Imported pots that may leach lead: the FDA's 2024 letter to sellers and its 2025 warning list

Some imported pots, pans and pressure cookers can release lead into the food cooked in them. On December 12, 2024, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration wrote to retailers and distributors of cookware in the United States that certain imported products made from aluminum, brass and the aluminum alloys known as Hindalium or Hindolium and Indalium or Indolium may leach lead, and that they should not be distributed or sold in the U.S. market. A public warning followed in 2025, naming products the FDA had tested itself. This guide explains what the letter said, what the warning lists and what applies on November 11, 2026, from FDA pages read that day and the county health department's test table.

What the December 2024 letter said

The FDA based the letter on information from the Public Health Department of Seattle and King County in Washington State, whose tests under conditions meant to mimic cooking showed the potential to leach lead. The FDA wrote that there is no known safe level of lead exposure, and named its concern for small children, people of child-bearing age and those who may be breastfeeding, because fetuses, infants and children are especially vulnerable.

It also said it had placed one manufacturer, Rashko Baba Co. Ltd., on an import alert. Those products, the letter says, are subject to refusal of entry because they appear to bear or contain an unsafe food additive, and cookware that does is adulterated under federal food law. The letter warned that similar products, including Rashko Baba items, may still be on sale, urged sellers of these materials to confirm their cookware does not leach lead, and offered the FDA's own test: its laboratory method for ceramic foodware, changed for cookware to a two-hour boil followed by cooling and holding at room temperature for a total of 24 hours.

What the county's tests measured

The county's published table describes its method. Testers simmered a dilute acid equivalent to household vinegar in each pot for 15 minutes and sampled it, then left it for 24 hours and sampled again. They converted the results into a lead dose for a 250-milliliter serving, about a cup, and compared it with the FDA's interim reference levels of 2.2 micrograms a day for children and 8.8 micrograms for people who might become pregnant. Every item in the table exceeded the children's level. The products include aluminum pressure cookers, steamers and calderos and brass pots, several bought from Amazon.com or Etsy. Three Rashko Baba aluminum pressure cookers from Afghanistan, bought on Etsy in 2021, gave estimated 24-hour doses of 1,580 to 1,940 micrograms per serving. The county notes that the reference levels have no regulatory significance for the FDA and that its one-cup assumption was its own, not the FDA's.

The FDA's 2025 warning list

The FDA's warning, which its food alerts list dates to August 2025, cautions retailers against selling, and consumers against using, certain imported cookware that may release significant amounts of lead into food. It lists cookware the FDA itself tested and found may leach lead: aluminum kadais, saucepans, milk pans and pots, among them items labeled degda or coldero, and brass pots, among them topes and a pital pot. The manufacturers named are in India and Pakistan, the distributors mostly in the US, and the retailers in California, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Washington, D.C. The FDA says the list is not complete and that it will add products as needed.

A footnote beneath the table reads: “Because FDA could not identify and contact the distributor or responsible party to facilitate a recall, this product may still be sold as cookware in retail stores.” It adds that retailers should discontinue sale and that consumers should not use the product as cookware or food storage. The asterisk that opens the note does not appear against any product in the table, so the page does not show which product it means.

For consumers, the FDA's advice is to check their homes for the listed products and throw away cookware that may leach lead into food, and not to donate or refurbish it. It points people concerned about lead exposure or elevated lead levels to their health care provider. Retailers and distributors, it says, are responsible for making sure cookware they sell is safe for its intended use.

Why lead in cookware is treated this way

The warning states that no FDA regulation authorizes lead as a color additive or food additive, including as a component of cookware or other food contact surfaces. The FDA's page on lead in food explains the benchmarks: interim reference levels of 2.2 micrograms a day for children and 8.8 for females of childbearing age, derived from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's blood reference level of 3.5 micrograms per deciliter with a tenfold safety factor. The agency says high exposure in the womb, in infancy and in early childhood can lead to neurological effects such as learning disabilities, behavior difficulties and lowered IQ, and that chronic exposure in adults is associated with kidney dysfunction, hypertension and neurocognitive effects.

Where things stand

When we read the FDA's pages on November 11, 2026, the letter page still carried its December 12, 2024 date, and the warning listed the same 21 products with December 3, 2025, as its last update and a line saying the FDA will continue to update the table as new information becomes available. The FDA's list of food alerts and advisories, current as of October 30, 2026, showed the cookware warning under August 2025 and no later cookware alert. The FDA says its surveillance is ongoing. PFAS in nonstick coatings is a separate issue, covered for Minnesota, Colorado and Maine in our guide to state PFAS cookware bans.