Non-Stick Pans

Non Stick Pan with spatula. Gaurav Dhwaj Khadka / wikimedia / 2019 / CC BY-SA 4.0

Non-stick pans are pans whose inside surfaces have been coated with a permanent non-stick substance, and are sold as such. There are many different brands; you can get both stove-top and electric ones.

They require special use and care, but can save much clean-up in the kitchen and will last a reasonable time when used and cared for according to manufacturer’s directions. There has been some concern over their safety, but repeated studies seem to be showing that, again, when used according to manufacturer’s directions, they are safe.

Concerns are also expressed about their environmental impact, especially given their short life span.

Popularity of non-stick pans

In 2018, around 70% of all frying pans sold in the United States were non-stick. ^[1] Gold, Betty and Amanda Schaffer. Is Nonstick Cookware Safe? Good Housekeeping Institute. 20 March 2019. Accessed August 2020 at https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/cooking-tools/cookware-reviews/a17426/nonstick-cookware-safety-facts/

The American cook, Julia Child, switched from cast iron to non-stick pans when good non-stick pans became available on the market.

Uses for non-stick pans

Non-stick pans are particularly useful for crepes, scrambled eggs, pot stickers, potato pancakes, and omelets, and useful in general for those controlling fat intake, as they allow cooking with no or little fat or oil.

However, food won’t brown as well in non-stick pans, and you can’t deglaze a non-stick pan. The bits of carmelized food that stick to a pan are called “fonds” in French. Deglazing dissolves them and produces a wonderful pan juice in doing so. But sadly, the “fonds” just never happens in non-stick cookware.

Non-stick coating options

Typically, the non-stick chemical used for the non-stick coating (called “perfluorocarbon resin”) is PTFE — polytetrafluoroethylene.  Just as Kleenix™ is a trade-marked brand name for paper facial tissues, Teflon™ is a trade-marked brand name for PPTE.

A newer non-stick coating named Thermolon™ came on the market in 2007. A polymer hybrid nanocomposite , it is made from a PTFE-free sand derivative. The chemicals PFOA and PFAS are not used in its creation. It is heat resistant up to 450°C (842°F). ^[2]Phillips, Dr Christopher H. Thermolon™ – Healthy Non-stick Coatings. Hong Kong: Thermolon Ltd. July 2007. Accessed August 2020 at http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.135.6935&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Environmental concerns

Non-stick pans are not renowned for their long life spans.

Older non-stick finishes were particularly short-lived. They were thin, and scratched as soon as you looked at them. Now, the big remaining cautions are that no metal utensils should be used in the pans, no super high heat can be used and with some, no sticking them in the dishwasher. They can also get scratched from stacking, and frying meat with bones in them.

Still, even with care, non-stick coating doesn’t last forever — these aren’t pans you’ll be handing down to your grandchildren; they will start to stick towards the end and will end up in landfill at some point. You can get non-stick pans resurfaced, but it’s expensive. The pan in question would have to have cost a lot to start with to make it worth while.]

Some people would argue that non-stick pans, given these short lifespans, just don’t have a place in the kitchens of anyone concerned with the environment:

“The nonstick coating is easily scratched and typically lasts a mere three to five years. Nonstick’s short lifespan alone makes these pots and pans the opposite of sustainable, since your kitchen carbon footprint increases every time you replace your cookware. ” ^[3]Kolarik, Sarah. Sustainable cookware. Stanford Magazine. Sep / Oct 2016. Accessed August 2020 at https://stanfordmag.org/contents/sustainable-cookware

That being said, given the amount of single-use materials cooks go through in a kitchen on a daily basis without blinking, it could seem a bit myopic to instead kvetch about a pan that “only” lasts five years.

Some say the manufacturing process for the non-stick coatings is bad for the environment. A lawsuit for water contamination was settled in 2017:

“The chemical giant DuPont made an offer [2017] to pay more than half-a-billion dollars to settle water contamination lawsuits pending in federal court… The companies also have agreed to pay up to an additional $50 million a year for the next five years for any additional claims that might arise.” ^[4]Board, Glynis. DuPont Offers $670M Settlement For “Teflon” Chemical Contamination Of Water. West Virginia Public Broadcasting. 13 February 2017. Accessed August 2020. https://www.wvpublic.org/post/dupont-offers-670m-settlement-teflon-chemical-contamination-water#stream/0

Some maintain that non-stick might have environmental benefits. They say that because food doesn’t stick, creating a tough clean-up chore requiring lots of dish detergent and hot water, lots of energy and water can be saved in the clean-up.

Cooking Tips

Never use metal tools when cooking in non-stick. Never clean with steel wool scouring pads or scouring powder. “Abrasive scouring pads or cleansers should not be used to clean them.” ^[5]Blumenthal, Dale. Is That Newfangled Cookware Safe?. US Food and Drug Administration. FDA Consumer Magazine. October 1990.

Oil in non-stick pans heated to a high temperature can leave a residue on the pans. Some cooking sprays can also leave a residue that builds up. To remove such residue, fill pan with water and a bit of vinegar, boil a bit, then wash with soapy water, and a plastic scrub pad.

Safe use of non-stick cookware

As with any kitchen tool, for safety reasons it is important to use a tool as directed by manufacturer’s instructions, and non-stick cookware is no different.

DuPont says “Cookware with Teflon® non-stick coatings has a recommended maximum use temperature of 260°C (500°F )… Do not use nonstick cookware and bakeware in ovens hotter than 260 °C (500 °F). Higher temperatures can discolor the surface of coating or cause it to lose some of its nonstick properties.” ^[6]Safety of Teflon™ Nonstick Coatings. Chemours Company. Accessed August 2020 at https://www.teflon.com/en/consumers/teflon-coatings-cookware-bakeware/safety

Good Housekeeping Magazine notes that a non-stick pan being preheated, empty or with a bit of oil in it, can reach 260°C (500°F ) in about 2 minutes. ^[7] Gold, Betty and Amanda Schaffer. Is Nonstick Cookware Safe?

DuPont adds,

“Avoid preheating nonstick pans on high heat without food in them—always start at a lower temperature using a fat like oil or butter or with the food already included. Empty pots and pans reach high temperatures very quickly, and when heated accidentally over 348 °C (660 °F) the coating can begin to deteriorate. Butter, fats, and cooking oils begin smoking at 204 °C (400 °F). ^[8]Ibid.

Non-stick cookware should not be used for broiling:

“[We do] not recommend using cookware coated with Teflon™ nonstick for broiling or cooking at temperatures typically used to broil food.” ^[9]Ibid.

Can fumes from overheated Teflon cause harm?

The answer, apparently, is yes, and no. They may harm any birds in the vicinity, but the odds of it harming you are low. Good Housekeeping says:

“At very high temperatures — 348° C (660° F) and above — pans may more significantly decompose, emitting fumes strong enough to cause polymer-fume fever, a temporary flu-like condition marked by chills, headache, and fever. (The fumes won’t kill you — but they can kill pet birds, whose respiratory systems are more fragile.) At 680° F, Teflon releases at least six toxic gases, including two carcinogens, according to a study by the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit watchdog organization. “However, even if those gases are formed, the odds that you’re going to breathe enough of them to be sick are low,” says [Robert L. Wolke, Ph.D. professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh], a point corroborated by several of the experts we interviewed.” ^[10] Gold, Betty and Amanda Schaffer. Is Nonstick Cookware Safe?

For those who have been affected, the symptoms have been informally dubbed the “Teflon Flu”. ^[11]Shusterman, D.J. (1993). “Polymer fume fever and other fluorocarbon pyrolysis-related syndromes”. Occup Med. 1993.  8: 519–31.  PMID 8272977. Cases are exceedingly rare and seem to involve instances where the pan was so overheated that the user burnt the non-stick coating literally right off the pan. ^[12]Shimizu, Taro et al. “Polymer fume fever.” BMJ case reports vol. 2012 bcr2012007790. 10 Dec. 2012, doi:10.1136/bcr-2012-007790

As for household pet birds, remember that many different types of cooking fumes can injure them. A good rule of thumb, even you don’t own a single piece of non-stick cookware, should always be to move your pet bird out of the kitchen before doing any kind of cooking, in any kind of pan.

Are scratched non-stick pans poisonous

Some have feared that flakes of non-stick coating might be poisonous, but apparently that is not the case:

“Tom Brown, an official in FDA’s food additives section, notes that while non-stick pans do abrade with hard use and particles may chip off, these particles would pass unchanged through your body and pose no health hazard.” ^[13]Blumenthal, Dale. Is That Newfangled Cookware Safe?. US Food and Drug Administration. FDA Consumer Magazine. October 1990.

A Good Housekeeping report found that:

“If [non-stick] cookware is flaking, you might accidentally swallow a chip — but don’t be concerned, says Paul Honigfort, Ph.D., a consumer safety officer with the Food and Drug Administration. “A small particle would most likely just pass through the body, without being absorbed and without having any ill effect on the person’s health,” he says.” ^[14] Gold, Betty and Amanda Schaffer. Is Nonstick Cookware Safe?

What about PFOA

PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid), aka C-8, is linked to “multiple health problems from cancer to reduced immune function.”  ^[15]Board, Glynis. DuPont Offers $670M Settlement.

It is used in the manufacture of the non-stick coating PTFE. It is also in “microwave-popcorn bags, fast-food packaging, shampoo, carpeting, and clothing.” ^[16] Gold, Betty and Amanda Schaffer. Is Nonstick Cookware Safe?

Sustained exposure at sufficient amounts (studies are still going, but the European Union says 1 part per trillion ^[17]Board, Glynis. DuPont Offers $670M Settlement. ) can be injurious, but the FDA says that during the manufacturing process for Teflon, the PFOA is driven out:

“Also of less concern than previously believed: the danger of nonstick pans exposing the family to PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid). A chemical used to manufacture the fluoropolymers that make up nonstick cookware’s coating, PFOA is associated with tumors and developmental problems in animals, and experts are concerned about its possible effects on humans. The FDA has also tested nonstick pans to evaluate the danger of PFOA exposure to humans. “What we found was that the manufacturing process used to make those pans drives off the PFOA,” says Honigfort, meaning that the chemical evaporates. “The risk to consumers is considered negligible.” ^[18] Gold, Betty and Amanda Schaffer. Is Nonstick Cookware Safe?

History Notes

The PTFE coating stems from the invention of fluoropolymers by DuPont in 1938 ^[19]Actually a subsidiary company called “Kinetic Chemicals”.  Dupont trademarked the name Teflon™ for its PTFE in 1945.

PFTE was approved for cookware use in the U.S. in 1960 by the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The very first non-stick pans in the world were sold in France under the name “Tefal” (aka-T-Fal) (“Tef” coming from “Teflon”, and “al” coming from aluminium.”):

“In 1954, Marc Grégoire [an engineer in France, at the ” l’Office national d’études et de recherches aéronautiques”] followed his wife’s [Colette] advice and as he had done for his fishing gear, coated her pans. The results were astounding! Two years later, T-fal was created to produce non-stick frying pans and [he] became the first creator of non-stick cookware.” ^[20]T-Fal. 60 years ago, our history started. Accessed August 2020 at https://www.t-falusa.com/about-tefal/our-history ^[21]Fruchard, Quentin. Marc Grégoire, la percée de la poêle Tefal. La Croix. 10 March 2016. Accessed August 2020 at https://www.la-croix.com/Marc-Gregoire-percee-poele-Tefal-2016-03-09-1100745662

The Tefal company was started in France in 1956 by Grégoire and his friend, Louis Hartmann, a chemist, to sell the pans.

Advertisement for a Teflon-coated pan from the 1960s. wikimedia / Public Domain

In the United States, the first PTFE-coated pan appeared in 1961 under the name of “The Happy Pan.” It was made by the LPF Plastics Corporation owned by Marion Trozzolo in Kansas City, Missouri:

“Teflon was developed ….  by [the] E. I. duPont deNemours & Company. Mr. Trozollo took the next step: coating sample pans with Teflon and distributing them among some duPont representatives. And it took a phone call from a sales organization in New York to convince him that his idea had great potential. So the Happy Pan was born, though it was to have a short life. As Mr. Trozzolo recalls it, several major manufacturers had been toying with the idea of Teflon-coated products but seemed wary of taking the plunge. After the idea caught on, they were not so reluctant, and profits for the Happy Pan plummeted. Eventually, Mr. Trozzolo said, he decided to drop the cookware and return to his primary concentration on special plastic applications…” ^[22]Robbins, William. Teflon Maker: Out of frying pan, into fame. New York City: New York Times. Section 1, Page 26, Col. 1.  21 December 1986.

DuPont spun off the manufacture of PPTE to a separate company called Chemours in 2015.  ^[23]Kaskey, Jack. DuPont to Split With Spin Off of Performance Chemicals. New York: Bloomberg News. 25 October 2013. For many decades, and ongoing as of 2020, PTFE has been made at Chemour’s Washington Works plant just outside Parkersburg, West Virginia. ^[24]The products produced at Chemours Washington Works [include] Teflon™ FEP, PFA, and PTFE resins, Teflon™ industrial and nonstick coatings.” About the Chemours Company. Accessed August 2018 at https://www.chemours.com/en/about-chemours/global-reach/washington-works

Sources

Ciaramidaro, Rebecca. How to find the best non-stick frypans for your kitchen. Marrickville, New South Wales, Australia: Choice Magazine. Accessed August 2020 at https://www.choice.com.au/home-and-living/kitchen/cookware/buying-guides/non-stick-frypans

Tugend, Alina. How Not to Wreck a Nonstick Pan. New York: New York Times. 17 December 2010.

Non-stick pan. Taken / Pixabay.com / 2014 / CC0 1.0