anyone know if corelle dinnerware is safe???

[mamatomartina]

My son's montessori school is in the process of getting rid of their melamine dishes and plastic cups. I'm doing the research for them. Is corelle safe? I know that if is does shatter it shatters into a million pieces but for the most part it's pretty durable, right?? Any experts in the house that can explain whether there's anything in tempered glass that we should know about??? i.e. formaldehyde in melamine dinnerware.

If it is safe, does anyone know where I can buy bulk individual plates and bowls in Ontario, Canada???

[deditus]

Originally Posted by mamatomartina

My son's montessori school is in the process of getting rid of their melamine dishes and plastic cups. I'm doing the research for them. Is corelle safe? I know that if is does shatter it shatters into a million pieces but for the most part it's pretty durable, right?? Any experts in the house that can explain whether there's anything in tempered glass that we should know about??? i.e. formaldehyde in melamine dinnerware.

If it is safe, does anyone know where I can buy bulk individual plates and bowls in Ontario, Canada???

It would be among the few I would consider "safest" IF it has no pattern on it, so just the plain cream or white dishes, and not the mugs as they are made of a different material. We have only broken 2 pieces in 4 years, so not too bad. I purchased mine at an outlet store. Do you have those in CA?

[St. Margaret]

It is, and we use a set my mom bought me when I went to college-- it's awesome for kids b/c it's so sturdy. I did get nervous when I learned about the shattering, but we haven't broken any in 10 years.

[onetrumpeter]

I believe Corelle is actually glass - cant' remember where I read/learned that, but I'd guess it's very safe. haven't had many breaks here, either. maybe none!? (have def had other things break, lol) I think it's made by Corningware, or the other way around.

[peainthepod]

We use Corelle dishes for DS because he's in the habit of hurling plates and bowls to the floor when he finishes a meal. They've hit the floor hundreds of times and not one thing has broken. I dread the day it finally happens but so far, so good.

As far as I know it's perfectly safe.

[curiouscanadian]

You got me curious so I googled and found a few old threads about this :

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=807335

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...corelle&page=2

I haven't read the threads completely as I'm supposed to be working but I think I would personally be comfortable with it. (Acutally might replace our Corelle Stoneware with the plain white stuff, now that I've read a bit about it). Add in the bonus of it being cheap and pretty indestructible and I think you've got a winner.

Around here I know Canadian Tire and Zellers both sell the pieces "open stock" (ie. individual plates/bowls) so you might be able to pick up what you need there?

Ikea dishes might also be an option to consider.

[NaturallyKait]

Here in Nova Scotia WalMart sells Corelle open stock, I know that mine has at least the plain white, and I think a few others you can buy piece by piece, and of course in sets.

I was sad because I fell in love with a set of Corelle Stoneware but even though I can find info on the plain white glass Corelle being safe, I can't find any on the stonware

[paxye]

I love my Corelle and yes they shatter but it doesn't happen often...

I get mine at Zellers... once in a while the single pieces go on sale for 50% off... I stock up then...

[curiouscanadian]

Gahh! Since I got off work and have had some time to research more I'm more confused than ever!

I'm finding that Corelle is generally accepted as being safe, but a few sites still claim that even the plain white ones can be contaminated. Compared to many other products though, it does seem like the safest easiest/cheapest option.

As for Corelle Hearthstone (their stoneware line), I can't find ANYTHING about it. And of course that's what we've got at the moment.

[mamatomartina]

thanks ladies. It looks like we're on the hunt for sales of corelle, the plain one without any designs.

[lach]

A few years ago there was a report about lead and other dangerous things in dishes, and of course the brand we had (a not cheap wedding present from Crate & Barrel, FWIW) ranked among the least safe. Correlle ranked the highest for their dishes (not the stoneware... I'm not sure where that was on the list), and since we had just had our first child and figured that we needed something very durable, I went to K Mart and bought a Correlle set.

We've been very happy. Both kids have thrown the dishes and we haven't lost one yet. I have heard that if they do shatter, it's bad: they go into a trillion little shards. But that it is pretty rare and it has to hit at the exact right angle very hard.

[laurata]

I would only caution you not to buy "seconds." We bought a bunch 2 years ago to supplement the set we got at our wedding (12 years ago) and a LOT of the seconds have shattered. :-( But very few of the original set did.

[Kyamo]

We love our corelle, although one did break when it was dropped on concrete. My parents still use the corelle they bought when they were married 30 years ago. There's a big corningware store in Ajax where we bought ours. They sell sets as well as individual pieces.

[Marissamom]

my mom has had the same set of corelle for 26 years and 4 kids. some has broken over the years, some shattered, some broke into larger pieces. no one has ever gotten hurt with it. and most of the times it was dropped it didn't break.

[Anastasiya]

We have Corelle and only one piece has shattered...and yes, they shatter!...in five years. The kids toss and drop them all the time. But we do have laminate floors which is softer than hardwood or tile, of course.

For cups the kids drink from jelly sized glass mason jars. Also virtually non breakable.

[tanyalynn]

Maybe we're just hard on dishes, or maybe it's the tile floor--all our breaks _have_ been in the (tiled) kitchen--but we've broken several pieces of regular Corelleware and several mason jars (we use them as drinking glasses too). And that's in less than 5 years worth of use.

I've read that older Corelleware is actually stronger than the newer stuff, something about a change in the manufacturing process. Don't know if it's true, I've never had any older pieces. It seems to be strong enough, but one reason I like it is that it's cheap and convenient to replace the pieces that break.

[Anastasiya]

Originally Posted by tanyalynn

I've read that older Corelleware is actually stronger than the newer stuff, something about a change in the manufacturing process. Don't know if it's true, I've never had any older pieces. It seems to be strong enough, but one reason I like it is that it's cheap and convenient to replace the pieces that break.

I wonder if it's that the manufacturing process has changed or if it's due to the fact that dishwashers exist now. The high heat of dishwashers is harder on glass than hand washing, and over time that can cause glass to break more easily.

[fyrwmn]

we've had our corelle set for 8-10 years now and i think we've only broken 1 plate in all that time. i was putting dishes away and dropped it accidentally. it managed to hit the edge of the counter and shattered into millions of pieces. we've also got dh's grandmother's set that was handed down to us and the entire set is still there. we usually drag it out for thanksgiving because we just don't need that many place settings on a regular basis.

[Marissamom]

I think the stuff from 20+ years ago breaks less easily then the stuff made today. I've broken fewer pieces of my mom's set, that I used for 18 years, then I have of my set that I've had for 4. and my mom's set always went in the dishwasher.

[wholewheatchick]

I was just wondering this myself. We got a lovely set of Kaiser china from my mom that we use as our everyday dishes, but it is (obviously) pretty breakable, and it has cracks from going in the dishwasher. I think we'll keep it for a little bit longer, but Corelle is definitely going to be our next set!