Product Compliance

On 1 August, Malaysia brought ceramic cookware under its lead and cadmium migration rule for the first time: the definition that decides whether a teapot needs new testing turns on how it is heated, not what aisle it is sold in

On 1 August 2026, Malaysia's Food (Amendment) Regulations 2026 (P.U.(A) 48/2026) took effect, adding ceramic cooking ware as a fourth regulated category under Regulation 28's lead and cadmium migration schedule, six years after Malaysia first notified the change to the WTO. Whether a ceramic SKU is now in scope turns on a functional definition, intended to be heated by conventional thermal methods or microwaves, not on how it is marketed.

Naomie HaliouaCDO and co-founder 12 August 2026 · 6 min read

A definition, not a product name, decides scope

Regulation 28 of Malaysia's Food Regulations 1985, and the Thirteenth Schedule attached to it, has long set maximum permitted lead and cadmium release for ceramic ware that touches food: flat ware such as plates, small hollow-ware such as cups and bowls, and large hollow-ware such as serving dishes. Ceramic cookware, teapots, casseroles, ceramic kettles, pieces meant to go on a stovetop or in an oven, sat outside that schedule. The Food (Amendment) Regulations 2026 close that gap by inserting a new Regulation 28(2) that defines "cooking ware" functionally, as any ceramicware intended to be heated by conventional thermal methods or microwaves, and by adding a fourth row to the Thirteenth Schedule's migration table for that category. The amendment also specifies the number of identical specimens a tester must use to check compliance, reported by conformity-assessment bodies as four samples per product. None of this changes what a mug or a plate has to meet. It changes what a ceramic pot, kettle or oven dish now has to meet, for the first time, under a national food-contact schedule that previously had no category for it at all.

Three nuances that separate signal from noise

A new category, not just a stricter number

Most coverage read this as Malaysia tightening its ceramics limits. The structural change is that cooking ware becomes a fourth regulated category in a schedule that only ever covered tableware, so products that were never tested under Regulation 28 now are.

Heating intent decides scope, not merchandising

"Cooking ware" is defined by function: any ceramicware intended to be heated by conventional thermal methods or microwaves. A stovetop-safe teapot or an oven-to-table dish falls in scope by design intent, whatever category it is listed under commercially.

The comment window closed almost six years before the deadline

Malaysia opened WTO comments on this exact definition and these exact limits in April 2020. The gazetted, binding version did not arrive until January 2026. A WTO TBT notification can be a multi-year early warning, not a same-year one.

7 Apr 2020

Malaysia notifies the WTO (G/SPS/N/MYS/44, document 20-2546) of a draft adding "cooking ware" to Regulation 28, with a proposed definition and migration limits of 0.5 mg/L lead and 0.05 mg/L cadmium.

30 May 2020

The WTO comment period on the draft closes.

30 Jan 2026

Malaysia's Minister of Health gazettes the Food (Amendment) Regulations 2026 (P.U.(A) 48/2026), amending Regulation 28 and the Thirteenth Schedule of the Food Regulations 1985.

1 Aug 2026

The amendment takes effect. Ceramic cooking ware becomes a fourth regulated category, subject to lead and cadmium migration testing on four identical specimens.

The numbers behind 1 August

One number is how the regulated schedule itself changed shape. One is the limit a newly regulated ceramic cooking product has to meet. The third is how long the change sat as a public WTO notification before it became binding law.

3 → 4

ceramic ware categories regulated under Regulation 28's Thirteenth Schedule, as cooking ware joins flat ware, small hollow-ware and large hollow-ware

0.5 / 0.05 mg/L

the lead and cadmium migration limits Malaysia proposed for ceramic cooking ware in its 2020 WTO notification, the definition carried into the regulation that took effect 1 August 2026

6 years

the gap between Malaysia's 7 April 2020 WTO notification of the change and its 1 August 2026 effective date

The real subject: classification decides the testing bill

A brand selling ceramic tableware into Malaysia already had a straightforward answer to give: this plate is flat ware, this mug is small hollow-ware, both tested against the Thirteenth Schedule's existing limits. From 1 August, that answer forks for anything with a spout, a lid, or an "oven-to-table" claim. Does this SKU also meet the new functional definition of cooking ware, intended to be heated by conventional thermal methods or microwaves? If yes, it now carries an obligation, four-specimen lead and cadmium testing against the new limits, that did not attach to it before 1 August, regardless of what a catalogue calls it or which aisle it sits in. That is a classification question before it is a testing question, and it cannot be answered from a static "ceramics rules in Malaysia" checklist. It has to be answered SKU by SKU, against a functional definition, the same discipline Malaysia's own regulators used when they wrote a use-based test into the law instead of a product-name list.

Why it matters for brands

For any homeware, kitchenware or retail brand selling ceramic products into Malaysia, directly or through a distributor, three things follow from 1 August. First, every ceramic SKU in the catalogue needs a documented answer to whether it meets the new functional definition of cooking ware, not a category inherited from how it is merchandised: a decorative bakeware line, a stovetop-safe teapot or an oven dish sold as "serveware" can all fall in scope on intended use alone. Second, any SKU newly captured needs lead and cadmium migration test data on four identical specimens against the amended Thirteenth Schedule limits before it is placed on the Malaysian market, an obligation that simply did not exist for that product category before 1 August 2026. Third, the six-year gap between Malaysia's WTO notification and the deadline that just passed is the more durable lesson: brands that track WTO TBT and SPS notifications by target market get years of runway on a change like this one. Brands that only consult a current regulatory summary see it the way most trade coverage did this month, as a limits update that landed with a live compliance deadline already behind it.

Two ways to read 1 August

The narrow read

Malaysia updated its lead and cadmium migration limits for ceramic ware, gazetted in January and effective 1 August 2026.

The structural read

Malaysia added an entire product class, ceramic cooking ware, to a food-contact schedule that had never covered it, using a functional definition it first published for comment six years earlier: the compliance work is deciding which SKUs the definition now reaches, not reading a new number off a label.

Frequently asked questions

What changed in Malaysia's ceramic ware rules on 1 August 2026?

Malaysia's Food (Amendment) Regulations 2026 (P.U.(A) 48/2026), gazetted by the Minister of Health on 30 January 2026, took effect on 1 August 2026. It adds a new Regulation 28(2) to the Food Regulations 1985, defining "cooking ware" as any ceramicware intended to be heated by conventional thermal methods or microwaves, and adds cooking ware as a fourth regulated category to the Thirteenth Schedule's lead and cadmium migration limits, alongside the existing flat ware, small hollow-ware and large hollow-ware categories.

Which ceramic products are newly in scope?

Any ceramic product that meets the functional definition of cooking ware, intended to be heated by conventional thermal methods or microwaves, such as ceramic teapots, casseroles, kettles and oven-to-table dishes. Scope is decided by intended use, not by how a product is marketed or which category it is listed under commercially. Malaysia first proposed this definition and migration limits of 0.5 mg/L for lead and 0.05 mg/L for cadmium in a WTO notification (G/SPS/N/MYS/44) on 7 April 2020.

What do brands need to do before selling ceramic cookware in Malaysia?

Brands need a documented, SKU-by-SKU answer for whether each ceramic product meets the new functional definition of cooking ware. Any SKU newly captured needs lead and cadmium migration test data on four identical specimens against the amended Thirteenth Schedule limits, an obligation that did not exist for that product category before 1 August 2026. The obligation falls on whoever places the product on the Malaysian market, which for many brands is a local distributor or importer rather than the brand itself.