The chefs, all of whom sell or endorse cookware lines, are opposing a California bill that would phase out the contentious chemicals from a range of products they’re used in, like nonstick cookware, food packaging and dental floss. California lawmakers could vote on the measure this week.
Easy to endorse poisoning people when your income is dependent on it.
Scientists have warned that PFAS can end up in food when nonstick cookware overheats, is scratched or otherwise starts to degrade.
However they say the bigger danger is from the manufacturing of products containing PFAS, which causes significant pollution, research has shown, by contaminate drinking water sources and getting into the food supply. The chemicals have become so ubiquitous they can be found in the blood of almost every person in the United States.
I have owned exactly one nonstick pan, more than 20 years ago, that was enough to convince me they were not a good idea. Cast iron gets better and better with time, nonstick wears out and gives off fumes that kill birds.
They are not good.
I’m not trying to defend PFAS, especially on the manufacturing side. But it’s my understanding if you ingest small particles that have been scratched off into your food, they are pretty harmless and pass out in your waste. It’s the liquid stuff that gets into the environment that’s poisoning everyone. To clarify, I’m for banning the stuff. But I think the dangers of the finished pans might be overstated.
Food sticking to the pan is a skill issue, figured these chefs would know that. Get good scrub… unless it’s a cast iron then don’t scrub it too hard.
with cast iron you scrub harder… it likes it harder
Gonna throw it out there - I’m not trusting a chef’s opinion on chemistry and health science over a scientist
The chefs saying not to do it must be shitty chefs (or sell crappy cookware themwelves and are just trying to keep their con going).
The best cookware you can get is strsight up cast iron. No chemical coatings. No toxic metals. And they can double as home defense weapons.
As a pansexual, you can trust I know a thing or two about pans. 😌
I started with cast iron but these days I’m all about the allclad. Just stainless steel with a copper core. A beauty to cook with.
I hear for some purposes carbon steel is better, but what would I know I’m a homosexual, I can only give advice about homes
My condolences, I wish you could give advice about more things.
I am also pansexual, but we might mean different things.
I love cast iron cookware. I have both a Dutch oven and an 18" frypan that both come with me when camping for meals.
I cannot deal with cast iron on a glass top stove (which is what we have at home). I refuse to use gas stoves, the resistive coils are typically really shitty, and induction doesn’t work with all my pans (including the cast iron).
I really wish I could use my more reasonably sized cast iron, but most have a casting ring around the bottom, and all of them could break or scratch my stove’s glass top.
What is a glass top stove? I tried to Google it but didn’t get anywhere. I assume you don’t mean glass over induction or resistance.
Induction/resistance.
That’s what confuses me, he seems to describe glass top stoves as something else entirely
They are really uncommon in the USA so if they are American they might not understand the differences.
Enamel coated cast iron is what you are looking for. The ones that are coated on the outside but bare on the inside.
They are safe for glass tops stoves but you get to season the inside like a normal one
I like that there’s a group of chefs mentioned as if considering their professional opinion makes their stance any more intelligent
Why chefs? No restaurant I have ever worked in had Teflon pans. All we’re stainless steel as the coating of Teflon pans waster away within days of constant use
They’re not using them in their restaurants, they’re hawking them to the general public.
Then calling them “chefs” is deceptive.
The real article title should be
California Wants to Ban ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Pans. These Forever-Chemical-Pan Salesmen Say Don’t Do It.
Snakeoil salesman upset that they can’t sell their snakeoil
I’ve worked at places that used Teflon for the omelettes and brunch eggs. They only lasted a month or so before they needed replacement.
Its not a requirement for good eggs tho
They can be found in the blood of every person.
When they were trying to do a study and compare people without them in the blood, they went as far as remote indigenous populations, faraway Eskimos, basically anyone they could think of that had absolutely 0 contact with modern civilization. Nope. PFAS. It’s worse if you’re in the first world (probably significantly worse if you’re in the US), but it’s everywhere. Anywhere there is water, there is PFAS.
They caused multiple municipalities to experience ridiculous rates of cancer, birth defects, dead animals, and all sorts of other health issues caused by teflon, then they only had to pay 16 million in fines, as a corporation that makes billions in profit every year, and changed the structure of one atom and kept on doing it.
Fuck DuPont for poisoning literally every single person on the planet and fuck the government for allowing it.
I’m sure the North Sentinelese have it.
Good luck checking. Those guys are awful about hospitality
Unless you show up with a lady and some coconuts.
Is that how that one dude survived?
Cast Iron is the way.
Carbon steel is also great.
Although if I’m cooking something acidic I’ll use a stainless steal pan.
I use carbon steel or stainless too. Cast iron has a big fan base, but having used both i don’t think cast iron has any real advantages over carbon steel.
Sadly I put the years in using poison pans before I ever considered that there might be an issue with non stick.
Carbon steel pans are a thing? I only have knives.
Yep. You season and treat it just like cast iron. It’s normally lighter and harder to break that cast iron.
Carbon steel knives are cool if your good at sharpening and honeing often but I actually prefer my stainless steel knifes.
Hey, that’s MY pan!
