Stainless steel leaches nickel and chromium into foods during cooking (2013)
It should be kept in mind that almost any material used in contact with food will leach something, especially when it is used during cooking, i.e. at high temperatures, and, in the case of metals, when the food contains fruit juices or vegetable juices, which are acidic.So what matters is the hierarchy of the materials from this point of view, i.e. which are better and which are worse.The best material for food-contact is glass, but glass, while perfect for storage, is not suitable for most types of cooking (even if it is quite possible for someone to eat only food cooked in a microwave oven, in glass cookware).The next best material is titanium (commercially pure titanium, not the frequently encountered Ti-Al-V alloy). Titanium cookware exists, but it is normally too expensive, unless it is used in some activities where its low weight can justify the high price.After these 2 cookware materials, which unfortunately are not an acceptable choice for most people, comes the stainless steel.Yes, stainless steel will leach a little nickel and chromium. However this leaching will be large only for new cookware and it diminishes a lot for used cookware. Even in the case of people with nickel sensitivity, most of which are women, the quantities of nickel leached from used stainless steel cookware are far too low to have any effect.All the other materials that are used for cookware, including ceramics, can be sources of much more dangerous leaching than stainless steel (excluding glass & titanium).Ceramics and plastics are the worst (this includes any non-sticking coatings), because, unlike for metals and glasses, their chemical composition is usually kept secret by their manufactures, so you never know what they may leach.