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this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2025
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Wait, it's not the material on the Pans?
It is the material on the pans, but the only case where the companies making the stuff were successfully sued was when they were caught for dumping intermediates of the chemical in to a tributary of Ohio river.
It’s hard to pin down how impactful the coatings on the pans are because of how many other sources of these kinds of fluorocarbons are in house hold items, and in the environment due to large companies disposing of them recklessly. We know for a fact that basically everyone has some level of these compounds in them due to their ubiquity.
The pans are just one potential source and a particularly notable one because they’re in contact with food.
That's the first part, used correctly it's a non issue so just use your nonstick correctly.
Using nonstick correctly: Dont use anything but silicone spatulas on it, do not use more than 50% of your stoves power or gas stove or you will get cancer and die. Buy a new one every 5 years anyway since it somehow became stick pan.
Using stainless pan: Find it from some junk metal pile, discover it was manufactured in the roman empire, give it a good scrub. Use it on any source imaginable and when hawk thuah slides around instead of sizzles, it's good to go.
Please don't hawk tuah your pans while cooking
Using nonstick correctly: Don't use metal and don't heat it over 260 °C
Source on the pan giving you cancer?
Yes, non-stick becomes stick because the teflon coating comes off, it's really hard to make teflon stick to anything. Using metal utensils will hasten this but afaik simply using heat will help loosen the teflon coating.
I don't mind buying a new non-stick pan about every 5 years (last one lasted 7), I usuall stick to the cheapest ones, they serve a specific service to me that stainless ones can't do.
Are you really asking "provide proofs of a pan I am warned to not heat up too much as the vapours will cause flu like symptoms and kill pet avians is bad for my health." is bad for you? It is. Why do you think you need to buy new pans every x years? Cause the non-stick layer wears off. Do bits of coating that contain top tier carciogens which are considered safe unless ingested magically vanish into the void? Yes. Except the void is your body.
I have been relying on my teflons less and less the more I get good with the stainless. I've now been making crepes and japanese omlets with less sticking than my few years old teflons.
Afaik the coating is not a carcinogen only under certain circumstances like high heat can it produce something unsafe but even there it's just potential, not yet proved to be carcinogenic but feel free to prove me wrong.
https://www.cancer.org/cancer/risk-prevention/chemicals/teflon-and-perfluorooctanoic-acid-pfoa.html It says it ssafe since it's tightly bound to the pan. I guess its true, its completely 100% safe. After all, there is no reason for anyone who owns a non stick pan to ever buy a new one since they keep being nonstick for generations, right? Surely even if you treat your pan just as they say, it means the coating doesn't wear off, right? And us educated people we know once something wears via abrasion it means it leaves behind no residue, right?
Are we reading the same article? It doesn't say it's bound to the pan. Why bother to choose a source that you don't read and disagrees with you?
It is bound to the pan. It is the non stick layer.
Now, do non stick pans stay non stick forever? Why do non stick pans fail to stay non stick? What happens to the non stick coating and where does it go when it is no longer bound to the pan?
I'm out of my element here but my understanding is that the chemicals in the FDA article are not the non stick layer, it was used in creating it and is bound to it. While I wouldn't suggest eating it (the coating) and can be harmful when heated to levels uncommon (but not impossible) in a kitchen environment there's no proof that teflon dishes can increase the chance of cancer.
No proof for now but everything causes cancer.
https://wellwisp.com/non-stick-pan-and-cancer/
The part you quoted says nothing about cancer, article only mentions potential risks with no evidence and no article cited. I'm sorry but articles like these are why people believe chocolate cures cancer or sitting down is as bad as smoking.
I don't claim there's no connection but so far I've seen no evidence.
I don’r know why you’re downvoted. That’s not an unfair assessment of the article. I offered it more as inference that the release of toxins when overheating the material is releasing potentially carcinogenic toxins. I take the view that what effectively amounts to burning many materials releases carcinogens and toxins, particularly man-made materials.
https://www.propublica.org/article/3m-forever-chemicals-pfas-pfos-inside-story
This is an article about a factory right? Not exactly the same conditions as cooking with a pan.
I bought a cheap stainless pan about 20 years ago. Don't have issues with food sticking, don't have to worry abouy coatings coming off, and if the handle breaks I can make a new one.
Coating breaks down, stainless doesn't.
I have a mix of stainless steel and cast iron. I'm not terribly worried about consuming small amounts of either of those.
A bonus is that because it's all metal I can use most of it in ovens or while cooking outdoors.
Sticking isn't really that much of an issue if you're careful. I feel like non-stick would've never taken off if people knew how toxic it was in 1970.
In other words don't do what I did and put half a litre into a $6 pot on your new induction cooktop and set it to 2kW to see how long it takes to boil.
It boils quick.
It then boils more enthusiastically than you've ever seen before, and a cancerous stench fills the air as the coating breaks down and the pot deforms.
recent studies have stated that the pans offgas from manufacturing for weeks after you've bought them, no heating needed, so no, that's not correct. and it was known that they offgas at only 325ºF years ago. https://www.ewg.org/research/canaries-kitchen
so no, teflon pans are bad no matter how you use them, they're bad for the environment, they're bad for your health, they're bad for animals, they're bad for babies that haven't been born yet.
Like throw it away every 6 months.
Edit: or 1 or 2 years, it was hyperbole. Instead of like never throwing it out?
The nonstick pans I've using are several years old now without any signs of deteriorating nonstick surfaces. Use cookware out of wood or plastic to not scrape off the coating.
I have 1 big nonstick and 1 small nonstick. They never saw high heat, they never saw ANY metal instruments, when stored they are protected by felt so nothing hard touches them, they never seen a steel sponge and they still became regular stick pans 2 years into their lifespan. Before you say "skill issue buying the pan" they were mid level (expensive pans for no cooks) pans from a reputable company. I have been a pro chef as well. Nonsticks are a wear item even if you treat them like shit on a stick. My oldest stainless is like 40 years old, has a huge dent on the side and works the same as it did on day one. I dug it out of someones fishing shed.
I have a kitchen full of nonstick pans. They’ve been in use since my grandma’s mom.
Got them from grandma.
Don’t freak out but cast iron was the OG nonstick, right?
Doubt
All it takes to become a chef is to accept the back breaking underpaid labour of working in a kitchen and following instructions. There are no preliminary requirements, only time invested.
I raise the BS flag. A chef is responsible for creating and planning the restaurant menu, which means they have to create dishes that fit the restaurant niche and local customer base's interest, while also fitting the recipes into the workflow of the kitchen setup, ingredient availability from suppliers, etc. They have to worry about prep capacity, yield percentages vs cost of the menu items, etc.
I studied culinary arts and worked in the restaurant industry for eight years before I got out. There is a difference between a chef and a cook and a kitchen manager. Were you a line lead, or kitchen manager? I might buy that.
The chef is not just someone who wants to break their back until they make it up the hierarchy, they're usually the one who is passionate enough that AFTER breaking their back all day they go home and STILL COOK. I went home after 14 hour days and made cereal or whatever because I was sick of cooking.
Never once have I ever heard an actual chef call themselves a "professional chef." Most actual chefs I've met are snobbishly anti-nonstick as well, but that's not necessarily a rule. ALL of them could make a Teflon pan last more than a year or two.
Your comments stink, I don't buy it, unless you were a glorified kitchen manager that the restaurant called a "chef" but you had no real job in making the menu or new recipes.
I've had mine for 2 years now. It's still non stick and I cook extremely regularly. Eg. 90% of my meals are cooked by me. I think some non stick pans are shit though because one of the ones I own started deteriorating after a year.
how much cancer do you have?
All the cancer
If you use it incorrectly then yeah. You might as well stop making food as well because clearly you don't know what you're doing.
What are you even talking about?
Are you le grand anti-adhesive chef?