Safety

Cherrico Pottery product safety is our top priority. All pottery that we create and sell is tested to meet and even to exceed all applicable product safety laws and standards.

Updated: 2/7/24

All Cherrico Pottery is food safe, non-toxic and meant to be used and enjoyed everyday. 

Cherrico Pottery is Art and must be used carefully. Misuse could result in injury. When you purchase anything from Cherrico Pottery, LLC, or when you agree to receive anything for free, you agree to hold the company harmless of any loss, damage or injury due to any products you received from us.  Our maximum liability to you is the amount you paid for the item(s) purchased. All items offered on this site are provided “as is” and without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied.

We reserve the right to update these policies at any time. Learn more on our Terms and Conditions page here: cherricopottery.com/terms-and-conditions

Cherrico Pottery domestic, handmade vessels are made by potter Joel Cherrico in St. Joseph, Minnesota. All pottery complies with all Pottery (Ceramics) US Food and Drug Administration standards here. Cherrico Pottery contains no lead or cadmium. 

Cherrico Pottery is made from only Stoneware and Porcelain clays. All pottery is vitrified to about 1% or less absorption rate based on our independent testing. With normal use, Cherrico Pottery does not allow the migration of deleterious substances or impart colors, odors or tastes to food, as required by pages 113-114 of the FDA Food Code here.

• FDA Food Code Page 114, (E) requires that serving vessels be, "Resistant to pitting, chipping, crazing, scratching, scoring, distortion, and decomposition." Cherrico Pottery is handmade, so every vessels is different. Some vessels might contain small glaze imperfections, specifically pitting, chipping, crazing and scratching.  However, the Cherrico Pottery Team works hard to continually try and eliminate these imperfections on pottery, and to make pottery resistant to all of these imperfections through our continual practice of maintaining the highest quality standards in glaze chemistry, kiln firings and material choices. Occasionally some flaws do occur. However, their affects are minor. Under regular, household use, they do not allow the migration of deleterious substances or impart colors, odors or tastes to food.
  
  

• Significant flaws also occasionally happen in handmade pottery in extremely rare instances, far below 1% of our production. If your pottery has any flaws that you discover do impart colors, odors or tastes to food after regular use, please email us immediately and we will do whatever is required to solve this problem for you immediately: contact@cherricopottery.com

Cherrico Pottery was tested by the Minnesota Stearns County Regional Health Inspector for daily use at the Local Blend coffee shop in St. Joseph, Minnesota. The inspector tested for lead and cadmium in 2010 and determined that Cherrico Pottery contains no lead or cadmium. 

Attention California Residents

As a retailer selling or distributing products in the State of California, Cherrico Pottery must comply with the California law known as Proposition 65, which requires that products containing certain chemicals be labeled to notify consumers of the presence of such chemicals. The specific chemical I am referring to is Cobalt.

Food and drink use with Cherrico Pottery products containing Cobalt is not hazardous.

March 19, 2019 the Office of Environmental Health and Hazard, from the California Government, published extensive research here on Cobalt as a carcinogen when inhaled, that you can read here: Cobalt and Cobalt Compounds Cancer Inhalation Unit Risk Factors

 

Page 2 of this study says, “The IURs and cancer slope factors are intended for use in the evaluation of cancer risk due to the inhalation of cobalt and cobalt compounds. They are not intended to be used for the evaluation of cancer risk due to cobalt and cobalt compound exposure by the oral route.” Keep reading here: https://oehha.ca.gov/media/downloads/crnr/cobaltiurdraft030819.pdf

How Cherrico Pottery Uses Cobalt Safely

100% of Cobalt used at Cherrico Pottery is mixed with silica and feldspar, and then kiln fired to a minimum of 2280 degrees Fahrenheit. This process permanently binds the cobalt in food-safe glaze. This eliminates inhalation risk. NOTE* if you misuse or break your pottery, then we cannot guarantee safety. Dispose of broken pottery in the garbage. Please view our Terms and Conditions page here to learn more.

Out of more than 10 different raw earth elements used to create Cherrico Pottery, Cobalt is used least. This is because: 

1. Only small amounts of cobalt are necessary for blue colors. 

2. High exposure to Cobalt raw material can be toxic to potter Joel Cherrico, since he is using cobalt before is is fired, bound in silica.

3. Cobalt is a rare earth element, and therefore the most expensive raw glaze material we buy.

For example, shown below the exact glaze recipe for the black, base glazed used commonly for our Handmade Cosmic Mugs sold here. The recipe below is also used in even smaller, thinner applications for our “Nuka Cobalt” pottery sold here. Joel Cherrico mixes the glaze from these exact raw materials, purchased from Continental Clay in Minneapolis:

47.4% Custer Feldspar
17% Silica/Flint
13.6% Calcium Carbonate/Whiting (High Purity)
8.1% Spanish Red Iron Oxide
8% Edgar Plastic Kaolin (Porcelain)
3.4% Bentonite Clay
2.5% Cobalt Oxide

Total glaze recipe: 100%, mixed with water, then fired to 2280 degrees Fahrenheit to create durable, food safe pottery surfaces.