Buying Non-Stick Cookware Part 3

Is Nonstick Any Healthier?

From the very beginning, nonstick pans have been marketed as a healthier alternative to traditional cookware. Manufacturers claimed that because nonstick pans need little or no oil for cooking, they allow you to make food that is lower in fat than ever before.

The truth of the matter is most nonstick pans do require the use of at least a little oil for optimal results. SCANPAN, for instance, recommends that their pans be lightly coated with a drop of oil before cooking to help release food and to extend the life of their surfaces.

However, nonstick pans do allow you to cook with significantly less fat than stainless steel or aluminium cookware. In some cases, as when cooking rice in a nonstick saucepan, the coating will prevent burning or sticking with no fat at all.

PFOA & PTFE

The real controversy surrounding the healthiness of nonstick pans doesn’t involve our dietary choices. It involves the materials used to make nonstick coatings.

The primary chemical involved in this controversy is called perfluorooctanic acid (PFOA for short). Used in the manufacturing of Teflon for decades, PFOA has been linked with cancer in humans and has been shown to produce negative symptoms in animals.

Concerns over PFOA, however, actually have more to do with its presence in our environment than in our cookware. A notoriously stable compound, PFOA does not deteriorate. Once released into the water or air, it will stick around forever.

Fortunately PFOA does not find its way into our nonstick cookware. Most if not all of it is extracted from our pan coatings before they are ever applied to our pans. Multiple studies and endless testing has proven that if any trace amounts do remain, they are completely eliminated during the curing process that fuses the coatings to the pans.

In light of these recent concerns, nonstick manufacturers have taken significant measures to reduce PFOA’s impact on the environment. DuPont have recently reduced their PFOA emissions by 98%. Other companies such as SCANPAN are employing advanced technologies that remove PFOA from the manufacturing process altogether.

Other concerns have also arisen over the possible dangers of PTFE (polytetrafluroethylene), the material from which nonstick coatings are made. Known popularly as Teflon, PTFE has been shown to release potentially hazardous fumes at temperatures of 350EC or greater.

As for how toxic these fumes really are, the issue remains debated. Although PTFE fumes have been known to aggravate the sensitive respiratory systems in birds, few if any negative systems have been observed in humans. PTFE is widely used in the medical industry and it has been approved for use in cookware by every major health organization around the world.

Our Thoughts

In our 12 years of selling cookware, we have never personally experienced any negative side effects from using nonstick pans. From what we’ve read, they are perfectly safe so long as they’re properly used. Plus there are still some things we can’t do in the kitchen without a nonstick pan!

If you still have concerns over older pans, there are some precautionary measures you can take. Cooking at lower temperatures will ensure that your pans won’t overheat and cooking in a well ventilated space will prevent the buildup of fumes in your kitchen.

If you’re in the market for a new set of pans, you may be glad to know that the number of available environmentally-friendly options is growing! In our next installment we’ll discuss many of these new PFOA-free technologies (such as GreenPan’s revolutionary Thermalon coating) as well as a few traditional choices that work just as well!

Kind regards,

The Kitchenware Direct Team