Specialty alloy cookware (copper, carbon steel) — HMTc Standard

How limits are set

TWO CATEGORY RULES govern every row. (1) THE MATERIAL-FAMILY RULE: a row's published ceiling is anchored only where a sovereign instrument governs element migration into food from that row's PRINCIPAL food-contact material family.

Polymer surfaces anchor EU 10/2011 Annex II directly, or by disclosed read-across where the instrument expressly excludes the polymer (silicone under Art. 2(2)(c), ion-exchange resin under Art. 2(2)(a)) or does not reach it (cured liquid-applied coatings, paper and board, wood). Metal, alloy, ceramic-glaze, vitreous-enamel and glass surfaces have no sovereign migration ceiling in the register, so those rows are controls with mandatory testing and no invented number.

(2) THE COMPONENT RULE: every food-contact COMPONENT of an article is held to the regime of its own material family, and where a component's family has no sovereign ceiling that component is under control. A row's published cells state the ceiling for its principal food-contact material; the component plan names the other components, the regime each falls under, and which component is expected to bind.

A result from a non-binding component does not represent the article: a can body wall does not represent its seam, a vacuum bottle wall does not represent its base-plug solder, a plain tumbler does not represent a decorated one, a blender jar does not represent its blade assembly, and a cold reservoir does not represent a post-descaling draw.

Master Limit Table

All values in ppb (µg/kg), as-sold basis. 8 of 11 analytes carry a firm ceiling; the remaining 3 are toxic species bounded by their parent totals (species ≤ total, measured on every lot), so every analyte carries an enforceable ceiling. A brand meeting every value on a like-for-like basis qualifies for the mark.

Every claim analyte is equal at the gate. A product is certified only when every analyte is at or below 100% of its published government floor or disclosed read-across; above the limit, on any metal, it is not certified and carries no mark.

Derivation

The full derivation for Specialty alloy cookware (copper, carbon steel). Each row lists every government maximum level in force worldwide, converted to the as-sold basis; the HMTc limit is the strictest of them, and the last column names which sovereign law binds. A blank cell means that government sets no limit for this analyte in this product.

All values µg/kg (ppb), as-sold basis. ² no government regulates this analyte for this exact product form: the value is a disclosed read-across from the nearest applicable government maximum, and the derivation names the instrument it comes from. It is never taken from occurrence data. After publication the standards ratchet may tighten it, using certified-lot results only. ³ not material in this matrix: measured but with no standalone number, controlled by packaging control or by the total-metal screen, not an invented value. &sup5; a toxic species governed by and bounded by its parent total (for example inorganic arsenic ≤ total arsenic): the species can never exceed the total, so the total ceiling is the species ceiling. The total metal is measured on every lot and the species is established at baseline; no separate species ceiling is published. On ongoing lots the species is speciated whenever the total exceeds its limit.

Risk Flag

On the published occurrence literature to date, Specialty alloy cookware (copper, carbon steel) shows no systematic gap between typical market levels and the limit — the limit being the strictest government maximum for the product (Method v2.0). Certification is decided on a product’s own tested result, not on a distribution; an individual lot or supplier can still exceed a limit.

See the cross-category summary of the ingredients that most often struggle.