Dalla Corte says it was the first commercial espresso coffee machine manufacturer in the world to fully eliminate lead components from its design, opting to use a new, more expensive, lead-free material ensuring no lead is leached into beverages made using their machines.
The Italian company turns 20 just this year, which Tristan Creswick, the Business Development Manager for Dalla Corte, says creates up the question: why wasn’t this done sooner?
“My wife and I gained weight during the early stages of the pandemic. Recently we decided to give ourselves a tune-up and address, not only the weight gain, but our overall physical and mental health. There are a lot of health “trends” that tend to suck you in, but what stood out to us are the obvious things like cutting back on alcohol and taking a walk daily. That being said, we did decide to try one trend, a heavy-metal detox. Doing this sparked an interest in what metals we were being exposed to and led to some interesting research,” Tristan says.
“We discovered that recently, there has been a push to replace old plumbing containing lead in Australia, because of higher than acceptable levels detected in our drinking water. The Australian Building Codes Board held a forum to discuss lead in drinking water and published an impact statement proposing that Australia’s current allowance of 6 per cent lead in plumbing fixtures be reduced to a maximum of 0.25 per cent. There is a pretty huge difference between those numbers.”
In America, where Tristan’s wife is from, using lead pipes was banned 35 years ago in 1986, so he says she was very surprised to learn that most coffee machine manufacturers are still using lead in their inner components.
“Boilers in espresso machines reach temperatures of up to 125°C. If high temperatures result in a higher concentration of dissolved metals, lead simply has no place in an espresso machine boiler. We care about our customers, so we chose to use materials that won’t leach heavy metals like nickel, chromium, or lead into the water of our espresso machines,” Tristan says.
“Even if the amount of lead that is leached into beverages is very little, we don’t know how much lead people are being exposed to in other areas of their life, leading to a potentially harmful cumulative effect. I realise the potential for that happening is rare, but the risk is too much for Dalla Corte. Taking this step is just one of many ways that they put people before profit.”
Tristan hopes more manufacturers will make the switch to using safer lead-free materials.
“On behalf of Dalla Corte I can say, our customers are very important to us, they are the reason we can stay in business, keep evolving, and keep creating innovations in our industry,” Tristan says.
“Using the newer, safer, materials is certainly much more expensive, so both manufacturers and consumers will have to realise that change will require some investment, but it is my opinion that our health is never a bad investment.”
For more information, visit au.dallacorte.com
