Moldy plates

Recently, petit pois picked up some stoneware dinner plates from a major retailer. After about six weeks of regular use, cleaning, etc. today we noticed that the plates in the cabinet were covered in black, white, and green mold. The last time we used the plates was only days earlier. Some only had what appeared to look like black ink, while a couple others had a severe case of mold growth. The mold had developed in a pattern in the natural cracks that appear in the dishes, as if the mold originated from within the plate, below the surface.

These plates were marked "dishwasher safe/microwave safe". We don't believe we mishandled them in any way.

Has anybody seen this kind of thing before? Is this just a case of improperly glazed dishes? Moisture seeping into the pores of the stone?

Either way, we're taking them back, but we'd really be curious to know if this kind of thing happens often.

(I have a photo of the mold if anyone's interested.)

Best,
Michael

If water also starts dripping from the floor to the ceiling, and you start seeing a little girl playing by herself at the end of the hallway, atonally singing a nursery rhyme, you need to get out of the house FAST.

eatchicago wrote:(I have a photo of the mold if anyone's interested.)

What a tease! How could you deprive us all of such an unusual phenomenon? Post the photos!

Ann Fisher wrote:

eatchicago wrote:(I have a photo of the mold if anyone's interested.)

What a tease! How could you deprive us all of such an unusual phenomenon? Post the photos!

petit pois has made me promise to make sure everyone knows that we are not filthy people. We wash our plates very carefully. We spent our afternoon nursing hangovers and washing our cabinets out with bleach.

Here's the photo. It's gross. You have been warned.



Best,
Michael

Hi,

This may not precisely address your problem, though it does involve a plate and some unusual markings.

My Opa was visiting our home. Every morning he would make oatmeal. Instead of serving it in a bowl, he would spread it on a dinner plate to cool more evenly. He would always begin by eating from the outer edges in a circular fashion, where it was coolest, until he worked his way to the center.

On this particular day, Opa noticed an usual black pattern was visible on the plate as he was eating. All the other plates from this set were an ivory glaze. When he inquired why this plate was different, I glanced over, then reported, "Oh that was the plate I burned my bra on." In one swift movement, the plate was in the garbage and my Opa was screaming I was trying to poison him.

In that era, women were allegedly burning their bras though I never saw a public demonstration. I had an old one and was curious what would happen. Once my experiment was over, I thought nothing of dropping the plate in the dishwasher. This plate was in continuous use until this little show of emotion.

Yeah, some things one should probably not admit to.

Regards,

Cathy, if LTH didn't exist it would have to be invented just so it could, somehow, invoke that story. What a hoot! And I can just see that you'd the the kind of skeptic who would give it a try!

And Michael, I don't claim to understand this website, but it seems to address your issue, at least tangentially.

Clay Body Shrinkage and Absorption

Michael,

I've never seen this before, but I've seen so many different things go wrong with stoneware, between easy chipping and breakage, glazes leaching into food, etc., that I resolved that for regular use to always buy porcelain, which is fired at higher temperatures and seems subject to fewer problems, even when it's cheap porcelain.

If you shop at outlets and discount stores, you can usually find porcelain plates at prices comparable to stoneware at major retailers.

Which is not to say that your plates aren't defective -- even stoneware shouldn't craze like that after only six weeks, to say nothing of the mold.

What country were these plates made in?

Eat,

I have a theory and only a theory!

If you look closely, the plates have fissures or small grooves. I suspect that after washing, water will seep into these channels or grooves and set. Even after a quick dry, you're most likely not getting all the water off the plate, causing bacterium that exists naturally in water (as well as residual bacteria left within the plate) to multiply.

I would also speculate that your dishwasher isn't running hot enough, as most commercial dishwashers don't. This will make killing off all bacteria on or, more importantly, within the plate unlikely. If the water isn't completely removed from the clay beneath the cracked coated surface, it will fester.


Water reacting with clay sounds like a breeding ground for bacteria.

Time to get a new set where the enamel is intact.

LAZ wrote:What country were these plates made in?

I honestly don't remember. Do you know of issues with stoneware from specific locations?

PIGMON wrote:If you look closely, the plates have fissures or small grooves. I suspect that after washing, water will seep into these channels or grooves and set. Even after a quick dry, you're most likely not getting all the water off the plate, causing bacterium that exists naturally in water (as well as residual bacteria left within the plate) to multiply.

Matches my theory exactly. Thanks.

The store did take them back without any problem.

Best,
Michael

eatchicago wrote:Do you know of issues with stoneware from specific locations?

I've read some things about Latin-American stoneware that suggested some types are better used only as decorative pieces. That mostly refers to lead in the glazes, but some articles also alluded to crazing (those cracks in the glaze). It hadn't occured to me that the crazing was anything other than an aesthetic problem before, or possibly an issue about the glaze leaching into food.