AliExpress 'bowl' detects four times the standard limit of 'cadmium'

A ceramic (enamel) bowl containing detected cadmium. Seoul City purchased it from AliExpress for safety testing.

Cadmium exceeding four times the standard limit was detected in enameled (enamel) bowls sold on China's online shopping mall AliExpress.

On the 4th, Seoul City announced that it had confirmed the safety of products through safety inspections of overseas direct purchase online platforms. Since April, the city has been conducting weekly safety inspections of overseas direct purchase products that threaten citizens' health and safety and has been disclosing the results.

So far, the inspections have focused mainly on children's products, but recently the scope has been expanded to include food containers and bowls that can directly affect the human body. Subsequently, the Seoul Institute of Health and Environment is conducting tests on 140 kitchen and food containers sold by 'Altesh (AliExpress, Temu, Shein),' which are popular among domestic consumers.

The main point of this announcement is that among the 58 products tested by the end of May, one enameled dish sold on AliExpress was found to contain cadmium at a level 4.14 times the standard limit (0.07 mg/L), measuring 0.29 mg/L.

Cadmium is a harmful substance that, when it enters the body, can damage the kidneys and reduce bone density and strength.

Kim Tae-hee, Director of Seoul City's Citizens' Health Bureau, said, "Food contact utensils and containers are used to hold food, so ensuring safety is more important than any other product," and added, "We will minimize damage through monitoring and safety inspections of products with high consumer purchase rates."