Brass and kansa at the table: what the research says

Brass (pital) is an alloy of copper and zinc. A 2022 Ayurveda review gives its usual mix as about 66% copper and 34% zinc.

Some brass also holds lead. Makers add it to make the metal easier to work, and some brasses contain up to 7% lead.

Kansa is bell metal, an alloy of copper and tin. Our guide to brass, copper and kansa compares the three metals for cooking, eating and water.

Copper water has its own article, copper vessels and health. This one covers brass for cooking and kansa for eating.

Metal moves from a vessel into whatever sits in it. How much depends on the food, the heat and the time.

A Belgian study in 2013 brewed tea in traditional brass teapots. Lead, and smaller amounts of nickel, copper and zinc, moved into the tea. The solder at the spout was a major source of lead.

Milk is a strong carrier. In a 1989 laboratory study, cow's milk was kept for six hours in traditional brass vessels. Its copper rose from 27 to 621 micrograms per decilitre. Its zinc level did not change significantly.

Acid draws out more metal. The US FDA Food Code therefore bars copper alloys such as brass from food below pH 6. Its examples are vinegar, fruit juice and wine.

Zinc is an essential element in the diet. Large doses, ATSDR notes, cause stomach cramps, nausea and vomiting. Copper's limits are in our copper article.

In 2024, public health researchers in Seattle tested cookware bought online, including five brass pieces. All the brass cookware from India held very high levels of lead. The sample was small, but it shows that brass varies, and that the alloy is worth asking about.

They simmered a 4% acetic acid solution in each pot and measured the lead it picked up. One brass pot gave more than 1,200 times the daily limit set for a child's diet.

A 2025 report from New York City traced a family's raised blood lead to kansa and pital vessels bought in Nepal. One cup's test liquid held 309 mg of lead per litre. After the family stopped using the vessels, their blood lead fell.

WHO states that no level of lead exposure is known to be without harmful effects. Young children are particularly vulnerable, and exposure in pregnancy can slow the baby's growth. You cannot see lead in a vessel, so buy cooking vessels from a seller who can name the alloy.

Kalai is a lining of tin applied to the inside of brass and copper vessels, so food touches tin instead. Our kalai guide explains the process, when to re-tin and how to care for it.

The rule behind it is written into Indian law. FSSAI's Packaging Regulations, 2018 treat copper or brass containers that are not properly tinned as unfit for preparing, packing or storing food.

The lining itself must be tin. In 1937 a civil surgeon in Burma described lead poisoning from a cooking pot. Some pot liners, he wrote, substituted lead for the more expensive tin or mixed lead into it.

Ask for pure tin when a vessel is lined or re-tinned. A bright, even, silvery lining is the sign of fresh work.

Indian childhood cirrhosis (ICC) was a liver disease of young children, marked by very high copper in the liver. In the 1980s, doctors in Pune linked it to animal milk boiled or stored in brass.

A 1983 study in The Lancet found that milk took up copper from utensils more readily than water did. A later study compared 100 children with ICC and 100 matched controls. Every child with ICC had been given feeds that touched brass.

After families in Pune district were advised against this way of feeding infants, ICC virtually disappeared there. The researchers noted that brass use was falling anyway, for social reasons.

The link is not settled. A 1993 study of 120 cases found that 46% had no history of milk boiled or stored in brass. A 2002 review suspects that a genetic factor also plays a part.

The cautious reading is simple. Do not boil or store milk for infants in brass.

Most research on these alloys concerns stored water, not food. In 2005, E. coli and coliform bacteria in water kept in a brass mutka could not be cultured after 48 hours.

A 2009 study from Kathmandu tested copper, silver and brass pots. All stopped the test bacteria growing within 4 to 48 hours, and copper acted most strongly.

We found no such study for kansa. We searched PubMed in November 2026 for kansa, kansya or bell metal with vessels or utensils. It returned archaeology papers, not studies of eating from kansa.

What is documented for kansa is the same lead risk as brass, from the New York case. The Food Code's pH rule also covers kansa, since it is a copper alloy. More on the metal itself is in what kansa is and what science says about it.

The Sushruta Samhita, in Bhishagratna's 1907 translation, says kansya has a bitter taste and is beneficial to the eyesight. Its chapter on liquids allows water to be drunk from a bowl of bell metal.

The same text's rules for serving a meal name gold, silver, steel, stone, earthen and copper vessels. Cool boiled milk, for example, is to be served in copper. Brass is not named.

Later texts are warmer about kansa. The Rasaprakasha-sudhakara says all foods put in a kansa vessel become wholesome, except sour food, ghee and shaka.

For brass, the classical writing we found concerns medicine made from the metal, not cooking. A 2022 review notes there is probably no earlier literary research on pittala.

These are statements of tradition, written long before laboratory testing. The kansa text itself keeps sour food out, which agrees with today's food rules.

Dry food served and eaten soon, such as rotis, dry sabzi or sweets, is the gentlest use. Wash and dry the vessel after each meal; our cleaning guide covers the method.

Hastimal Valchand (HV) supplies brass cooking vessels, serveware and kansa tableware, each listed with its code. See our brass utensils and kansa utensils.

This article is general information, not medical advice.

• Sour food: lemon, tomato, curd, buttermilk, kadhi, pickles and vinegar.
• Milk, especially for infants: boil and store it in steel or tinned vessels.
• Any food kept for hours or overnight. Serve from brass or kansa, then move leftovers to steel or glass.
• Long, wet cooking such as dal, curries and rice: use a tinned (kalai) vessel.
• Sour dishes on a kansa or brass thali: put curd, pickle and chutney in steel, glass or tinned katoris.