:
Funny you should ask that; that was the original question that started this thread way back in 2003 - believe it or not. If you are interested in doing so, you may go back to the beginning of the discussion and see that question posed by a gentleman in India (I think) and it started an immense amount of dialog on the issue.

I was researching the idea in Dec 2009 when I found this site on google. I think you'll find your question well answered!

btw, for those who viewed my last response, the big old cast iron pot ended up burning the popcorn a lot, so it is now sitting next to our wood burner as a decoration!
I still have the "rustic" theme outside, but won't send it out there, I can use it for a stew sometime, or maybe even a camp pot.

Hi there all of you....

hope all of you guys are doing fine and hope that your worries leave you

I'm seema, 28 female, Masters in Marketing from Karachi, PAKISTAN and bit of a paranoid person or maybe not!

Anyway my issue is that I just found out that my mum's old kettle which we use daily to boil water for tea/coffee is rusting like anything especially from inside. When I rubbed my finger on the inside base of kettle the orange color came off on my finger immediately. I am concerned, well actually scared because me and my mum have been drinking tea made from the same kettle in which the water was being boiled. Is it dangerous, guys? Could I, God forbid, be slow poisoning myself or my mum. We would never use it again for sure, but what about the fact that we have already spent so much time drinking tea made in rusted kettles. Can anyone help me and can you please tell me what are the early symptoms of metal poisoning coz I am allergic to artificial metal, could I develop more toxicity b/c of that or what! I do have few blisters on my tongue recently and had a small acne break out. Could it be a sign of poisoning?

I would really appreciate it if you could answer me to the best of your ability.

Thanks and Regards,

Seema

A. I recently bought a conical sieve and a potato ricer on eBay , both of which have small spots of rust. They are very old. I ended up on this site as I was worried about consuming rust but now I'm pretty cool about it.
I read the thread from start to finish. There are some really strange lonely people in the world.

Hi, Thomas. It's 2 AM as I'm reviewing your posting and the family has been in bed for hours. I guess I'm one of those strange lonely people -- thanks for keeping me company :-)

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

Thanks to all who have posted -- my father is always looking for signs of rust in the kitchen. Not only his kitchen and assorted equipment therein, but everyone else in the family is subject to his rust-paranoia fed inspections. I look forward to referring him to this thread!

My question about ingesting rust was answered in the beginning of this thread, but I couldn't stop reading. How interesting to see the variety of personalities and responses to the way the host answered! Thanks for the website!

I had the same concern with rust on food equipment. I came across this site and read all the prior threads. I noted that there shouldn't be a concern for a small amount of rust but as a skeptic academic, I needed more supporting documents before I continue the use of my cookware. So I searched for several more hours for an answer that I was comfortable with.

I searched the government sites (many many government sites) that advises us not to consume food stored in containers with rusted lids or cans that are swollen, bulged, or rusted. Food stored in such containers harbor bacterias that cause lockjaw (tetanus).

My search for "the" answer ended when I found "Ask a Scientist" provided by the DOE Office of Science for users to post science related questions. The following Q&A was found at http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/mole00/mole00756.htm ⇩

"Question - I know the USDA does not allow rusty equipment used in processing plant but I want to know what effect does rust have on pathogen growth? I'm thinking rust is considered as free-radical--bad for your health--and bacteria loves iron but how much is too much? A piece of meet placed on rusty equipment gets cooked on high heat--how does heat affect it?

---------------------------------------

I am pretty sure that rust is not a free radical; it is Iron Oxide which is not chemically reactive. Iron bacteria are not usually pathogenic so I don't think rust in food preparation equipment is of much concern.

Ron Baker, Ph.D."

Ed. update: The above link is broken. Thankfully, the Internet Archive preserved a copy here  🙂
Please consider a donation to The Internet Archive.

I have enjoyed reading these comments very much and I am reassured that the more recent posts have been more objective and respectful.

I was seeking an answer to why soldiers (Vietnam war) were told to discard their water canteens if rust was present because it would cause dysentery. Clearly it is not the rust itself, but the likelihood that bacteria can colonize the rusted area.

It seems to me that if rusted cooking/eating implements are sterilized, they will still be rusty but will not be a health hazard.

The body has no mechanism for excreting Iron, so toxicity is determined by the amount already in the body. The real danger comes from combination of sources of Iron, such as supplements + rust intake. Kids are more susceptible to most forms of Toxicity, so if children are involved consult a doctor or replace the rusty items.

As noted above, the primary cause for concern about rust is that the small pits and valleys will encourage bacterial growth, and lead to the possibility of food poisoning.

If you are taking supplements with iron and have some rust intake, then you should consult a doctor. If most of your cookware is rusty, you should replace or remove as much of the rust as possible.

Since the best solution is to remove the rust, this could mean sandpaper or other abrasives. These will cause more pitting/scratching of the cookware (etc.). So make sure to dry well after washing to prevent any future bacterial growth. For cookware, you can use your stove (on low) to accomplish this without missing any areas if the cookware is really pitted. Cookware placed on the small element for about 10 seconds will usually finish drying anything that was partially dried already (dishwasher or towel dried).

The effects of Iron Poisoning:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_poisoning

If you are having these symptoms, you are getting too much iron in your diet, and your body cannot get rid of it. See a doctor immediately.

Q. My wife recently prepared a large amount of chicken and rice. The quantity was so large she couldn't use her standard tupperware containers. So she put the meal into a large tin coffee can. The inside of the can immediately started rusting. Is this a safe way to store wet leftovers?

Thanks

A. Hi, Jack.

Sorry, no, it's not. Coffee cans are designed for dry foods and vacuum storage.

Regards,

A. I grew up in the mountains of Wyoming eating out of cast iron cookware, drinking from pots and troughs with more rust than metal, and tending the sacred graniteware coffee pot that was 2 gallons at least and never, NEVER, washed. (Any self respecting cowboy simply added grounds until there was more grounds than water, then scooped out some of the waste, and continued on. My grandparents and great uncles and such, all doing the same, lived well into their nineties. Most of us haven't been to a doctor in decades.
While there are many things that can kill you and make you sick, like the stuff that comes from a fast food restaurant, I doubt that the rust will do us in. There's far more deadly compounds in city water than there are in an old fry pan or water dipper. If you want to be scared, lead was used until recently to solder and fit all city water supply pipes. There's a lot more lead in your drinking water than rust in your fried eggs. And don't think bottled water is the answer since most of that comes from other city's water, read the label! By the way, did you know that Teflon and bleach, two items found in almost every American kitchen, are among the most deadly compounds known to man?
Stop worrying, enjoy life!

I found this discussion after discovering that a hand-held blender had rust that was spinning into the baby food I was blending and have found the info and links very helpful.
I'm not too good with the internet and was wondering if iron from something like cookware or my blender is the same as you get in your blood (to date wiki isn't real clear on this).

Also out of pure curiosity, when was the first question posed?

Ed. note: this thread began in 2003.

I came across this site because like everyone else who has responded, I was worried about cooking with rusted pots and pans and silverware because about a week ago I realized that my frying pan had scratches on the bottom of it and the scratches had began to rust. I continued to use it because I just moved into my first apartment and it was my only frying pan. A couple of days after realizing it was rusted I got very sick my throat got swollen as well as my tongue, I started to feel dizzy get headaches, etc... I thought I was poisoned! (lol) Paranoia got to me.

So I went looking it up on the internet and I got to this website I took the advice got relieved! (wasn't worried about the rust anymore THANKS TO THIS WEBSITE!!!) =D

I started to feel worse, I was getting light headed and weak so I went to the E.R. and it turns out I had a bad case of the Flu. Lol! But I thought about this page (and asked the doctor before he told me it was the flu) about rust, he literally laughed at me and said "unless you are eating rust like its candy, its harmless. Rust is definitely not the problem."

So I hope the fact that I got a doctor's advice on this topic will help everyone who still had doubted whether rust was dangerous and hazardous or not. Might I add that I got so wrapped up in this thread and the responses that some people made; I couldn't believe it soooo negative! For what? With that being said I also want to add that the fact of everyone being so quick to be negative and judge others that they don't even know is wrong and shows how quickly people get amused by negativity. I don't think neither Ted or Jimmy was wrong I think Jimmy didn't understand Ted's reply and just wanted to be extra careful and Ted was just being honest and upfront. I definitely don't think any of Ted's replies was wrong, disrespectful or out of line! =) this site was lots of help!

Thanks for being here for everyone and thanks for letting me post an answer and give my opinion!

Sincerely,
Jasmine

The MSDS includes-- "Ingestion: May cause severe and permanent damage to the digestive tract. May cause liver damage. Causes severe pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and shock. May cause hemorrhaging of the digestive tract. The toxicological properties of this substance have not been fully investigated."

https://fscimage.fishersci.com/msds/00795.htm ⇩

Ed. update: The above link is broken. Thankfully, the Internet Archive preserved a copy here  🙂
Please consider a donation to The Internet Archive. Don't follow abandoned links, old URLs having links from legitimate sites are sought out by hackers for installing malware!

Hi, Beth. That MSDS is for Iron [III] Oxide, 99.999%, -100 Mesh not for rust. It also says, for example: "Facilities storing or utilizing this material should be equipped with an eyewash facility and a safety shower."

To put it into perspective, that same MSDS says --

Clean Water Act:
- None of the chemicals in this product are listed as Hazardous Substances under the CWA.
- None of the chemicals in this product are listed as Priority Pollutants under the CWA.
- None of the chemicals in this product are listed as Toxic Pollutants under the CWA.

OSHA:
- None of the chemicals in this product are considered highly hazardous by OSHA.

California Prop 65
- California No Significant Risk Level: None of the chemicals in this product are listed. Let's not work hard to terrify ourselves :-)

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

I'm not working hard and I'm certainly not scaring myself. Point is that you gave an irresponsible answer by completely failing to acknowledge that there is any potential for harm at all.

Additionally, there SHOULD be an eye wash station - do you not know that even a very small amount can harm the eyes significantly? Furthermore, are you not an engineer? What then qualifies you to give people such absolute advice about health concerns?

Hi again Beth. I gave no one "absolute" advice; I offered personal opinion & personal experience because running a public forum obligates me to not ignore people who take the time to post questions. Dozens of other people posted their opinions, you've posted yours, and I continue to encourage everyone to contribute any info they can.

Go ahead and install an emergency eyewash facility & safety shower in your kitchen to deal with rust spots if you feel there SHOULD be one, but I'm not going to install one nor urge others to. Have a good day  🙂

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

Ted, Thank you for posting this thread! Nine years since the question was first asked, and I was able to find the answer to my rust question, being entertained and educated in other areas as well along the way.

For example, thank you to Kate M for the Cream of Tarter cleaning tip. Unrelated to the search for my original question, this tip saved one of my pots from the trash. (Did you know you really CAN burn water? I thought I ruined one of my pans, but Cream of Tarter and just water and a paper towel removed the blackened residue that nothing else touched!)

Thanks to all who clarified the tetanus questions. I work in a health care profession and once treated an older woman in the hospital with tetanus from a puncture wound she sustained from a twig while gardening. She cleaned and bandaged it and thought nothing more, but ultimately ended up in a life-threatening situation and a very long, painful recovery. So tetanus doesn't have to come from a rusty nail, or even rust, but can come from even a dirty twig. It is not the rust, but the bacteria that causes tetanus, as people have already clarified in previous posts. To avoid this, keep current with your tetanus boosters, or at least get checked out if you get a puncture wound. As we get older, we forget about these things (at least I do, and so did that unfortunate older woman I mentioned.)

Beth G: Don't get over-uptight about the MSDS. Government regulations require the worst possible scenarios for every possible chemical, kind of a CYA measure in a law-suit-happy world, and one where some people are just plain idiots and don't have the least bit of common sense. Did you know there is a similar warning in the MSDS for table salt as there is for rust? I have enough common sense to not need an eyewash station in my kitchen.

Ted: I in no way found any of your responses to be rude, condescending, etc., but just plain honest and straight-forward. I will though, in Jimmy's defense in the very first post, have to admit that I don't take everything as fact on the internet. He doesn't know (nor do I) your credentials, your experience, or your level of expertise, so I don't find his request for further documentation unreasonable. He may not have realized you don't have direct access to the articles/resources he assumed you got your information from. Personally I am grateful to all the other readers who posted links to some great resources. I like to back up anecdotal experiences with actual facts, especially when I don't know the source personally. We never know who is actually posting information on the internet.

Hi, Cami. Thanks so much for your kind view of everyone's comments, including mine and Jimmy's. I certainly agree that the internet can be a questionable information source, so people have to double-check what they read.

Regarding "being entertained", the "patron saint" of my field (electroplating), is Michael Faraday ("Faraday's Law of Electrolysis", and much else), who had this to say:

"The most prominent requisite...is a good delivery; for though to all true philosophers science and nature have charms innumerable in every dress, yet I am sorry to say that the generality of mankind cannot accompany us one short hour unless the path is strewed with flowers."

I'm part of the "generality of mankind" who appreciates the little flower-strewn side trips the posters take us on, including your interesting and informative interlude about tetanus-laced twigs. Thanks!

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

Q. I have a pan that the teflon came off of and is now becoming very rusty. I use it to cook almost everything in. Will it hurt my family if I continue to use it?

A. Hi, Renea.

After 60+ postings on this thread I hope you realize that you will get mostly people's opinions, not objective facts -- there are no "facts" available about an old pan of unknown brand, unknown metal, unknown age, with an unknown Teflon-like coating, that came off for unknown reasons (did it get so hot that unknown volatile compounds gassed out of it?)

My own personal guideline is that I don't use surfaces for food service that were not intended for food service. The surface below that erstwhile teflon coating was not intended to be used for food service, so I wouldn't use it for such. If it were my pan, I'd say time to discard it and get a new one.

Regards,

Q. Hi guys,

This a really fascinating topic, and well-attended, too. I couldn't resist the urge to add my input/further questions, though. ,:D

I came to this site because my family uses an old Chinese wok extensively. My mom would tell me the dark outer coating is iron and good for you (since you need iron in trace amounts). It's been used for many years, however, so some of the dark metal has begun to scrape off at parts. For some reason, I have always thought of the dark coating as rusted iron; probably because I thought the dark, pitted look would only come from iron that has changed and processed through a gradual chemical reaction. As a result, I had been wondering about the safety (and benefits, but mostly safety) of ingesting a bit of rust everyday. Now, however, I realize that the black coating is probably NOT rust since a coating of rust would look actually very red and ugly... (looking into it now, the black coating is probably the "patina" of carbonized oils that wok enthusiasts talk about); so I don't have to worry about my mom ingesting chunks of rust every day, harmless or not. Nevertheless, where the patina has been scraped off by wear, the metal underneath has a dark, reddish hue and the water comes off with a dirty orange-red hue when washed. Is /this/ a thin rust coating, or something else? I understand that the staff of this forum work as finishing authorities rather than "de-finishing," but input from anyone who might know would be much appreciated.

If it is rust, though, I'm not much concerned since it's just traces of a thin layer rather than actual chunks of a crust being ingested. Nevertheless, after going through this thread, here are my own unnecessary conclusions about ingesting rust:

Eating small amounts of rust itself on your cooking/eating ware won't harm you.
It is possible to overdose on iron, if you eat a lot at once.
The presence of toxins from the original metal, as well as bacteria, in correlation with the presence of rust raises concern.

And here is my question:
What qualifies as "small amounts" of rust which are safe to consume everyday, and where is the line which marks the beginning of unhealthy consumption, leading to this....:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_overload
(can be caused either genetically or by gradual overconsumption of iron, it seems)

?

I know I can probably find a value which makes sense to me (e.g. a tablespoon of rust a day) based on the value a previous poster gave, but of course if someone knew and kindly informed me without necessitating my research, that would be very nice. I read elsewhere that the LD50 (median lethal dose) for rats is 30 g/kg. If I had the same LD50, then I suppose it would take 1500 g (1.5 kg) of rust in one dose to kill me. But is it the same number for consumption over a lifetime? Or, because iron (III) is mostly insoluble, it would take many more small doses than those adding up to 1500 g?

If I still thought I or my mom were eating chips of rust layer everyday, I would worry about this in application of my own life (or as an explanation of my mom's symptoms); but since I've tentatively averted my mistake, I'm not. The principle of this, however, is that any layperson could formulate a valid question about the gradual overconsumption of rust.

Whether or not overconsumption is a practical possibility in actuality, we don't know. That's because every assurance that it's NOT a practical possibility thus far in this thread has lacked: 1) a qualification on what counts for "that" in, "no, it's crazy to think that will damage you over a lifetime" and 2) a basis in actual scientific findings or even simple reasoning. The fact that we have no confidence in the assurances as a result is what makes the resurfacing question about ingesting rust a valid question.

Which isn't to say that I'm demanding that research be furnished for me right now. I am only pointing the validity of the question out because there seems to be an assumption that the question is no longer justified because it's already been answered anecdotally. It's fine if you think the question is getting old because it's been established that no one will here will bother answering you well by now; but I disagree with the sentiment that the question is stupid because it's been answered well enough already by others.

In other words, it's OK for you to offer your opinion, but you shouldn't assume that you have /answered/ the question well, and then use that assumption as the basis for condescension when the question is asked again.

Anyway, I realize that I probably sound a little militant and that Ted has already asked for a stop to the ad hominem discussion, so this may not be posted. Nevertheless, a little side dialog about how questions have been answered (which is very much circa hominem) has been going on for a while now, so I wanted to address it with my own input. If even only the administrator reads this, I will be satisfied that my ideas were communicated. :)

Hi, Rona. Thanks for your contribution to the dialog. Yes, I follow your point that the chronic use of rusty serviceware may be different than rare use. And everyone is welcome to their opinion, whether repeated or not, and to answer any question they wish or ask any question they wish.

It's not that I feel the concern is stupid, nor do I think that my opinion is anything but my own opinion. But, although there are countless threads on this site where I've been corrected and changed my mind, the truth is: after 9 years and tens of thousands of readers and a hundred postings, I hold the same position on rusty utensils that I held back then: that rust is so very minimally dangerous, that it doesn't merit my "apprehension". This may be more a philosophy of life attitude than a science answer.

Thanks and Regards,

A. With regard to rust or anything that comes in general, I feel we should focus on the nature that gives the best food. It is better to avoid what is visible and that feels not good for you as it will effect you mentally. I eat anything and any kind of water as long as it gives the same taste. Sometimes I feel sick but still I am strong enough to fight it. Taking more precautions will give more troubles and you will be weak day by day and you will not be able to fight any sickness. I feel that nobody can control the nature but balance by itself. Imagine the people who have not seen a kitchen or cooking but digging garbage to get some food are still on this earth and they do live. Some get sick as they eat only poison but some still healthy when they select natural food out of visible poison. So why worry for rust. It is needed by human body I think. Listen to the body and eat whatever you feel is the best I believe. Anyhow, we eat the best food on the earth but still we will die, so why worry. Enjoy, and die without worrying is the best thing I think we should do.

Q. Hey, Ted, is it okay to eat food off of my grill if my heat plates are rusty?

A. Hi, Ross. In my personal estimation, yes. I rarely see any flame deflectors that aren't badly rusted.

Experts still argue whether coffee, red wine, and aspirin are good or bad for you. It will probably be a very long time before trustable epidemiological studies will be done and a firm conclusion reached regarding rusting flame deflectors  🙂

Regards,

I came to this site after noticing rust in the old pans I've been using to plant herbs in. After going through most of these posts, I just called Poison Control, explained that I was eating basil grown in rusting pans and that I'm in the second trimester of my pregnancy. The pharmacologist who took my call assured me that iron oxide (rust) is not toxic--it is simply the left-over material of the metal that is being oxidized (he said it better). When I reminded him I was pregnant he repeated I had nothing to worry about and that the only reason I would need to toss the pan/planter was if the taste of the basil was ruined.

Great site, Ted--I think your responses are more even-keeled than mine would be if I were hosting this thread.

Ed. note: Thanks Elaine.

A. Went looking for info on whether rust in the bottom of my electric kettle is bad for me and found this thread. Immensely entertaining reading! Bottom line is commonsense....

1. Rust is basically harmless.

2. You can't always be sure it's purely rust.
-- With a non-stick fry pan, there could be teflon or other chemical coatings mixed in with the rust.
-- With an item that has been not washed for a long time (rusty nail or tool), it could have bacteria on it.
-- With an item that's been scrubbed with an abrasive surface, bacteria could be hiding in crevices and escape cleaning.

3. When in doubt, throw it out. New kettles are cheap! :-)

Thanks!!

Q. Is there such a thing as redoing the finish of stainless steel flatware? NOT IN FEAR OF DISCOLORED SPOTS but just to return the original shiny appearance. And if yes, would the cost of redoing approximately half (20ish pieces) of a set of 45 pieces or is it better to just buy a whole new 45 piece set? Thanks Walter Arthur - Newburgh, New York November 23, 2012 Rock Tumblers on Amazon or eBay (affil link) A. Hi Walter. You may have seen a rock tumbler [affil link], which is basically a coffee can with a little motor and roller mechanism that rotates the can day and night with a mild abrasive that slowly polishes the stones. There are much larger versions of this that are used in industry, called abrasive tumblers. There may be a service somewhere that tumbles stainless flatware in them to repolish it, but I'm not personally aware of such a service. If you can find one, refinishing will probably be affordable. But if the shop has to rely on manual polishing with buffing compound and buffing wheels, you probably will find the repolishing prohibitive because of labor cost. A third alternative is to try to do it yourself; try a Dremel ⇦ on eBay or Amazon [affil link] or a small cordless drill with buffing wheels and polishing compounds. It'll probably take a long time, and require multiple wheels and grits, starting with a large grit, then a new wheel with a medium grit, and a new wheel with a fine grit. If you enjoy doing stuff like this, it's not prohibitive; if you don't enjoy it, it is prohibitive. Best of luck. Regards, Ted Mooney, P.E. RET Striving to live Aloha finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

Q. I used a pizza pan to cover a pan I was cooking stew meat in. It was cooking for about an hour and a half. When I checked on it and pulled the pizza pan off it was coated with red rust. I couldn't see any but a little spot in my pan of stew meat but now I am worried it dripped all down in my pan and my children and I are going to wake up sick. Will we get sick from eating the stew meat?

A. Hi Amani. You are going to be fine. Rust is iron. You're not going to be sick.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

A. Rust is the process of metal oxidation. It is a chemical burning undergone by iron. Rust can happen when metals are in contact with water, air, oxygen, or acids. The main catalyst of metal rust is water, because its molecule can penetrate pits in any exposed iron. When metals are exposed to the corrosion-causing agents for quite long time, some of the parts will turn into orange-colored powder, known as rust. This substance has long been blamed for some health disturbances. One of the common disease people believed to be caused by rusty metals is tetanus.

Rust is oxidation of an iron. Most people believe that when you have a wound caused by rusty metals, such as a rusty nail, you are likely to suffer from tetanus. This is a deadly disease caused by bacterium called Clostridium tetani. This bacteria live in an anaerobic environment, usually surrounding the place where rusty metals are located. As to the discussion whether or not rusty metals cause tetanus, the answer is no. Rusty metals do not cause tetanus. It means, if you touch rusty irons with your bare hands, you cannot be infected by tetanus because of this.

It is not the rust itself causing tetanus. Tetanus is caused by bacterial infection. If you ask, why a wound caused by rusty metals carries tetanus, you need to know that it is not the rust which has something to do with the disease. Instead, it is the bacteria. The spores of Clostridium tetani live in humid, dirty places, such as soil and compost. These spores can shift their habitat from the soil or manure to the powdered rust. The dry, rusted area of a metal is a suitable anaerobic area for the spores. When the spores move, this rusty metal is contaminated by the bacteria causing tetanus.

When you have a wound caused by the rusty metals, the bacteria which contaminate the rust prior to the accident migrates to your body through your open wound. When you have a puncture wound caused by a nail, for instance, it is not the rust on the nail risking you to tetanus. Instead, it is the bacteria inside the rust who do so. This bacteria soon get into your body, spread through your blood stream, ends in your nerve system. Here, during the incubating period, the bacteria release toxin that induce nervous system disturbance.

Clostridium tetani-induced nervous system disturbances will cause locked jaw, neck stiffness, body irritability, high fever, and swallowing difficulty. Prolonged pain killers used to fight these effects can cause kidney failure and heart attack, which further lead to death.

If you happen to cook with a rusty iron pan, you might wonder whether you will get cancer or food poisoning, because rust seems to be a kind of issue. In fact, cooking with a rusty pan does not necessarily put you in a risk of become poisoned. Rust in a pan or wok will be harmful only if you cook something highly acidic, and in fact, nothing you cook will be in this criterion. Thus, the iron you might be eating because of the cooking process done with a rusty pan will be excreted by your body.

However, this rusty pan will be harmful if it contains bacteria that induce tetanus infection. Yet, Clostridium tetani is rarely found in the kitchen. Thus, all you need is to scrub the rust to eliminate it from the pan so that you can cook without worries of getting infected.

If your rusty kitchen utensils are contaminated by tetanus-causing bacteria and you cook using these utensils, you are likely to be infected with the deadly disease. The bacteria, in fact can go through your digestive system and infect your body. This will start the same cycle with the one when the bacteria goes inside your body through an open wound. Therefore, it is wiser to throw your rusty pan away, rather than put yourself to the risk of the deadly tetanus.

Gary Gelissen
- Blackshear Georgia, United States

!! Iron poisoning can also cause type 1 diabetes (insulin dependent, or juvenile) and can contribute to other problems also.

It's probably not as hard to get iron poisoning as you think, especially in children. I got iron poisoning as an infant simply because my mother ate a whole lot of iron rich food while she was still nursing me.

I just bought s $2k stainless steel vegetable juicer and wanted to gather information to get a better argument as to why I am returning a part that shows small patches of rusting. Now I am further convinced I should return it:
1.) My body does not tolerate any additional iron.
2.) The rust is on an inside portion that is difficult to reach and clean which could easily gather bacteria.

I certainly agree, that those who said that "I eat this stuff and I'm not dead yet" had a very weak argument. By way of example, Vietnam veterans exposed to agent orange did not develop type 2 diabetes instantaneously after being exposed. But the US government compensates those Vietnam Veterans exposed to agent orange when they get diabetes because it has been shown to contribute to the illness several years after exposure.

The later comments were more helpful.

Reference Daily Intake

Agent Orange

Hi Mandy. I agree with your desire for more fact and fewer anecdotes. Can you give us article titles regarding iron poisoning causing diabetes if you have any please? Can you offer us a chart or comparison between the 18 mg RDI [Reference Daily Intake] for iron and the quantity of rust that can come off a surface under some condition or other so we have a sense of whether any realistic amount of rust ingestion can exceed the RDI?

I don't think it's particularly helpful to try to compare iron (an essential nutrient, one of the most prevalent elements on earth, a building block of civilization so essential that we've named the whole modern era after it, and a kitchen material that has been used for 3000 years) to Agent Orange (a biocide engineered to be as destructive to life as possible, and rushed into use for warfare). We were trying to destroy the foliage that concealed snipers so that we could shoot or bomb them, so no one was concerned over their long-term health -- unfortunately we weren't sufficiently concerned about those deploying it :-(

Thanks for your input.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

A. Hi, like many, I came across this page while Googling for whether ingesting rust is harmful to health. I came for the answers but stayed for the interaction! It's amazing this thread has lasted so long and stayed on topic. Good job to the moderator/s (who I'm assuming is Ted).
I'm posting because I found relevant information from a reliable source so here it is:

"Though rusty water may look and taste unpleasant -- and possibly stain sinks and clothing -- it is not a health concern. A possible exception is people with hemochromatosis, a rare disorder that causes excess iron accumulation in body organs."

That's from https://www.berkeleywellness.com/healthy-eating/food-safety/article/rusty-water ⇩
And the top of the page states,"Medically reviewed by faculty at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health".

So there you have it folks. I hope that puts some minds at ease! It's specifically about rusty water but I think we can reasonably assume the same of ingesting rust from pans, other cookware or flatware.

Ed. update: The above link is broken. Thankfully, the Internet Archive preserved a copy here  🙂
Please consider a donation to The Internet Archive. Don't follow abandoned links, old URLs are sought out by hackers!

A. Thanks for the well-sourced quote, Marianne. It goes a long way toward separating fact from anecdote :-)

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

Q. I pulled out a pie dish I use infrequently and saw that there appeared to be some minor rust spots on it. I washed it with a scour pad and dish soap without results so I decided to give C-L-R a try. This was a mistake and I appear to have stripped the shiny finish off the dish. I've tried googling to see if this would affect the safety of the dish but haven't found any results. I don't expect to be able to restore it because the CLR that has stripped the metal itself. Thoughts?

A. Hi Vanessa. If you were fielding a question from someone whose cake didn't turn out, and you asked them how much flour they added, and their answer was they found two cups of "white powder stuff with a sweet smell", you would interrupt to make sure that they used flour, not confectionary sugar or roach powder :-)

You originally posted this on a thread about repairing damage to aluminum cookware, but similarly we need to first confirm that you are actually talking about aluminum -- which became questionable because aluminum can't rust. When aluminum corrodes, it never generates that orange brown stuff. As step one, please test the pan with a magnet because I suspect that you are not dealing with aluminum but with a tin plated steel baking pan.

Luck & Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

Hi Ted,
You're absolutely right. I tried the magnet trick and indeed, it is magnetic. We're not talking aluminum anymore.

A. Okay, Vanessa, we moved your question to a thread about ingesting rust. Most bakeware that isn't non-stick teflon is probably tin plated. Tin plating is whitish and reasonably metallic-looking but not really shiny like a truck bumper ... and it is completely food-safe.

Your situation now is that the pan will rust to some degree if not kept dry and lightly oiled with a food-safe material like mineral oil ⇦ on eBay or Amazon [affil link] . But you probably could 'season' it by baking cooking oil or bacon grease into it. The rusting, if allowed to continue, will make your cakes unsightly before it makes them dangerous.

Luck & Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

Sorry! Finishing.com is temporarily Read-Only.
Ted Mooney is retiring but I have several offers to take it over.
We're working hard to make sure we find it the best new home.