Is Cerakote food safe???

Cerakote is the trade name of https://www.cerakotehightemp.com/. 

This is a popular ceramic based polymer composite used to coat the surfaces of many metallic objects such as: guns, knives and car exhaust systems (high temperature applications).

The base unpolymerized compounds, (some of which as trade secrets and names and data are unavailable), are toxic if handled incorrectly and I will provide the links to the SDS data at the end of this blog for all to see. 

I wrote to Cerakote ceramic coatings 

(https://www.cerakotehightemp.com/) asking them to comment on whether the polymerized compound(s), ie the final product(s), has any health and safety information. That was some time ago and they never replied.

The question is whether knives using this coating should be considered unsafe for food applications. Many outdoor knife manufacturers are using this type of coating, which is NOT to be confused with: PVD processes, powder coating and "blackening" via a Military specification which deposits an Oxide onto a metal surface.

As is commonly known knives used in the food industry are uncoated and generally of stainless steel for obvious reasons, the same being for surgical instruments and metallic implants.

PDF references to MSDS data on Cerakote products

or here in plain text.

https://www.cerakotehightemp.com/resource/downloads/

I couldn't find any long term use regarding ingestion of polymerized Cerakote particles and effects on animal physiology. This however, does not mean that there isn't, it just means I didn't find any such data at this point in time.

The product does contain leachable hexavalent chromium at very low levels (see SDS reference to "C Series" coatings. Hexa valent chromium products: 

Quote:

NOTE: NTP, IARC and ACGIH found that "there is sufficient evidence for the carcinogenicity of chromium and certain chromium compounds both in humans and experimental animals." 

Quote:

The chromium oxide based pigments present in the NIC products listed above are all trivalent, refractory chromium

compounds [Cr(III)], each containing 1ppm or less of leachable hexavalent chromiujm (</-0.0001%). The toxicity information stated above

are for Cr(III) oxide-based C.I. Pigments as stated in SDS's provided by the pigment suppliers. 

 Although most manufacturers probably will not tell you which Cerakote coating they are using, as there are many.

Read the documents.

You be the judge.