Kitchen utensil manufacturers get win after lobbying blitz.
The French National Assembly on Thursday unanimously adopted a bill aimed at restricting the manufacture and sale of products containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — also known as PFAS or “forever chemicals.” The MPs, backed by the government, voted to exclude kitchen utensils from the scope of the text.
Thanks to an intense lobbying push, manufacturers of frying pans and saucepans — including the SEB group, which owns Tefal — are exempt from this ban under the proposed law penned by French Green MPs.
Majority groups initially tried to delay the ban on kitchen utensils until 2030 — a timetable refused by the French Green MPs who instead suggested an exemption until 2026.
And those aren't as durable as cooking utensils. If you don't scratch your pan with a metal fork and don't use it for two decades, it's apparently somewhat safe. Not according to the companies, I'm not shilling, Last Week Tonight had a point about it on their episode about PFA's.
I'd personally love to not consume any fucking PFAS, but I also understand that this French thing is still a massive step forwards for regulations on the matter.
That stuff sticks to (aka reacts with) literally nothing. That's the point of it. The whole innovation of nonstick cookware was the fact they got it to stick to something. It’s not even dangerous if you ingest it, it doesn’t react with anything so it just comes back out.
What IS dangerous is the by products and intermediate products, as well as the stuff that comes off if you overheat it. (And also, like you said, when they get old)
This whole movement against non-stick is alright, but so many people do it for the wrong reasons. If you have nonstick, just use it and don’t buy nonstick next time. Throwing away perfectly fine cookware like that is like boycotting charmin by flushing down all your remaining rolls in one go and going to the store to buy new toilet paper from another brand.
Careful what you wish for. PTFE is used in liners of a lot of life saving catheters. The stuff that goes I side your heart and brain and saves your life...
Its about finding alternatives. Right now there is an immense economic & lobby pressure to not pursue finding alliterative materials.
PTFE is super cheap to produce & is sold with high margins. Financially would be basically impossible to fund research for alternative material, produce it without economies of scale, compete in a saturated market, etc.
Cases like this is exactly why we need representatives of the people to act & pass laws.
Its like with plastic (one use?) products, the mantra was "nothing can be as good as plastic" and it took the market no time to produce better products without plastic. But there is a lot of push back, eg there is absolutely no need for paper straws to get soggy (we have the tech) yet you mostly see only the shitty kind.
Or the example of paper industry, they had the interest to ditch plastic and they did to an extend. Those little transparent windows in envelopes are super cheap cellulose, but a decade ago they were plastic.
Meh. It's not that dangerous if you use a non-stick pan of good quality. And toss it in the bin as soon as the non-stick surface starts to show signs of scraping...
If you want to avoid this problem altogether you can just buy cast iron or enameled pans. But enamel is a lot stickier (and heavier) than teflon
The problem is that non-stick has been marketed heavily to the point that the majority of cheap pans are non-stick, even though there's many purposes they're not suitable for. For example they shouldn't be used for high heat cooking, but how many people don't know that? And they're extremely toxic if the surface is chipped. Using the wrong utensils on the can chip them. Plus, there's a number of pans out there that make it look like they're a different material, but actually it's just the same thing rebranded. So even if people are using them wrong, it's very understandable why someone who's a casual cook wouldn't realize that they're endangering themselves by using the pans wrong.
It’s not that dangerous if you use a non-stick pan of good quality. And toss it in the bin as soon as …
Yeah, I was also in no panic but
it’s not that dangerous in the short term, but it stays long term and long term accumulation is still unknown
toxic waste during manufacture is dangerous - let’s just not do that
I was annoyed having to replace the non-stick every ten years or so. It may be cheap to buy but it’s expensive over time
no one follows through with tossing as 🔜 as there are signs of damage or flaking. Pretty much all of us have eaten more Teflon than we should and keep adding more and more
So now I have good stainless and cast iron for about the same price but it could potentially last the rest of my life: reducing toxic chemicals from manufacturing, reducing the amount of forever chemicals accumulating in my body, and saving me money. Even better, by paying attention to the quirks of effective use of these pans, I’ve become a better cook and find the cleanup usually no worse than non-stick
Adding carbon steel to this, because I love my pan, and my mother-in-law (who lives to cook) can use it without arthritis pain. She always used to complain about the cast iron hurting her joints when she lifted our other pans.
What I'm also curious about is the ceramic coated pans. I've seen them advertised (I think Green Pan, whatever). I would like a lighter alternative to Le Crouset that I could cook acidic foods in.
It's on the non stick coating for a lot of pans and can easily flake off and be ingested if you damage it by using metal utensils. This is why you should never use metal on nonstick.
Cast iron FTW. Seasoning makes it non-stick, and it's so much easier to clean compared to other cookware, not to mention it holds a fuckton of heat to give everything a nice sear, and I can put it in the oven.
I've never used stone pans, though, so IDK how they compare.
Eh, at least this will reduce the amounts of PFAS being produced. I mean, teflon pans at least actually have a useful purpose, rather than things like PFAS coated burger wrappers.
Barely useful. Stainless steel and cast iron can achieve an almost equal non-stick effect, and handle much higher temperatures without toxic offgassing or stuff chipping off and ending up in the food.
Leaden flatware works too, but why use it when we have ceramic?
Teflon isn't necessarily even easier to use than cast iron or stainless steel, I think the main issue there is that the education around how to use cookwear is very poor. It's not just pop on the stove and go.
Yeah, I've never liked teflon either. The coating always seems to get scratched up no matter how careful you are with it (and some of those flakes end up in your food). But some people swear by it, so I could see them getting angry about a ban.
I use all those pans and love them but I have never gotten them to be remotely non stick for low heat cooking. They're great at searing, and you should never sear in a non stick, but for low heat cooking I haven't found anything that remotely comes close to Teflon.
Exactly, this’ll limit the exposure to them in things you wouldn’t expect them to be on/in. You can avoid Teflon pans and go iron or steel but the amount of stuff coated in PFAS is ridiculous. Hell, even sofas, rugs, blinds, etc all sorts of stuff. And before anyone says “you don’t eat that stuff”, try telling my toddlers that!
I bought a black milk frothing jug for my espresso machine. The black coating? Teflon. Not mentioned anywhere, not even marketed as non-stick.
Its just that economy/corporations are politically too powerful to make changes at speed we actually can (phase out PFAS). So the process is slower. And people die for profits of some, not to mention accumulation of that nasty stuff in various natural habitats.
It's not planned obsolescence but something remarkably similar. They can be made for cheaper, go to shit eventually, then they wind up in a landfill while the consumer buys yet another. All wrapped up in slick marketing.
That’s crazy, depending on what you mean by “proper”. However I lucked out getting a full set of nice five ply stainless at a closeout for under $200
I also got a couple cast iron skillets on sale.
Overall, I spent less getting a full set of stainless plus 3 cast iron skillets, than I did on my previous set of non-stick about ten years ago, and these should last much longer. Is it too early to say this is my last set of cookware?
I fucking hate nonstick pans. I'm currently renting a condo on vacation and all the cookware is nonstick. I'm not willing to trade cancer for the minor inconvenience of my food to not stick to my pan. Not to mention, since it's a rental condo, and a hundred random people have used it, they are all scratched to shit. I'm low key tempted to go to Ross mid trip for a stainless pan.
Actually, you heat the pan without oil first - this is important. To test the temp, you can add a splash of water. The perfect temp is when the water pools together and bounces around. Once the pan is nice and hot, add oil. Let it get hot - use med-high heat. From there it is non-stick and you can adjust to your cooking temp. If you are dealing with really sticky food, you can throw out that initial hot oil, then add some fresh oil, bring it just to cooking temp and add your food.
It sounds slightly complicated and takes a little practice, but if you do this, your stainless steel pans will work better than non-stick pans.
Also, for deep cleaning your pans, you can soak with spent lemons or oranges and rinds. Can also add baking soda for extra cleaning power. For the outside of your pans, use barkeeper's friend once a year. Incorporate all this and you have excellent buy it for life stainless steel pans.
Yeah, I mean, I don't have any objection to use of nonstick cookware, but seriously, as long as you put some oil on the pan and don't let what you're cooking burn, it really isn't that big of a deal.
And if you use steel cookware, you don't have to worry about avoiding metal utensils that might damage nonstick cookware.
I don't fully agree with this, I've had nonstick pans in the past, and I had to baby the shit out of them to make sure they didn't scratch, and they can only really be used in certain applications (never in the oven, don't preheat, etc.)
I tossed my cast iron pan into a 800 degree pizza oven the other day and did not worry about anything. I beat the crap out of it with metal utensils, that are sturdier and better than their plastic counterparts, and it comes out smiling.
Yes I do have to hand wash it, but even that is easier because I can scrape any stuck on food off with a metal spatula or chainmail scrubber. If that's a deal breaker, just go stainless and move on.