Ceramic articles intended to come into contact with foodstuffs are regulated in Europe through the Directive 84/500/EEC, which sets the permissible limits for lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) releasing from ceramic ware and describes the testing conditions to be used in measuring the amounts of Pb and Cd released. Scientific data have shown concern regarding the exposure to lead and cadmium, as well as to other elements, from ceramic ware. A revision of the Directive is expected, towards lowering the permissible limits for lead and cadmium and on extending the regulation to other metals. In the context of this revision of the Directive 84/500/EEC, the present work aims at discussing the content of the Directive in view of providing an efficient protection to the consumers. It comprises an experimental investigation on the release of Pb, Cd and other metals from ceramic articles, an exposure assessment to Pb and Cd, and a risk assessment. On this basis, new migration limits are proposed. In the experimental part, an analytical method enabling the simultaneous quantification of Pb, Cd and up to 17 other elements has been validated. To evaluate how the testing conditions of the Directive are representative of real-use conditions, the influence of a number of parameters on the amounts of metals released from commercial ceramic ware has been studied. More specifically, the nature of the food simulant (acetic acid vs. citric acid), the pH, the temperature or the heating conditions have been investigated, as well as the effect of successive migration tests representing the normal repeated use of real ceramic articles. The current Directive protocol proves to be sufficiently representative of hot filling conditions in the use of ceramic ware. However, the much higher release of metals under cooking conditions suggests an additional leaching test in relation to ceramic articles used for cooking or heating. A possible substitute testing method which can accelerate the migration process at room temperature has been put ...