Materials & safety

Every cup, plate, bowl, jug and pot we sell is a food contact material under Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004. That regulation requires materials intended to come into contact with food to be manufactured so that, under normal or foreseeable use, they do not transfer constituents to food in quantities that could endanger human health, change the composition of the food, or spoil its taste or smell.

Ceramic articles are additionally covered by Council Directive 84/500/EEC, which sets specific migration limits for lead and cadmium — the two elements historically used in glazes and colours.

The limit that applies depends on the geometry of the article, not on what you happen to use it for. Directive 84/500/EEC divides ceramic articles by whether and how deeply they can be filled:

Flat articles are measured per unit of surface area; hollow articles per unit of the volume they hold. That is why the two sets of figures are not directly comparable to each other.

Every product page states the class that applies to that piece. For completeness, here is the whole range:

Every glaze used on a food contact piece in this range is lead-free and cadmium-free and fired to 1260 °C. The exact glaze type is printed on each product page rather than described in general terms here.

The unglazed foot ring left on some pieces is bare fired porcelain. It is inert, but it is slightly abrasive — it will mark a soft table surface if dragged.

Every food contact piece has a supplier declaration of conformity (DoC) held on file, and its reference is printed on the product page. Email support@mkceramics.shop with the piece and we send you the document.

This is enforced in the code of this site, not only as a policy: a food contact blank that is missing either its glaze type or its DoC reference is not rendered anywhere on the site, and the build fails rather than publishing it.

One piece — the Travel-Lid Mug — comes with a moulded silicone lid. The lid is a food contact article in its own right and carries its own separate declaration.

One piece in the range — Wedding Pair Cup Set — carries a hand-applied metallic lustre band.

Metal arcs in a microwave. Any piece with a lustre finish must never be put in one, under any circumstance. On this site that marking is applied automatically from the piece data and cannot be overridden anywhere in the ordering flow.

Lustre is also a surface finish and will not survive repeated dishwasher cycles. Those pieces are marked hand wash only.

Suitability is stated per piece, on the piece’s own page. None of our pieces is sold as oven-safe. Do not use any of them for baking or under a grill.

Where a piece is listed as dishwasher-safe, that refers to the body and glaze. An on-glaze decal is a surface treatment and will gradually wear with repeated machine washing — we photograph the effect on the on-glaze decal page. Hand washing extends its life considerably.

Avoid sudden temperature change. Do not pour boiling water into a cold piece, do not move a piece from a hot oven onto a cold surface, and do not put a hot piece under cold water. Sudden change can crack ceramic.

A teapot is the most vulnerable piece in the range because it holds a large volume against thin walls. Warm it with a little hot water before filling it, particularly in a cold room.

Dimensions and glaze colour vary by up to ±5% between pieces. Pinholing, speckle and slight colour movement are how a fired glaze behaves — they are characteristics of the material, not faults.

Where a piece is thrown by hand on the wheel we say so on its page. Where the blank is pressed from a mould by an EU porcelain partner and then glazed, marked and fired in our workshop, we say that instead. We do not describe a pressed blank as hand-thrown.

Design and production are stated separately on every product page, because for most of the range they are not the same place.

• Designed in: Glostrup, Denmark — for every piece in the range.
• Thrown and finished by hand in our Glostrup workshop — the Serveware and Keepsake ranges and most of the Cups & Mugs and Plates & Bowls.
• Blank pressed by an EU porcelain partner, then glazed, marked and fired in our Glostrup workshop — the Café Line and several stacking and pressed pieces.

We do not describe the range as a whole as made in one country, because it is not. Danish marketing law requires origin claims to be accurate, and a blanket claim here would not be.

For the avoidance of doubt, nothing on this site should be read as any of the following, because we do not claim them:

• That any engraving is permanent or will never fade. Under-glaze is the most durable of the three methods; an on-glaze decal will wear.
• That any piece is unbreakable or proof against thermal shock. Porcelain is a brittle ceramic.
• That we guarantee delivery by a given date. Lead times follow the kiln schedule and are estimates.
• That the whole range is made in one country. Design and production are stated separately per piece.
• That a pressed blank is hand-thrown. The method is stated per piece.