If you ARE getting rid of a PFAS-coated pan, here's what the experts I spoke to suggested: -Option 1 (best): find a metal recycling facility near you that will take it, or see if the company you bought the pan from has a mail-back recycling program. -Option 2 (also fine): just toss it in the trash. While PFAS in landfills IS a problem, it's mostly unbound PFAS (like what's in industrial waste) that causes contamination; 99% of the PFAS in a pan is bound up in a polymeric form that basically *won't* break down, so it's unlikely to get into the nearby groundwater and cause problems.
For anybody wondering how not using PFAS pans reduce the amount of PFAS in the environnement if the pan itself doesn't release PFAS : the problem is not the pan itself, it's the industrial process to create the pan. That's where industrial waste of non-polymeric PFAS are mainly dumped in our environnement. I don't think trowing away an perfectly fine pan is a good thing given how low the contamination is. Keep using your teflon pans for now, but when it's done (and it will, teflon plans are not long-lasting) don't buy a new one !
I don’t understand, the video basically says that it’s ok to continue using them (2:49, 3:48). We should probably not buy new ones (4:23), but why throwing away the ones we already have?
@@DidierLoiseau Judging from the comments, a lot of people seem to have misunderstood that part. Of course, you should continue to use your perfectly good pan, till it starts showing wear and tear. Then you throw it away and get a cast iron pan, instead. I've seen people do pretty impressive stuff with steel pans, too btw. It's worth checking out some stuff and seeing, what different cooking channels recommend. But yeah...the point was to stop demand for new pans, not to throw away still usable old ones.
Please don't throw away your pans if they're still working well. Just make sure you're not buying new PFAS pans. That will quell demand while not wasting your perfectly functional cookware.
Should we even be "throwing them away" - are there avenues of disposal that won't be preserving the PFASs in clay-lined landfills that pump their leachate to city sewers? I guess that begs the further question: do city sewers treat/remove PFASs?
I think that viewers should not throw them away. Although it would be good for Minute Food to stop using them as it will encourage viewers not to use them in the future
Ditched my non-sticks years ago and never regretted it. Cast iron and carbon steel pans last a lifetime. Multiple lifetimes actually. I have a good pan from the 1950's.
I used cast iron and non stick oans until i had enough of them wearing down in 1 year and no real info in what the non stick was. Got carbon steel and its amazing. Its takes some care but if theres ever a stick issue, heat it and oil it and its good. The more use the better it becomes as well and it will be that way forever.
Cast iron is thick because of its brittleness. Carbon steel on the other hand is very malleable and you can get very thin ones. Take a look at Chinese woks. They are typically made from carbon steel and they are HUGE, yet light enough for a chef to easily manipulate it.
I got a couple stainless steel pans, a bit more work to cook with, but by using the Leidenfrost effect, they are fairly non stick. But I’m gonna pick up a carbon steel one too.
@@flyingmolamolapeople who have issues with stainless sticking are probably also the people who put things on the stove and walk away from it lol.. plus if something sticks you can just toss stainless pans in the dishwasher which is awesome
I've known PFAS as a problem for years, but the levels in the environment are much worse than we really understand day to day. Wife and I were looking for our first house and found suspiciously great prices near Aberdeen. Lo and behold, the upstream weapons testing facility has serious contamination issues that spread throughout the nearby waterways. "Easy enough, we filter the water with reverse osmosis!" Not so fast... Individuals can do that (it works as advertised too), but it creates a whole new supply chain of production and waste that only adds to other problems and relocates that PFAS to landfills (disposal of filter membranes). Add to that more plastic and the chemicals necessary to make those filters (I wouldn't be surprised if some of that manufacturing requires PFAS coated products either)... And yeah, this just isn't a viable long term option. Eliminating PFAS from as much of the manufacturing world as possible is going to take massive changes. Reduced consumer use will definitely help, not just for Teflon pans, but also any PFAS coated product. Hell, reusable pizza boxes may well need to become a thing (see cardboard recycling and grease on top of PFAS). But that's just the tip of the consumer iceberg. Making sure that municipal water supplies are clean and accessible to reduce the need for filtering and cleaning is a huge thing too. I've come to love my carbon steel pan, but I'm on the lookout for more ways to change what's both in my home now and what comes in later.
I recently found out steam distilati9n removes alot and some claims the most pfas from water. And supposedly you can have it installed on a home water system? Either way, steam water is pure
@@brianwelch1579 To start, I've linked a good "quick" article (I encourage folks to do a lot more research than that, but it's a reasonable intro point in the process). Essentially, the inherent nature of RO water filters (and all water filters for that matter) is that it has to catch some significant quantity of material in the various substrates in order to keep it from passing through the full system. Waste water flowing from these systems will contain a significant concentration of material, but at some point water saturation in this environment will occur, and material will be left out. This is why you have to change filters out, things actual get caught in them. Backflushing can maintain filter capabilities for longer, but eventually what's left behind will contain some notable quantity of anything you've been removing from your water system. More to the point, regardless of whether PFAS is left in filter substrates or something else, to date there are no easily accessible, well proven consumer grade filters that are entirely made from biodegradable materials. The system I use has plastic components throughout the majority of it despite some coconut filters in a couple stages. That's more junk in the environment and interacting with the water I drink (note that although HDPE and PET-G are generally safe enough for consumer applications, no plastic is "good" plastic in comparison to less reactive and environmentally better alternatives). Not ideal to say the least. I also dislike the fact that almost every consumer grade water filter system worth its [removal of] salt also ignores how important fluoride is for dental health (Ironically, a rare fluorine compound that's reasonable for us to interact with/ consume). Equity in affordability of functional water filtration (as well as how many such households end up far too near waste facilities that are dumping those same contaminants back into their water) is also another major topic. That, however, is bigger and more complex discussion than I think TH-cam comment sections can handle (on average anyway). But going back to your question on "PFAS being left in the wastewater"...I'm sure there's a significant quantity that's also sent into whatever sewage or septic services that exist. For municipal sewage, hopefully that gets filtered out by their waste treatment facilities, but for folks like me (on septic) that's quite literally recycling the problem back into the environment. My kids will have to deal with that contamination, the next owners, and whomever else comes by. Better that it's removed as fully as possible than that we presume all cases will somehow resolve from broad waste treatment systems that many regions of the world simply don't have. nicholas.duke.edu/news/not-all-home-drinking-water-filters-completely-remove-toxic-pfas
@@skie6282 Steam distillation is extremely energy intensive. If everyone started doing that, we would probably double or tripple our national energy use.
Isn't it 'fun' that nowadays to even live a normal life one must put so much effort into researching and learning about all these dangerous chemicals in our environment released by the rest of our fellow humans?
If youre not ready to switch to cast iron and steel pans due to the higher maintenance/price requirement (at least thats what I heard), consider fully ceramic /stone pans. A ceramic-coated pan (the inside is steel/some kinda iron) in my house only lasted 3 years before the coating started peeling off, but my fully ceramic pan lasted 10 years before showing signs of coating. If you're in Asia, the Korean ceramic is generally the best price-quality wise. If you wanna jump into cast iron and steel, the no-soap tradition started because back then soap ingredients were more abrasive than current soaps. So you can actually safely take soap to your cast iron provided it's not soap from the cold war.
How about options for electric stove tops? I recall there being certain restrictions on that, where certain types would heat too unevenly and crack the stove top because of that
It needs to be screamed and shouted that if we want to actually reduce PFAS in our enviroment and in our bodies it MUST come from government regulation. Putting the weight on the consumer is how we got into this mess in the first place, and is EXACTLY what companies want you to do. If you want to see change you need to vote.
If every single person who watched this video replaced their Teflon pan with a safer alternative, we would have accomplished nothing. The corporations that are largely responsible for this problem will continue happily dumping PFAS into our water and air until we literally force them to stop.
not to mention that non-stick pans are not the problem, the problem is the manufacturing process. so even if the world unite to make Teflon pans extinct, companies will just use the Teflon for something else to not lose the market, they may even re-brand it and make us buy more PFAS products without realizing. government regulation is the ONLY way to go.
Great video! ... except for the part about throwing away the pans now. Maybe that was a bit tongue in cheek? There wasn't a huge connection drawn between use of these pans and how much PFAS actually gets into your body (does the teflon being in a polymerized form have any effect on chronic exposure?). Regardless, encouraging people to throw their pans away now and replace them may reduce demand for teflon, but it increases demand for other consumer products, which probably isn't good. Let the stuff wear out and replace it then.
I came down here to say much the same thing, so I'll just second you as well, and actually go even further: throwing away Teflon pans you already have *doesn't* do anything to reduce demand for them, it *only* increases demand for other products you'll replace them with. So yeah, don't throw away a pan you already have that's perfectly fine to own and use, but problematic to manufacture; just don't buy any new ones. Heck, it's still better overall to buy a new-to-you used Teflon pan than a newly-manufactured alternative (just because it's generally better to reuse things than to dispose of them and make new ones).
No. Teflon causes pollution and poisoning just by heating a Teflon pan. It's not safe to use Teflon pans, so it's better to buy a new non-Teflon pan than to reuse a Teflon pan.
@@magentamonster Just don't heat it past normal cooking temperatures. Teflon has a decently high temperature limit (most cooking oils are smoking, and it's similar to the point where cast iron seasoning, ceramic nonstick coatings, and enameled pans have issues too), so a small amount of care when preheating and keeping food (water-containing) in the pan while cooking works.
I’ve got a couple of Teflon pans that are just about on their last legs… I was planning on swapping to carbon steel or cast iron as a replacement anyway, but this definitely helps to reinforce that
Very nice to hear that the coatings dying isn't horrifyingly dangerous, that's been spooking me for a while, especially with family who use metal on em sometimes and/or keep using really old pans.
Fine so perhaps the message isn’t to trash your pan but not to replace it with another. I eat a lot of eggs and that’s pretty much the only thing I use my nonstick pan for. When it’s old and worn I’ll get a carbon steel pan for eggs (my cast iron is far to large for this).
Funny thing about that: my nonstick pans are on their last legs, lots of bare metal showing, but a little bit of extra fat and temperature management practically eliminates sticking. I just scrambled some eggs, and nothing really stuck at all. Cold fat into hot pan is all you need.
@@eroraf8637 Your non-stick pan *should* be replaced when it gets to that point, not because it's starting to stick, but because it's now shedding pieces of its coating into your food. What you replace it with, well, that's the topic of the video.
The problem with eating a lot of eggs is that you can't really avoid getting some shell in it and eggshell is a known carrier of PFAS because the chicken coops have nonstick coatings so they're easy to wash.
I am someone who has not used a single "non stick" pan. I've only ever used stainless steel or cast iron. And one cast iron pan I'm using at the moment was made in the late 1800s so like you said properly taken care of the can last basically forever.
I switched to cast iron and carbon steel for my cooking, and my carbon steel has been better for non-stickiness than any non-stick pan I've ever owned. The cast iron isn't half bad either. And if they ever start sticking, I can reseason them and it's good as new. Highly recommend
I've never heard of "carbon steel pans". Got a link? Also, are those good with electric stove tops? Definitely interested in the least sticky ones because that's such a frustration
@@shaunreich Carbon Steel pans have been popular in professional kitchens for a few decades at least (probably a lot longer), but it's only in the last decade or so that I've started seeing them (other than carbon steel woks) marketed to consumers, and I still don't see many of them outside of stores that specialize in kitchen supplies. But a well seasoned carbon steel pan will give a pretty good non-stick experience, and they work fine on gas, electric, or induction cooktops and are oven safe.
I'm guessing it's just a brand name but "carbon steel" is such a weirdly redundant name, like steel is literally defined by its carbon content, usually between 1-2%.
After we got Dewey the Parakeet, I stopped using our nonstick pans. The frying pan was easy, but finding baking pans that don't have a nonstick coating was harder. Virtually EVERY metal baking pan has a nonstick coating. I finally settled on some silicone pans that have an embedded metal edge for stability. These work great and are nonstick without the toxic chemicals.
If you ever need additional ones...look for 'vintage' ones. Plenty of stuff from 'before teflon' times is still around. And often, you can get it really cheap at estate sales or second hand stores or such. People often kept it as decoration or for sentimental reasons, even if they didn't use it anymore.n
@@nikilragav I got some silicone baking trays at Walmart, though there are other places that carry similar things. The key is to make sure there's a metal edge. The thing that I never liked about silicone was that the entire baking tray would be floppy. I was always scared that it would bend and spill whatever I was baking all over my oven. The metal edge gives it rigidity while the silicone is essentially non-stick.
@@nikilragav I haven't seen that. I think that silicone tends to max out around 450°F. I have silicone mats (which I use instead of parchment paper or aluminum foil), but I can't use them if the oven temperature is too high. I think a stovetop would quickly get way too hot for silicone. (A quick googling says that a small electric stove coil gets to 500-600°F. So way too hot.)
For those that want a coating still but dont want teflon- check out enameled pans. Function like cast iron, dishwasher safe, less heavy then cast iron. It's basically a thin glass coating in the pan. The downsides of them are higher up front price (40 bucks for a new one generally), they retain heat less well then cast iron due to less weight, and if the coating is pierced you cant reseason it like cast iron. Otherwise works really well.
My favorite thing about my enameled pan is that it’s an off-white coating, so I can quickly see where/when Maillard browning starts, ends, and burning starts in the pan.
@@JessiBlessingercast iron gets you crazy gains. I cooked a stew in a cast iron pot once and I can't sit down anymore because my glutes exploded in size.
I'm really sorry about your friends' birds. I felt that deeply. Luckly most parrot owners know not to let your bird go anywhere near the kitchen while you're cooking, but if you go buy a small bird at the pet store, rarely they'll warn you about it. Thank you for spreading awareness!
Much safer for bird owners to just not use PFAS. All the people saying reuse your Teflon pan, maybe people without birds could do it, but it's not worth the risk if you have a bird.
Same. They do eventually fail, but they're not nearly as sensitive to accidental scrapes the way teflon pans are. It also doesn't flake off; it develops more like a chip instead. I've got a set from Green pans. So far, I've had them for about ten years, and only had to replace a single one and that was because a room mate didn't know and used a fork in it. T_T For higher heat applications, good old cast iron is best anyway. Make a batch of bacon in it once every few months and it's good to go.
Yay! It's been almost 20 years since I stopped using teflon coated pans. Granted, it took me until my 30's until I did stop. They just didn't perform well over time, and that became more obvious the more time I spent cooking. Now we know all the other stuff as well. Thanks for the video! edit: Now I'm thrilled my carbon steel and cast iron cookware are better than when I bought them, 20 odd years ago.
This might sound snarky, but it's meant genuinely: Any pan can become super slippery for a fried egg if you use sufficient amounts of fat. Conversely, eggs can stick effortlessly to a dry, new teflon pan. So the main factors for food stickage (aside from food type) are cooking temperature and the amount of lubrication in relation to the pan surface.
If you currently have a Teflon pan, getting rid of it doesn't reduce demand and actually contributes to waste. The best way to reduce waste and avoid contributing to demand for PFAS is to use your Teflon pan for as long as possible before replacing it with something else. To delay putting that Teflon into the environment for as long as possible, consider using a non-Teflon pan for most things and only use a Teflon pan when cooking things that are particularly prone to sticking.
It's actually much safer for the environment for you to throw your pan away while the PFAS are still bound together than to continue using the pan and releasing the PFAS as gas.
@@allanjmcpherson which pan, the replacement one you'll be buying at some point anyway? The (other) problem with Teflon pans is that they're basically disposable in the first place, if you buy one it'll need to be thrown away within a few years You're right that it's ok to keep using it ~while it's fine~, or maybe someone else can make use of it, but you shouldn't worry about ditching it 'early' - so long as you're not replacing it with another disposable one. Trying to use the pan longer for environmental reasons doesn't actually gain you anything (except less time with your better future pan) and it can potentially lead to people using one way past its safe lifespan, which is what the other comment was getting at I think
@@allanjmcpherson you said you should use it for "as long as possible", and often for non-stick pan owners that can mean when it's scratched up or barely has any coating left. And your response to the other comment (which is what I was replying to really) was pushing back on the idea of buying a new pan at all. I think most non-stick owners tend to use them as their main frying pan, so encouraging them to avoid replacing one (especially with environmental appeals) could possibly be harmful to them ~and~ the environment. I just wanted to add a bit of context and tell people it's better to be safe - these things are already disposable waste anyway, just don't buy another one of them. I get where you're coming from environmentally but I don't think it really holds up here - and your example of holding onto a pan for occasional use is good, but then you argue against buying a replacement main pan for some reason? I know you have good intentions but I just don't think it's the right message to be sending people, especially around a thing they're already bad at judging It sucks but the real environmental cost was created when you bought a throwaway pan in the first place - it doesn't really matter exactly when it gets thrown away, just don't add to the damage by trying to be "environmental" and using it past its safe lifespan, that's all. You're not really making things any worse by getting rid of it early, so long as you're not just replacing it with another one. It's not like scrapping a perfectly good modern ICE car to buy a new EV or anything, y'know?
I like how she points out that environmental pfas comes from landfills and then proceeds to explain why we should “throw away” our pfas pans…. Also im fairly certain metal recycling facilities just throw the pfas pans in a crucible to melt them down… therefore burning the pfas into the atmosphere…
yeah I thought that was a bit odd myself... incidentally, if you get pfas hot enough they do break down into benign chemicals. not sure if a crucible gets up to that temperature though.
The manufacturer waste in landfills is apparently much more likely to leach out into groundwater, because it's not a coating on a pan, so I think that's why she highlighted it there. Either way PFAS non-stick pans are inherently disposable (the coating only lasts a few years at most, depending on how it's used) so they're getting thrown away at some point in the near future anyway
@@DraconianEmpathvarious irons and steels melt at temps between ~1100 and ~1600 deg C (or ~2000 to ~2900 deg F). I don't think there exist any (fluoro-)organic molecule that could survive that, they're usually completely decomposed at temps half that
I've been done with Teflon pans since I had my first one. As soon as I bought a stainless steel pan, I learned how to spot season and rarely ever had to deal with sticking
As a bird owner I’ve been done with Teflon for a while now and I don’t really ever miss it. Hard anodized aluminum, cast iron, carbon steel, and ceramic pans cover pretty much all of the bases for me at this point.
Thanks for raising awareness to this. Yeah, the PFAS family is turning out to be a very pesky problem in our land and water, it's probably not good and I'm trying not to use teflon and other related chemicals anymore
I used to use non-stick pans and have switched to stainless steel, and I'm SO HAPPY with my new cookware. I both had concerns about the environmental and manufacturing impact of the chemicals. Workers exposed in factories face much higher risk factors than the end use. But also... I just keep fricking burning the things. Mostly when boiling water and getting distracted. What's that smell? Poison! I was done with exposing myself to chemicals, and done with having to make emergency store trips to replace my pots and pans. Is stainless steel more expensive? Per pan, yes. But it's cheaper than having to rebuy my pans over and over again.
I'm here to offer a slightly more neutral perspective from a cooking standpoint: my old faithful nonstick works as advertised and has been doing so for a good number of years. My carbon steel egg frying pan and wok actually stick quite often (despite me being a pretty good home cook and taking the effort to baby them) - might be that I use too high heat on them and burn off the plasticised oil coating. I think nonstick definitely has a niche and ideally as little people using as possible, but the way forward is to know your tools and to use as little as possible and keep things out of landfills and waste piles.
If you’re a home cook, wouldn’t it be unlikely that you’d burn off the plasticized/polymerized coating if that’s what is used in HIGH heat wok cooking? I don’t think we see those heat rates/temps in home cooking, yet the woks turn out fine for the comparatively higher heat usage than what we see.
@@markcamenzind224 counterintuitively, electric cooktops can get the pan surface much hotter than gas (gas tends to create a column of hot air all around the pan, while electric heats the pan bottom pretty much exclusively, which is efficient, but can get get the bottom of the pan very hot very quick). I'm not a wok user, but I have damaged the seasoning on my carbon steel frying pan by overheating it before. It turns into dark gray ash and comes off. :(
Use a different fat. Also, order a $10 IR thermometer. eta: On most dark pans I have good results with eggs on a very light film of animal fat or butter and keeping the pan around 330 degrees Fahrenheit. Various vegetable fats also work but the products simply labeled “vegetable oil” rarely are satisfactory. Bright surfaces (stainless) pans tend to require a higher temperature to not stick with similar amounts and weights of fat (though measuring the temperature requires a different approach). Higher temperatures make eggs not to my liking. High temperatures also don’t cook thick foods faster, due to internal temperature being limited by phase change of water.
@@mopman9264It helps the garbage disposal industry which is in cahoots with every cartoonist because cartoonists have to throw a way a lot of sketches! That's why syndication costs are so out of control.
wait, how does throwing away your pan help with demand? I have both stick and non-stick pans. But throwing out my (edit:) "non" sticky ones wouldn't change demand. Only when they're up for replacement.
increasing demand for non non-stick pans is a kind of ways of reducing demand, i guess? but yeah the bigger change would be made moving away from them rather than trashing them outright
Note, actively ditching your still useable pan right now for reasons other than, for example, protecting your pet birds may not be the optimal thing to do, particularly if it's new and undamaged. If you're planning on replacing it with a new pan this will result in resource use that could have waited a while for no actual environmental gain (The manufacturing chemicals have already happened and you'll get rid of the pan and replace it at some point). Especially if going for cast iron but in all cases, try picking up a second hand one or one stuck in the back of an antique store before buying new.
I'm with you 100%. Although I haven't sent my Teflon pan to the landfill, it sees use only a handful of times in the course of a year. I love my seasoned cast iron, and have enameled cast iron for those that are acidic or need to simmer in the oven.
Per Adam Ragusea, there's little public scientific literature on the topic. The limited existing knowledge is largely trade secrets, or conflicting folk-knowledge. "Great thesis topic for some Materials Science grad student"
We were taught, years ago, that the pan should never be heated empty. Enough water or oil will limit the temperature of the pan to around the boiling point.
Ceramic pans work by releasing a little bit of silicone oil when they get hot. This is why, no matter how much you baby it, ceramic pans will always lose their non-stick property. That silicone oil is what gets into your food, and it no small quantity. So far, the research on the toxicity of silicone oil is still insufficient. As for Teflon, so long as you keep the heat low and use only SILICONE utensils (wood can be too harsh) you should be fine. I have Teflon pans that I've been using for years, and the only damage to the coating is on the OUTside because I banged them against something. The coating on the inside is completely unscratched. I also use carbon steel, but the versatility and ease of use with Teflon is hard to beat.
As a chef for 30 years, at home I use cast iron, exclusively. I use them for eggs to fish and everything in between. As long as you understand how to season and use them they are great. I practically never have a sticking problem. Unless my mother-in-law cleans them.
Great videos. As a chemical physicist, I had the same interrogations as David, and was struggling to find news coverage with an explanation of why these inert chemicals are a health hazard. I also like Kate's measured approach to Teflon pans. But, while there are alternatives to PFAS in pans, what about everything else? Like, I'd be curious how you make a durable, lightweight rain jacket without fluoropolymers.
PFAs are chemical analogs to medium chain triglycerides. Do you have any input on whether MCT consumption would accelerate the recovery process from PFA? Or at least as an immediate remedy to limit acute PFA absorption?
Sadly, I don’t have a truly lightweight solution, but 3-layer goretex seems to last forever, while my 2-layer and 2.5 layer goretex and goretex clones have always delaminated at the seam tape. Also, as passed down to us mortals by The Mighty Boosh, “It is physically impossible to not be in a good mood while wearing a ponch.” Ponchos need no advanced materials.
Been making runny yolk eggs for yers on stainless steel pans for years and it’s easy. Heat the oil for 5 minutes on high, put the eggs in, lower the temp to the lowest setting, season and baste oil over the egg for 2 minutes then scrape from the pan. Comes off with little effort and doesn’t require too much time to maintain/ clean.
I must say it has been weird for me to scroll through this comment section not seeing anyone that has a different opinion. Great videos online disproving these worries.
I'm gonna be honest, I can't do that no matter how much it hurts the environment or myself. I tried regular pans, and oven trays, and the grime and grossness is just too much for my OCD-ridden brain. I need my pans to be nice and smooth and clean and a single color all the way through and I need to be able to run my fingers over them without feeling grime and that just doesn't happen no natter how much I season them. It's just too much for me. Every time I use the non-coated oven tray I spend a while scrubbing it extremely hard with steel wool until it just feels clean and completely 100% grease-free. I just can't give up Teflon, sorry.
I second minute food’s recommendation about getting ceramic. I made eggs over medium in one at a friends house (1st time using one) & it was really cool.
I wash my cast iron with soap until it squeaks. I don’t add oil before storing dry. Steel pans are a little different in that they don’t build a durable polymerized oil coat, but I wash and store them the same. On the occasion a spot shows rust, it can be ignored and allowed to convert to blue with the heat of normal cooking.
Thank you for clarifying that I don't need to immediately get rid of things like a Teflon coated umbrella, but I just shouldn't get something PFAS coated if/when I eventually replace it. I'm trying to be attentive when shopping to noticing when something is labeled as water resistant or nonstick and seeing what it's using to make that happen. If it says it's a fluorine coating, I avoid it and look for alternatives.
That's neat and all, but most of the environmental pfas contamination comes from firefighting foams, at least here in central europe. Which is a bit more touchy of a subject than pans. And then there are also textiles, plumbing equipment, medical devices, coatings/paints, etc. Getting rid of pans is an insignificant gesture at best when most pfas don't ever reach the consumer.
Telfon on pan... well, don't use if you have a pet bird Telfon on garbage dump - silent killer So what should I do in three easy steps 1. Dump my teflon pan to garbage dump 2. ??? 3. Profit And yes, I read pinned comment. And I am sure that on the garbage dump my teflon pan will lay forever and don't get even a scratch. Oh, wait...
Dumped my Teflon pan about a year ago. I have found that with a very small learning curve, I can make stainless steel work just as well. 1) Preheat pan with nothing in it. 2) Add fat. (oil, butter , lard etc.) until it is up to temperature. 3) Add whatever needs to be cooked. You will be surprised how "non-stick" it is.
Not disagreeing or anything, but it's funny to see "science marches forward!" with a rejection of a modern material over a proven tech used for at least a thousand years. I mean you're not wrong! But it goes to show modern advancements (like non-stick coatings) aren't always about what's good, sometimes it's more about someone making some money You could have a look at carbon steel too - cast iron is usually heavy, takes a long time to heat up, and doesn't respond to heat changes very quickly. That's often a plus - it can get real hot, and cooks very evenly because the heat has time to spread, and doesn't lose that heat to the food too quickly so you get great browning! But if you want something similar that acts more like a typical non-stick pan, carbon steel might be a better bet. Something to look into anyway!
I've had mild teflon flu before. I work in a plant that makes PTFE seals for the automotive industry and we had an oven catch fire. Normally the ovens should contain the toxins (PTFE becomes toxic I believe somewhere around 700 degrees Fahrenheit) but we opened it to put out the fire not realizing the mistake we made. Afterwards we made sure that ovens were not opened in the event of fires, which we've had since. Not fun stuff to deal with but I've definitely eliminated all teflon pans from my house.
I use stainless steel and its stickiness is not a bug, it is a feature. I also have Teflon non-stick pans (two identical) that I used for pancake making, but I stopped doing that. Those non-stick pans are quite crappy when using on induction stove, the heat is generated on the inside. My previous Teflon pans that I used on gas were lighter (no iron plate for induction needed) and the flame warmed up the outside of the pan quicker than the inside, giving my pancakes a lovely crunchy outer rim. On induction not only does this crunchy ring not form, but the outer part of the pan is noticeably colder than the central part, so the pancake burns in the middle while not fully cooking on the perimeter, making up for horrible pancakes that are nowhere near as tasty. This is the main reason I stopped doing pancakes since I got an induction stove top. And this also limited the use of my Teflon pans practically to zero. For every other cooking I use a stainless steel pan.
This is a really good question - and one I don't have data on, although I'll look into. PTFE (and other PFASes) are indeed used in an incredible number of products!
@@MinuteFood Including raingear, waterproof boots, and all kinds of things we wash and put on our bodies. They go into septic tanks, leach into the soil, and into our wells, and we drink it......they're 'forever' chemicals after all. The pans aren't that bad in comparison....the manufacture of the pans is the bad part, which you missed here a bit. Asking people to throw their pans away was silly, especially based on your info in the video. I love 'Minute' but this one was a bit off with the suggestion of getting rid of the pans.....that really doesn't solve anything (just don't buy new ones).
I'm glad I came across this video before buying a new pan, as the one I have is in desperate need for replacement and I planned on buying another Teflon frying pan. I'll be looking into the cast iron and carbon steel ones instead. Thanks for the info! 👍
But rather than throwing away your teflon pans, shouldn't you rather avoid buying new ones? Since demand doesn't go up if you already own one and just throwing them away will in fact cause them to be dumped in a landfill you should rather use the ones you have for as long as possible and then bring them to recycling
Yep, there's little harm in using them until they're useless (unless, again, you own birds...then please toss ASAP!). You can see that mine was pretty banged up, and it was taking up valuable real estate in my pan collection :)
If you can tolerate the weight of cast iron it's a really good alternative that is pretty affordable since you can probably find an old used one for cheap. But my hypermobile joints doesn't handle the weight well so I prefer carbon steel for non/low stick purposes and stainless steel for cooking where some sticking is good. I struggled a bit with starting the seasoning of my carbon steel wok, because I could not get the sides hot enough on my glass ceramic stove because there's almost no contact patch between the curved sides and the perfectly flat stovetop (and the bamboo handle doesn't seem removable, so I don't want to put it in the oven), but I remembered that I have a Trangia alcohol stove, which made heating all the sides of it easy. You need to make it so hot that it get "rainbow colours" the first time and then add a thin layer of vegetable oil a few times. So if you only have an electric stove, borrow a grill/barbeque or gas or spirit burner to do the initial seasoning (one that you can use outdoors is preferable so you don't have to fill the kitchen with fumes). After the initial seasoning, it's sufficient to heat it until it starts to faintly smoke before adding oil before cooking. And wash it gently without steel wool immediately after use and then put it back on the stove on max heat until dry. Occasionally wipe a tiny drop of oil on the cooking surface once dry and then as soon as it's smoking turn the heat off and let it slowly cool down on hot stove. Wipe off any remaining unpolymerized oil before storing.
I know it's probably an issue but it also cooking/cleaning/eating to feel manageable when I'm in a deppressive spiral. I've definitely started putting baking paper over the coated baking trays though - they started to peel and it was good to know it was actually a bad idea to just say fuck it and eat the food even if there were flakes on it
My parents preached the good word of teflon to my brother and I, and I've just used these pans, that were given to me, for literally decades not really thinking about it. Well, I finally got tired of the cleaning of nonstick pans and bought a stainless steel pan and I'm loving it! I can throw anything at it and it just works! I know there can be more cleaning, and I guess I see where my parents came from now, but just knowing the difference means so much, and I totally prefer being able to use metal tools on my pan.
Your conclusion doesn't support your actions. You have said that the risk of contamination from the pan is negligible, it's the production of more pans that's the issue. So why throw out perfectly good pans if you don't have birds? And if you have birds, then donate the pans to a friend and prevent them buying new pans.
A more sensible approach probably is to keep your current teflon pan until it's ready to be discarded anyways. You already bought it, so actually use it. Just don't get a new one afterwards I've been using a ceramic pan for a while now, but I love my cast iron too. Absolutely love the stainless steel one though
What about acidic food? Like tomato sauce? I was considering switching from teflon to cast iron but it stuck with me because I often prepare some kind of tomato sauce. I don't want to be too stuck in my ways so please help me make an informed decision. I will write it down on a sticky note and do ASAP.
In our house we usually use enameled cast iron for tomato-based sauces, but stainless steel is also a great choice! You can make a quick tomato dish in carbon steel or cast iron but I wouldn't make anything you have to simmer for a while.
"I want to keep Teflon from entering the environment and degrading in landfills, where it is much more dangerous than in the kitchen. So I'm going to throw all of my currently in-use, perfectly good, and already purchased Teflon directly into the garbage and encourage you to do the same, where they will most likely wind up in a landfill, thus entirely violating the well-known tenants of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, which are in that order for a reason. Yay, planet!"
If the problem is that your pan produced harmful chemicals when it was produced, but is largely harmless now if used correctly, and the environmental harm of production has already been done, then why wouldn't you use that pan until the end of it's useful life? By discarding a useful pan that already exists, you create demand for yet another product to be produced, and therefore some amount of environmental damage will occur, maybe not from PFAS, but the CO2 produced when smelting steel, or molding plastic, or driving that truck to the store for you to buy, if nothing else. I'd say the better option is to, use your existing cookware until it reaches the end of it's useful life, then make smarter choices about the next thing you buy. Don't create a rush for people to discard perfectly useful items just to buy something else because of harm caused in the past. That cost is already sunk, so we might as well extract as much useful value from that as we can, then mitigate the future harm when we get to it.
Just to clarify, based on the evidence you provided, you're arguing for "not buying more Teflon", and not "tossing your Teflon". Tossing something that works doesn't make sense and doesn't make it so that you didn't buy it in the first place (and as you pointed out, keeping it doesn't cause extra risk), so I'm totally confused with the messaging here.
So, don't throw it out, just don't buy another. Throwing it out does no good, it's already been made, and will just break down in a landfill somewhere.
You already own your pan...so throwing it away does not decrease demand in the slightest. This is the equivalent of someone buying a jersey or pair of shoes to burn them in protest. You're not helping your cause in any way, just destroying your own stuff.
Sure, you can wait until it's time to replace them - then buy something that doesn't contain PFAS! As you can see in the video, mine was all scratched and at the end of its useful life.
Tried every kind of pan out there, and I settled on stainless steel for everything. You can abuse them, and no patina will ever be damaged. You can cook tomato sauce, gelaze with awesome alcohols, and just put them in the dishwasher. If you get good ones, they will even distribute heat better than any iron/carbon ever will, because of slim aluminium or even copper layers.
I will stick to Teflon I'm 70 years of age and I'm sure it's not done me much harm. Treat it well and it's OK. Lots of people eat chicken and that's far more dangerous If not cooked properly. Just think about it. I tried cast iron, very much so. It's in the bin. Life is too short.
You already own the pan, the environmental harm of production has already been done, there's NO good reason to throw out a perfectly good pan because of the production process. It's not like throwing it away now will undo a single iota of the damage. Might as well use it as long as you can, then consider getting something else in the future if and when you ever need to replace it.
Once your Teflon-pans do not work anymore, are scratched up and whatnot, invest a little bit in a really good cast iron or wrought-iron pan. These go in big sized and really high quality for 60-70 bucks. Then season it well (meaning: drip some oil in it and put it in the oven for a while at high temperatures). Repeat if needed. Now you have a great non-stick pan that will serve you for your lifetime, probably your children and grand-children as well. The seasoning get usually better with usage (in contrast to Teflon pans).
A good, smooth stainless steel pan and a oil tamper/spreader when used at higher temperatures makes for an amazing and cheap non-stick solution. I often make crêpes with this method, with absolutely 0 problem with sticking, plus the crêpes come out nicer and fluffier. Carbon steel is of course better but it is higher maintenance and more expensive.
I ended up getting an "Orgreenic" frying pan when it made the "As-Ignored-On-TV" pile at Walmart after my previous Teflon frying pan began flaking. I looked and it's one of the ceramic pans, albeit one of the earlier ones. I barely use a frying pan, so I'm not a good measure for durability, but it does have good...let's call it "shelf life". I went through, I believe 2 Teflon pans over the same amount of time I've had the Orgreenic one. It does stick a little bit, but so does Teflon coated, both before and since the PFOA ban and I honestly can't tell a significant difference. I definitely do not support switching to cast iron or carbon steel, though. They are fine if maintained properly, but most of the people who say they're not a problem to maintain don't maintain them properly.
Throwing away Teflon pans seems to have similar problems to plastic recycling when tackling plastic waste in that the main contributor is industry, which is out of our hands, but we still drive ourselves to do it because we feel like it's accomplishing something, when in reality there are other things we can do that have better outcomes. Prolonging the life-cycle of a an existing household product is going to be better on the long run, and in this case it would mean sticking (heh) with your Teflon pan for as long as it still works. That saves on the carbon produced and water consumed in manufacturing the new ceramic pan, and it might even save on PFAS too, depending on whether they are used in the manufacturing of the ceramic pan.
I've been slowly switching to cast iron and stainless steel, along with the occasional ceramic pan (which is only nonstick for a year or two). Switching to induction has helped speed that along as the older non-sticks we had didn't work with the new stove.
Glad I’ve never used non-stick cookware! I bought several cast-iron skillets and pots back when I was in college. They were what my Cajun grandmother cooked with so I figured they were the best. When I moved in with my boyfriend, he had a huge set of old stainless steel and aluminum pots and pans that he got from his mother years earlier. In the 25 years since then, I’ve just never bought anything else. Of course, I’ve had type 1 diabetes since I was a kid, I have a degenerative neurological disorder, and I was diagnosed with my first cancer earlier this year, so I don’t think avoiding Teflon has had a huge impact on my health…
If you have Teflon or related coating pans already, why not keep them until worn out, then discard and switch to something else. Enameled pans were not mentioned here but are nice, and aluminum can be enameled making for good heat conduction. To add nonstickiness to such pans, use pan sprays for each use.
But why is seasoning safe? I use cast iron and carbon steel but I still have this question too. Burnt oil that polymerized into something else completely would never get that hot in the natural world just also seems like it might have drawbacks when ingested
My family has a full set of ceramic pans and have had them for years. With how much we use them it's amazing that the surfaces of them still look hreat
I stopped using teflon years ago when I switched to ceramic. And since I only use it to cook eggs, it still looks brand new. I prefer stainless for the rest.
@@ThisOldChris Thank you for the reply. Does that go for stainless steel as well? I’ve been putting 3 ss pots in there for over a decade and they work great. Does the dishwasher supposedly ruin ss pots & pans? I have a fairly new made in fry pan that I’ve only put in twice so far.
Cooking without having to always think of avoiding overheating the pan's coating is just more enjoyable - and I've had great experience with some well seasoned cst iron pans that are the better part of a century old. And will last another few generations.
I've been mostly cooking on cast iron and carbon steel for years, at least partly to contribute less to the problems of PFAS pollution. However, throwing away perfectly good teflon cookware that you already own doesn't really help much. The thing that helps is to stop buying it. So go ahead and keep using the pans you already own until they wear out. But when it's time to replace them, go with something that's PFAS free.
If you ARE getting rid of a PFAS-coated pan, here's what the experts I spoke to suggested:
-Option 1 (best): find a metal recycling facility near you that will take it, or see if the company you bought the pan from has a mail-back recycling program.
-Option 2 (also fine): just toss it in the trash. While PFAS in landfills IS a problem, it's mostly unbound PFAS (like what's in industrial waste) that causes contamination; 99% of the PFAS in a pan is bound up in a polymeric form that basically *won't* break down, so it's unlikely to get into the nearby groundwater and cause problems.
i dont feel comfortable throwing away something that expensive and mailing back insnt an option i have either
For anybody wondering how not using PFAS pans reduce the amount of PFAS in the environnement if the pan itself doesn't release PFAS : the problem is not the pan itself, it's the industrial process to create the pan. That's where industrial waste of non-polymeric PFAS are mainly dumped in our environnement.
I don't think trowing away an perfectly fine pan is a good thing given how low the contamination is. Keep using your teflon pans for now, but when it's done (and it will, teflon plans are not long-lasting) don't buy a new one !
I don’t understand, the video basically says that it’s ok to continue using them (2:49, 3:48). We should probably not buy new ones (4:23), but why throwing away the ones we already have?
@@DidierLoiseau
Judging from the comments, a lot of people seem to have misunderstood that part.
Of course, you should continue to use your perfectly good pan, till it starts showing wear and tear. Then you throw it away and get a cast iron pan, instead. I've seen people do pretty impressive stuff with steel pans, too btw. It's worth checking out some stuff and seeing, what different cooking channels recommend.
But yeah...the point was to stop demand for new pans, not to throw away still usable old ones.
Don't throw out a perfectly good pan. You're adding to the recycling problem and consuming more materials when you have a perfectly good pan.
Please don't throw away your pans if they're still working well. Just make sure you're not buying new PFAS pans. That will quell demand while not wasting your perfectly functional cookware.
yeah i wanted to say that
Should we even be "throwing them away" - are there avenues of disposal that won't be preserving the PFASs in clay-lined landfills that pump their leachate to city sewers?
I guess that begs the further question: do city sewers treat/remove PFASs?
I think that viewers should not throw them away. Although it would be good for Minute Food to stop using them as it will encourage viewers not to use them in the future
The PTFE on the finished product isn’t the same as the ones used to make it and are fine if you keep using it or wasting it by filling a landfill.
Plus, throwing them away contributes to more PFAS in landfills and in the environment.
Ditched my non-sticks years ago and never regretted it. Cast iron and carbon steel pans last a lifetime. Multiple lifetimes actually. I have a good pan from the 1950's.
I used cast iron and non stick oans until i had enough of them wearing down in 1 year and no real info in what the non stick was. Got carbon steel and its amazing. Its takes some care but if theres ever a stick issue, heat it and oil it and its good. The more use the better it becomes as well and it will be that way forever.
@@skie6282 Yeah, I don't know about carbon steel but cast iron can fuck of with that weight...
I am using my grandmothers cast iron frying pan.
@godnyx117 yeah that's my issue with cast iron. I literally can't lift mine! I've never owned a carbon steel pan. Are they lighter?
Cast iron is thick because of its brittleness. Carbon steel on the other hand is very malleable and you can get very thin ones. Take a look at Chinese woks. They are typically made from carbon steel and they are HUGE, yet light enough for a chef to easily manipulate it.
Loved these videos! So well done!
CRAZY that people can draw moving images now
Love you guys. You guys have contributed to lot of knowledge reserve of the young generation and for the new upcomming generation.
Is this one john or hank? Probably hank but signing it off with a name would have been nice.
@@shreyanshupanda1219If it's not signed, it's usually Hank, because John always signs his comments. 😂
I felt the same way! SIgned up with Defend Our Health and completed their action alerts right afterwards :)
I just bought a steel frying pan. Cheap and a joy to cook in. I’m in love! The care I put into the pan is part of the fun.
Had a same experience for the last year. Taking care of things like cast iron cookware is it's own beautiful ritual.
@@DenysBuryi On par with sharpening and taking care of a really good knife.
I got a couple stainless steel pans, a bit more work to cook with, but by using the Leidenfrost effect, they are fairly non stick. But I’m gonna pick up a carbon steel one too.
@@flyingmolamolapeople who have issues with stainless sticking are probably also the people who put things on the stove and walk away from it lol.. plus if something sticks you can just toss stainless pans in the dishwasher which is awesome
I've known PFAS as a problem for years, but the levels in the environment are much worse than we really understand day to day. Wife and I were looking for our first house and found suspiciously great prices near Aberdeen. Lo and behold, the upstream weapons testing facility has serious contamination issues that spread throughout the nearby waterways.
"Easy enough, we filter the water with reverse osmosis!" Not so fast... Individuals can do that (it works as advertised too), but it creates a whole new supply chain of production and waste that only adds to other problems and relocates that PFAS to landfills (disposal of filter membranes). Add to that more plastic and the chemicals necessary to make those filters (I wouldn't be surprised if some of that manufacturing requires PFAS coated products either)... And yeah, this just isn't a viable long term option. Eliminating PFAS from as much of the manufacturing world as possible is going to take massive changes.
Reduced consumer use will definitely help, not just for Teflon pans, but also any PFAS coated product. Hell, reusable pizza boxes may well need to become a thing (see cardboard recycling and grease on top of PFAS). But that's just the tip of the consumer iceberg. Making sure that municipal water supplies are clean and accessible to reduce the need for filtering and cleaning is a huge thing too.
I've come to love my carbon steel pan, but I'm on the lookout for more ways to change what's both in my home now and what comes in later.
I recently found out steam distilati9n removes alot and some claims the most pfas from water. And supposedly you can have it installed on a home water system? Either way, steam water is pure
I'm curious why you think a substantial amount of PFAS gets 'stuck' in the RO membrane and not exhausted in the waste stream?
@@brianwelch1579
To start, I've linked a good "quick" article (I encourage folks to do a lot more research than that, but it's a reasonable intro point in the process). Essentially, the inherent nature of RO water filters (and all water filters for that matter) is that it has to catch some significant quantity of material in the various substrates in order to keep it from passing through the full system. Waste water flowing from these systems will contain a significant concentration of material, but at some point water saturation in this environment will occur, and material will be left out. This is why you have to change filters out, things actual get caught in them. Backflushing can maintain filter capabilities for longer, but eventually what's left behind will contain some notable quantity of anything you've been removing from your water system.
More to the point, regardless of whether PFAS is left in filter substrates or something else, to date there are no easily accessible, well proven consumer grade filters that are entirely made from biodegradable materials. The system I use has plastic components throughout the majority of it despite some coconut filters in a couple stages. That's more junk in the environment and interacting with the water I drink (note that although HDPE and PET-G are generally safe enough for consumer applications, no plastic is "good" plastic in comparison to less reactive and environmentally better alternatives). Not ideal to say the least. I also dislike the fact that almost every consumer grade water filter system worth its [removal of] salt also ignores how important fluoride is for dental health (Ironically, a rare fluorine compound that's reasonable for us to interact with/ consume).
Equity in affordability of functional water filtration (as well as how many such households end up far too near waste facilities that are dumping those same contaminants back into their water) is also another major topic. That, however, is bigger and more complex discussion than I think TH-cam comment sections can handle (on average anyway).
But going back to your question on "PFAS being left in the wastewater"...I'm sure there's a significant quantity that's also sent into whatever sewage or septic services that exist. For municipal sewage, hopefully that gets filtered out by their waste treatment facilities, but for folks like me (on septic) that's quite literally recycling the problem back into the environment. My kids will have to deal with that contamination, the next owners, and whomever else comes by. Better that it's removed as fully as possible than that we presume all cases will somehow resolve from broad waste treatment systems that many regions of the world simply don't have.
nicholas.duke.edu/news/not-all-home-drinking-water-filters-completely-remove-toxic-pfas
@@skie6282 Steam distillation is extremely energy intensive. If everyone started doing that, we would probably double or tripple our national energy use.
Isn't it 'fun' that nowadays to even live a normal life one must put so much effort into researching and learning about all these dangerous chemicals in our environment released by the rest of our fellow humans?
If youre not ready to switch to cast iron and steel pans due to the higher maintenance/price requirement (at least thats what I heard), consider fully ceramic /stone pans. A ceramic-coated pan (the inside is steel/some kinda iron) in my house only lasted 3 years before the coating started peeling off, but my fully ceramic pan lasted 10 years before showing signs of coating. If you're in Asia, the Korean ceramic is generally the best price-quality wise.
If you wanna jump into cast iron and steel, the no-soap tradition started because back then soap ingredients were more abrasive than current soaps. So you can actually safely take soap to your cast iron provided it's not soap from the cold war.
Good to know!
Cast iron is very inexpensive.
How about options for electric stove tops? I recall there being certain restrictions on that, where certain types would heat too unevenly and crack the stove top because of that
Enameled cast iron is also an option (and my favorite).
Damn, you mean I have to stop buying my dish soap from my Cold War-era Army Surplus Store?
It needs to be screamed and shouted that if we want to actually reduce PFAS in our enviroment and in our bodies it MUST come from government regulation. Putting the weight on the consumer is how we got into this mess in the first place, and is EXACTLY what companies want you to do. If you want to see change you need to vote.
Yeeeesssss exactly i was about to write a comment about that too!
If every single person who watched this video replaced their Teflon pan with a safer alternative, we would have accomplished nothing. The corporations that are largely responsible for this problem will continue happily dumping PFAS into our water and air until we literally force them to stop.
One shouldn't just vote, they should also try to pressure the leaders they elected for these kinds of changes
not to mention that non-stick pans are not the problem, the problem is the manufacturing process. so even if the world unite to make Teflon pans extinct, companies will just use the Teflon for something else to not lose the market, they may even re-brand it and make us buy more PFAS products without realizing. government regulation is the ONLY way to go.
Talking like voting did something lol
Great video!
... except for the part about throwing away the pans now. Maybe that was a bit tongue in cheek? There wasn't a huge connection drawn between use of these pans and how much PFAS actually gets into your body (does the teflon being in a polymerized form have any effect on chronic exposure?).
Regardless, encouraging people to throw their pans away now and replace them may reduce demand for teflon, but it increases demand for other consumer products, which probably isn't good. Let the stuff wear out and replace it then.
100 % agree
I came down here to say much the same thing, so I'll just second you as well, and actually go even further: throwing away Teflon pans you already have *doesn't* do anything to reduce demand for them, it *only* increases demand for other products you'll replace them with. So yeah, don't throw away a pan you already have that's perfectly fine to own and use, but problematic to manufacture; just don't buy any new ones. Heck, it's still better overall to buy a new-to-you used Teflon pan than a newly-manufactured alternative (just because it's generally better to reuse things than to dispose of them and make new ones).
THIS, don't buy any new ones, but use the stuff you already have as long as it lasts!
No. Teflon causes pollution and poisoning just by heating a Teflon pan. It's not safe to use Teflon pans, so it's better to buy a new non-Teflon pan than to reuse a Teflon pan.
@@magentamonster
Just don't heat it past normal cooking temperatures. Teflon has a decently high temperature limit (most cooking oils are smoking, and it's similar to the point where cast iron seasoning, ceramic nonstick coatings, and enameled pans have issues too), so a small amount of care when preheating and keeping food (water-containing) in the pan while cooking works.
I’ve got a couple of Teflon pans that are just about on their last legs… I was planning on swapping to carbon steel or cast iron as a replacement anyway, but this definitely helps to reinforce that
Very nice to hear that the coatings dying isn't horrifyingly dangerous, that's been spooking me for a while, especially with family who use metal on em sometimes and/or keep using really old pans.
Fine so perhaps the message isn’t to trash your pan but not to replace it with another. I eat a lot of eggs and that’s pretty much the only thing I use my nonstick pan for. When it’s old and worn I’ll get a carbon steel pan for eggs (my cast iron is far to large for this).
Funny thing about that: my nonstick pans are on their last legs, lots of bare metal showing, but a little bit of extra fat and temperature management practically eliminates sticking. I just scrambled some eggs, and nothing really stuck at all. Cold fat into hot pan is all you need.
@@eroraf8637 Your non-stick pan *should* be replaced when it gets to that point, not because it's starting to stick, but because it's now shedding pieces of its coating into your food. What you replace it with, well, that's the topic of the video.
The problem with eating a lot of eggs is that you can't really avoid getting some shell in it and eggshell is a known carrier of PFAS because the chicken coops have nonstick coatings so they're easy to wash.
I am someone who has not used a single "non stick" pan. I've only ever used stainless steel or cast iron. And one cast iron pan I'm using at the moment was made in the late 1800s so like you said properly taken care of the can last basically forever.
I've always used cast iron. I have a pan made in the 1930s and several others I haven't dated.
I switched to cast iron and carbon steel for my cooking, and my carbon steel has been better for non-stickiness than any non-stick pan I've ever owned. The cast iron isn't half bad either. And if they ever start sticking, I can reseason them and it's good as new. Highly recommend
I've never heard of "carbon steel pans". Got a link? Also, are those good with electric stove tops? Definitely interested in the least sticky ones because that's such a frustration
@@shaunreichminutefood actually made a video about them 7 months ago, u should go watch it if u want to learn more about them.
@@shaunreich Carbon Steel pans have been popular in professional kitchens for a few decades at least (probably a lot longer), but it's only in the last decade or so that I've started seeing them (other than carbon steel woks) marketed to consumers, and I still don't see many of them outside of stores that specialize in kitchen supplies. But a well seasoned carbon steel pan will give a pretty good non-stick experience, and they work fine on gas, electric, or induction cooktops and are oven safe.
@@shaunreich Carbon steel pans are great. And lighter than cast iron. Tons of videos about them on YT.
I'm guessing it's just a brand name but "carbon steel" is such a weirdly redundant name, like steel is literally defined by its carbon content, usually between 1-2%.
After we got Dewey the Parakeet, I stopped using our nonstick pans. The frying pan was easy, but finding baking pans that don't have a nonstick coating was harder.
Virtually EVERY metal baking pan has a nonstick coating. I finally settled on some silicone pans that have an embedded metal edge for stability. These work great and are nonstick without the toxic chemicals.
If you ever need additional ones...look for 'vintage' ones. Plenty of stuff from 'before teflon' times is still around. And often, you can get it really cheap at estate sales or second hand stores or such. People often kept it as decoration or for sentimental reasons, even if they didn't use it anymore.n
ooh where did you find silicone pans?
@@nikilragav I got some silicone baking trays at Walmart, though there are other places that carry similar things. The key is to make sure there's a metal edge. The thing that I never liked about silicone was that the entire baking tray would be floppy. I was always scared that it would bend and spill whatever I was baking all over my oven.
The metal edge gives it rigidity while the silicone is essentially non-stick.
@@Techydad have you seen any for stovetop? I think stovetop actually gets hotter, but it might exceed the max temp range for silicone.
@@nikilragav I haven't seen that. I think that silicone tends to max out around 450°F. I have silicone mats (which I use instead of parchment paper or aluminum foil), but I can't use them if the oven temperature is too high. I think a stovetop would quickly get way too hot for silicone. (A quick googling says that a small electric stove coil gets to 500-600°F. So way too hot.)
For those that want a coating still but dont want teflon- check out enameled pans. Function like cast iron, dishwasher safe, less heavy then cast iron. It's basically a thin glass coating in the pan. The downsides of them are higher up front price (40 bucks for a new one generally), they retain heat less well then cast iron due to less weight, and if the coating is pierced you cant reseason it like cast iron. Otherwise works really well.
My favorite thing about my enameled pan is that it’s an off-white coating, so I can quickly see where/when Maillard browning starts, ends, and burning starts in the pan.
dude if its less heavy how do you get jacked from cooking with it
@@JessiBlessingercast iron gets you crazy gains. I cooked a stew in a cast iron pot once and I can't sit down anymore because my glutes exploded in size.
I'm really sorry about your friends' birds. I felt that deeply.
Luckly most parrot owners know not to let your bird go anywhere near the kitchen while you're cooking, but if you go buy a small bird at the pet store, rarely they'll warn you about it.
Thank you for spreading awareness!
Much safer for bird owners to just not use PFAS. All the people saying reuse your Teflon pan, maybe people without birds could do it, but it's not worth the risk if you have a bird.
I really like my ceramic-lined steel pan as an alternative to teflon pans.
Same. They do eventually fail, but they're not nearly as sensitive to accidental scrapes the way teflon pans are. It also doesn't flake off; it develops more like a chip instead. I've got a set from Green pans. So far, I've had them for about ten years, and only had to replace a single one and that was because a room mate didn't know and used a fork in it. T_T
For higher heat applications, good old cast iron is best anyway. Make a batch of bacon in it once every few months and it's good to go.
carbon steel is nice though, unlike steel, it can become nonstick
And you ain't going to put strong acids
Ceramic can contain bad stuff too.
Yay! It's been almost 20 years since I stopped using teflon coated pans. Granted, it took me until my 30's until I did stop. They just didn't perform well over time, and that became more obvious the more time I spent cooking. Now we know all the other stuff as well. Thanks for the video!
edit: Now I'm thrilled my carbon steel and cast iron cookware are better than when I bought them, 20 odd years ago.
This might sound snarky, but it's meant genuinely:
Any pan can become super slippery for a fried egg if you use sufficient amounts of fat. Conversely, eggs can stick effortlessly to a dry, new teflon pan. So the main factors for food stickage (aside from food type) are cooking temperature and the amount of lubrication in relation to the pan surface.
I switched to cast iron + stainless steel combo ~8 years ago.
Have not missed Teflon.
If you currently have a Teflon pan, getting rid of it doesn't reduce demand and actually contributes to waste. The best way to reduce waste and avoid contributing to demand for PFAS is to use your Teflon pan for as long as possible before replacing it with something else. To delay putting that Teflon into the environment for as long as possible, consider using a non-Teflon pan for most things and only use a Teflon pan when cooking things that are particularly prone to sticking.
It's actually much safer for the environment for you to throw your pan away while the PFAS are still bound together than to continue using the pan and releasing the PFAS as gas.
@@Eclyptical does that account for the greenhouse gasses emitted as part of the production and transportation of the pan?
@@allanjmcpherson which pan, the replacement one you'll be buying at some point anyway? The (other) problem with Teflon pans is that they're basically disposable in the first place, if you buy one it'll need to be thrown away within a few years
You're right that it's ok to keep using it ~while it's fine~, or maybe someone else can make use of it, but you shouldn't worry about ditching it 'early' - so long as you're not replacing it with another disposable one. Trying to use the pan longer for environmental reasons doesn't actually gain you anything (except less time with your better future pan) and it can potentially lead to people using one way past its safe lifespan, which is what the other comment was getting at I think
@@cactustactics okay, but that's not what I said. I said you shouldn't just throw out a perfectly good pan.
@@allanjmcpherson you said you should use it for "as long as possible", and often for non-stick pan owners that can mean when it's scratched up or barely has any coating left. And your response to the other comment (which is what I was replying to really) was pushing back on the idea of buying a new pan at all.
I think most non-stick owners tend to use them as their main frying pan, so encouraging them to avoid replacing one (especially with environmental appeals) could possibly be harmful to them ~and~ the environment. I just wanted to add a bit of context and tell people it's better to be safe - these things are already disposable waste anyway, just don't buy another one of them. I get where you're coming from environmentally but I don't think it really holds up here - and your example of holding onto a pan for occasional use is good, but then you argue against buying a replacement main pan for some reason? I know you have good intentions but I just don't think it's the right message to be sending people, especially around a thing they're already bad at judging
It sucks but the real environmental cost was created when you bought a throwaway pan in the first place - it doesn't really matter exactly when it gets thrown away, just don't add to the damage by trying to be "environmental" and using it past its safe lifespan, that's all. You're not really making things any worse by getting rid of it early, so long as you're not just replacing it with another one. It's not like scrapping a perfectly good modern ICE car to buy a new EV or anything, y'know?
I like how she points out that environmental pfas comes from landfills and then proceeds to explain why we should “throw away” our pfas pans…. Also im fairly certain metal recycling facilities just throw the pfas pans in a crucible to melt them down… therefore burning the pfas into the atmosphere…
Luckily here in the EU we have Emission targets for Metal melting facilitys in regards to emitted dust
yeah I thought that was a bit odd myself...
incidentally, if you get pfas hot enough they do break down into benign chemicals. not sure if a crucible gets up to that temperature though.
The manufacturer waste in landfills is apparently much more likely to leach out into groundwater, because it's not a coating on a pan, so I think that's why she highlighted it there. Either way PFAS non-stick pans are inherently disposable (the coating only lasts a few years at most, depending on how it's used) so they're getting thrown away at some point in the near future anyway
@@DraconianEmpathvarious irons and steels melt at temps between ~1100 and ~1600 deg C (or ~2000 to ~2900 deg F). I don't think there exist any (fluoro-)organic molecule that could survive that, they're usually completely decomposed at temps half that
I've been done with Teflon pans since I had my first one. As soon as I bought a stainless steel pan, I learned how to spot season and rarely ever had to deal with sticking
I love this channel!! The information is great and it's delivered in such a concise, fun way. GREAT animations too!
Stainless steel pans are easer to handle than the cast iron and carbon pans. Very happy to have one in my kitchen.
I got into carbon steel a few months ago because of you. Incredible difference! Never looking back. Love my Carbons now!
LOVE this!!
As a bird owner I’ve been done with Teflon for a while now and I don’t really ever miss it. Hard anodized aluminum, cast iron, carbon steel, and ceramic pans cover pretty much all of the bases for me at this point.
Thanks for raising awareness to this. Yeah, the PFAS family is turning out to be a very pesky problem in our land and water, it's probably not good and I'm trying not to use teflon and other related chemicals anymore
I used to use non-stick pans and have switched to stainless steel, and I'm SO HAPPY with my new cookware.
I both had concerns about the environmental and manufacturing impact of the chemicals. Workers exposed in factories face much higher risk factors than the end use.
But also...
I just keep fricking burning the things.
Mostly when boiling water and getting distracted.
What's that smell? Poison!
I was done with exposing myself to chemicals, and done with having to make emergency store trips to replace my pots and pans.
Is stainless steel more expensive? Per pan, yes. But it's cheaper than having to rebuy my pans over and over again.
I'm here to offer a slightly more neutral perspective from a cooking standpoint: my old faithful nonstick works as advertised and has been doing so for a good number of years. My carbon steel egg frying pan and wok actually stick quite often (despite me being a pretty good home cook and taking the effort to baby them) - might be that I use too high heat on them and burn off the plasticised oil coating.
I think nonstick definitely has a niche and ideally as little people using as possible, but the way forward is to know your tools and to use as little as possible and keep things out of landfills and waste piles.
If you’re a home cook, wouldn’t it be unlikely that you’d burn off the plasticized/polymerized coating if that’s what is used in HIGH heat wok cooking?
I don’t think we see those heat rates/temps in home cooking, yet the woks turn out fine for the comparatively higher heat usage than what we see.
@@markcamenzind224 counterintuitively, electric cooktops can get the pan surface much hotter than gas (gas tends to create a column of hot air all around the pan, while electric heats the pan bottom pretty much exclusively, which is efficient, but can get get the bottom of the pan very hot very quick). I'm not a wok user, but I have damaged the seasoning on my carbon steel frying pan by overheating it before. It turns into dark gray ash and comes off. :(
Use a different fat. Also, order a $10 IR thermometer.
eta: On most dark pans I have good results with eggs on a very light film of animal fat or butter and keeping the pan around 330 degrees Fahrenheit. Various vegetable fats also work but the products simply labeled “vegetable oil” rarely are satisfactory.
Bright surfaces (stainless) pans tend to require a higher temperature to not stick with similar amounts and weights of fat (though measuring the temperature requires a different approach). Higher temperatures make eggs not to my liking. High temperatures also don’t cook thick foods faster, due to internal temperature being limited by phase change of water.
I use stainless steel and cast iron, or enameled cast iron. You can have a non-stick cast iron skillet. Use some butter or ghee. Works every time.
Minutefood; "Guys Teflons are bad!"
Also Minutefood; *draws the derpiest and cute looking molecules ever
And draws throwing away those pans even though that does nothing to help no-one.
@@mopman9264It helps the garbage disposal industry which is in cahoots with every cartoonist because cartoonists have to throw a way a lot of sketches! That's why syndication costs are so out of control.
I came here straight from the Minute earth video. Scary, but informative! Y'all keep up the good work! ❤🙏
wait, how does throwing away your pan help with demand?
I have both stick and non-stick pans. But throwing out my (edit:) "non" sticky ones wouldn't change demand. Only when they're up for replacement.
increasing demand for non non-stick pans is a kind of ways of reducing demand, i guess? but yeah the bigger change would be made moving away from them rather than trashing them outright
I've pretty much stopped using teflon pans, and am trying to reduce the usage of plastic, too.
Note, actively ditching your still useable pan right now for reasons other than, for example, protecting your pet birds may not be the optimal thing to do, particularly if it's new and undamaged. If you're planning on replacing it with a new pan this will result in resource use that could have waited a while for no actual environmental gain (The manufacturing chemicals have already happened and you'll get rid of the pan and replace it at some point). Especially if going for cast iron but in all cases, try picking up a second hand one or one stuck in the back of an antique store before buying new.
I'm with you 100%. Although I haven't sent my Teflon pan to the landfill, it sees use only a handful of times in the course of a year. I love my seasoned cast iron, and have enameled cast iron for those that are acidic or need to simmer in the oven.
I'd love a follow-up video on the science (and how-to) of seasoning cast iron and carbon fiber pans!
Per Adam Ragusea, there's little public scientific literature on the topic. The limited existing knowledge is largely trade secrets, or conflicting folk-knowledge. "Great thesis topic for some Materials Science grad student"
We were taught, years ago, that the pan should never be heated empty. Enough water or oil will limit the temperature of the pan to around the boiling point.
Ceramic pans work by releasing a little bit of silicone oil when they get hot. This is why, no matter how much you baby it, ceramic pans will always lose their non-stick property.
That silicone oil is what gets into your food, and it no small quantity. So far, the research on the toxicity of silicone oil is still insufficient.
As for Teflon, so long as you keep the heat low and use only SILICONE utensils (wood can be too harsh) you should be fine. I have Teflon pans that I've been using for years, and the only damage to the coating is on the OUTside because I banged them against something. The coating on the inside is completely unscratched.
I also use carbon steel, but the versatility and ease of use with Teflon is hard to beat.
Fair
As a chef for 30 years, at home I use cast iron, exclusively. I use them for eggs to fish and everything in between. As long as you understand how to season and use them they are great. I practically never have a sticking problem. Unless my mother-in-law cleans them.
Great videos. As a chemical physicist, I had the same interrogations as David, and was struggling to find news coverage with an explanation of why these inert chemicals are a health hazard. I also like Kate's measured approach to Teflon pans. But, while there are alternatives to PFAS in pans, what about everything else? Like, I'd be curious how you make a durable, lightweight rain jacket without fluoropolymers.
PFAs are chemical analogs to medium chain triglycerides. Do you have any input on whether MCT consumption would accelerate the recovery process from PFA? Or at least as an immediate remedy to limit acute PFA absorption?
Sadly, I don’t have a truly lightweight solution, but 3-layer goretex seems to last forever, while my 2-layer and 2.5 layer goretex and goretex clones have always delaminated at the seam tape.
Also, as passed down to us mortals by The Mighty Boosh, “It is physically impossible to not be in a good mood while wearing a ponch.” Ponchos need no advanced materials.
Been making runny yolk eggs for yers on stainless steel pans for years and it’s easy. Heat the oil for 5 minutes on high, put the eggs in, lower the temp to the lowest setting, season and baste oil over the egg for 2 minutes then scrape from the pan. Comes off with little effort and doesn’t require too much time to maintain/ clean.
So regulation and environmental cleanup is the way, not individual consumer choices.
I must say it has been weird for me to scroll through this comment section not seeing anyone that has a different opinion.
Great videos online disproving these worries.
I'm gonna be honest, I can't do that no matter how much it hurts the environment or myself. I tried regular pans, and oven trays, and the grime and grossness is just too much for my OCD-ridden brain. I need my pans to be nice and smooth and clean and a single color all the way through and I need to be able to run my fingers over them without feeling grime and that just doesn't happen no natter how much I season them. It's just too much for me. Every time I use the non-coated oven tray I spend a while scrubbing it extremely hard with steel wool until it just feels clean and completely 100% grease-free. I just can't give up Teflon, sorry.
I'd give ceramic nonstick a try if I were you!
@@MinuteFoodinteresting idea, might give it a shot when my current pan fails
I second minute food’s recommendation about getting ceramic. I made eggs over medium in one at a friends house (1st time using one) & it was really cool.
Alot of pets cant stand ptfe, I hope you dont plan on getting a bird or something
I wash my cast iron with soap until it squeaks. I don’t add oil before storing dry.
Steel pans are a little different in that they don’t build a durable polymerized oil coat, but I wash and store them the same. On the occasion a spot shows rust, it can be ignored and allowed to convert to blue with the heat of normal cooking.
Thank you for clarifying that I don't need to immediately get rid of things like a Teflon coated umbrella, but I just shouldn't get something PFAS coated if/when I eventually replace it. I'm trying to be attentive when shopping to noticing when something is labeled as water resistant or nonstick and seeing what it's using to make that happen. If it says it's a fluorine coating, I avoid it and look for alternatives.
That's neat and all, but most of the environmental pfas contamination comes from firefighting foams, at least here in central europe. Which is a bit more touchy of a subject than pans.
And then there are also textiles, plumbing equipment, medical devices, coatings/paints, etc. Getting rid of pans is an insignificant gesture at best when most pfas don't ever reach the consumer.
Consumer level choices are just prayers.
Hi. You forgot stainless steel. Is tricky to work with at first but is very good. No need to seasoned.
Telfon on pan... well, don't use if you have a pet bird
Telfon on garbage dump - silent killer
So what should I do in three easy steps
1. Dump my teflon pan to garbage dump
2. ???
3. Profit
And yes, I read pinned comment. And I am sure that on the garbage dump my teflon pan will lay forever and don't get even a scratch. Oh, wait...
Dumped my Teflon pan about a year ago. I have found that with a very small learning curve, I can make stainless steel work just as well. 1) Preheat pan with nothing in it. 2) Add fat. (oil, butter , lard etc.) until it is up to temperature. 3) Add whatever needs to be cooked. You will be surprised how "non-stick" it is.
Science marches forward, and we all gotta learn and adapt! Looks like my next pan set is going to be cast iron!
Not disagreeing or anything, but it's funny to see "science marches forward!" with a rejection of a modern material over a proven tech used for at least a thousand years. I mean you're not wrong! But it goes to show modern advancements (like non-stick coatings) aren't always about what's good, sometimes it's more about someone making some money
You could have a look at carbon steel too - cast iron is usually heavy, takes a long time to heat up, and doesn't respond to heat changes very quickly. That's often a plus - it can get real hot, and cooks very evenly because the heat has time to spread, and doesn't lose that heat to the food too quickly so you get great browning! But if you want something similar that acts more like a typical non-stick pan, carbon steel might be a better bet. Something to look into anyway!
I've had mild teflon flu before. I work in a plant that makes PTFE seals for the automotive industry and we had an oven catch fire. Normally the ovens should contain the toxins (PTFE becomes toxic I believe somewhere around 700 degrees Fahrenheit) but we opened it to put out the fire not realizing the mistake we made. Afterwards we made sure that ovens were not opened in the event of fires, which we've had since. Not fun stuff to deal with but I've definitely eliminated all teflon pans from my house.
Sorry to hear that & glad you’re okay.
everyone throwing away their teflon pans won't reduce demand. deciding to not buy a new one will.
I use stainless steel and its stickiness is not a bug, it is a feature. I also have Teflon non-stick pans (two identical) that I used for pancake making, but I stopped doing that. Those non-stick pans are quite crappy when using on induction stove, the heat is generated on the inside. My previous Teflon pans that I used on gas were lighter (no iron plate for induction needed) and the flame warmed up the outside of the pan quicker than the inside, giving my pancakes a lovely crunchy outer rim. On induction not only does this crunchy ring not form, but the outer part of the pan is noticeably colder than the central part, so the pancake burns in the middle while not fully cooking on the perimeter, making up for horrible pancakes that are nowhere near as tasty. This is the main reason I stopped doing pancakes since I got an induction stove top. And this also limited the use of my Teflon pans practically to zero. For every other cooking I use a stainless steel pan.
This is a good topic, thank you
I am using cast iron pots and pans. Also high quality stainless steel. I cook on an induction cook top.
What percentage of pfas manufacturing is cookware? PTFE is in so many other places.
This is a really good question - and one I don't have data on, although I'll look into. PTFE (and other PFASes) are indeed used in an incredible number of products!
@@MinuteFood Including raingear, waterproof boots, and all kinds of things we wash and put on our bodies. They go into septic tanks, leach into the soil, and into our wells, and we drink it......they're 'forever' chemicals after all. The pans aren't that bad in comparison....the manufacture of the pans is the bad part, which you missed here a bit. Asking people to throw their pans away was silly, especially based on your info in the video. I love 'Minute' but this one was a bit off with the suggestion of getting rid of the pans.....that really doesn't solve anything (just don't buy new ones).
I'm glad I came across this video before buying a new pan, as the one I have is in desperate need for replacement and I planned on buying another Teflon frying pan. I'll be looking into the cast iron and carbon steel ones instead.
Thanks for the info! 👍
But rather than throwing away your teflon pans, shouldn't you rather avoid buying new ones? Since demand doesn't go up if you already own one and just throwing them away will in fact cause them to be dumped in a landfill you should rather use the ones you have for as long as possible and then bring them to recycling
Yep, there's little harm in using them until they're useless (unless, again, you own birds...then please toss ASAP!). You can see that mine was pretty banged up, and it was taking up valuable real estate in my pan collection :)
If you can tolerate the weight of cast iron it's a really good alternative that is pretty affordable since you can probably find an old used one for cheap. But my hypermobile joints doesn't handle the weight well so I prefer carbon steel for non/low stick purposes and stainless steel for cooking where some sticking is good.
I struggled a bit with starting the seasoning of my carbon steel wok, because I could not get the sides hot enough on my glass ceramic stove because there's almost no contact patch between the curved sides and the perfectly flat stovetop (and the bamboo handle doesn't seem removable, so I don't want to put it in the oven), but I remembered that I have a Trangia alcohol stove, which made heating all the sides of it easy. You need to make it so hot that it get "rainbow colours" the first time and then add a thin layer of vegetable oil a few times. So if you only have an electric stove, borrow a grill/barbeque or gas or spirit burner to do the initial seasoning (one that you can use outdoors is preferable so you don't have to fill the kitchen with fumes).
After the initial seasoning, it's sufficient to heat it until it starts to faintly smoke before adding oil before cooking. And wash it gently without steel wool immediately after use and then put it back on the stove on max heat until dry. Occasionally wipe a tiny drop of oil on the cooking surface once dry and then as soon as it's smoking turn the heat off and let it slowly cool down on hot stove. Wipe off any remaining unpolymerized oil before storing.
I know it's probably an issue but it also cooking/cleaning/eating to feel manageable when I'm in a deppressive spiral. I've definitely started putting baking paper over the coated baking trays though - they started to peel and it was good to know it was actually a bad idea to just say fuck it and eat the food even if there were flakes on it
this. sometimes just being able to make yourself food is a herculean task and adding extra effort makes it non feasible
My parents preached the good word of teflon to my brother and I, and I've just used these pans, that were given to me, for literally decades not really thinking about it. Well, I finally got tired of the cleaning of nonstick pans and bought a stainless steel pan and I'm loving it! I can throw anything at it and it just works! I know there can be more cleaning, and I guess I see where my parents came from now, but just knowing the difference means so much, and I totally prefer being able to use metal tools on my pan.
Your conclusion doesn't support your actions. You have said that the risk of contamination from the pan is negligible, it's the production of more pans that's the issue. So why throw out perfectly good pans if you don't have birds? And if you have birds, then donate the pans to a friend and prevent them buying new pans.
A more sensible approach probably is to keep your current teflon pan until it's ready to be discarded anyways. You already bought it, so actually use it. Just don't get a new one afterwards
I've been using a ceramic pan for a while now, but I love my cast iron too. Absolutely love the stainless steel one though
What about acidic food? Like tomato sauce?
I was considering switching from teflon to cast iron but it stuck with me because I often prepare some kind of tomato sauce.
I don't want to be too stuck in my ways so please help me make an informed decision. I will write it down on a sticky note and do ASAP.
In our house we usually use enameled cast iron for tomato-based sauces, but stainless steel is also a great choice! You can make a quick tomato dish in carbon steel or cast iron but I wouldn't make anything you have to simmer for a while.
How did you comment 20 hours before the vid was posted??
Use a stainless steel pan. Cooking acidic foods in cast iron isn't the end of the world. You'll just have to apply new seasoning.
@@Donuts_random_stuffit's unlisted for a while, and I qssume patreon members can see it during that time.
@@Donuts_random_stuff Over at Patreon, we give our supporters the gift of time travel :)
I'm glad that I've learned to cook on cast iron fairly early in my life. Now I prefer a well seasoned iron cookware more than any nonstick pans
"I want to keep Teflon from entering the environment and degrading in landfills, where it is much more dangerous than in the kitchen. So I'm going to throw all of my currently in-use, perfectly good, and already purchased Teflon directly into the garbage and encourage you to do the same, where they will most likely wind up in a landfill, thus entirely violating the well-known tenants of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, which are in that order for a reason. Yay, planet!"
Lol
As others said, DO NOT THROW THESE AWAY, get them recycled, they are metals, and need to be broken down properly
If the problem is that your pan produced harmful chemicals when it was produced, but is largely harmless now if used correctly, and the environmental harm of production has already been done, then why wouldn't you use that pan until the end of it's useful life? By discarding a useful pan that already exists, you create demand for yet another product to be produced, and therefore some amount of environmental damage will occur, maybe not from PFAS, but the CO2 produced when smelting steel, or molding plastic, or driving that truck to the store for you to buy, if nothing else.
I'd say the better option is to, use your existing cookware until it reaches the end of it's useful life, then make smarter choices about the next thing you buy. Don't create a rush for people to discard perfectly useful items just to buy something else because of harm caused in the past. That cost is already sunk, so we might as well extract as much useful value from that as we can, then mitigate the future harm when we get to it.
I just use steel pans. Despite being regular pans, if you know what you're doing when greasing it, you can get it to not stick.
Just to clarify, based on the evidence you provided, you're arguing for "not buying more Teflon", and not "tossing your Teflon". Tossing something that works doesn't make sense and doesn't make it so that you didn't buy it in the first place (and as you pointed out, keeping it doesn't cause extra risk), so I'm totally confused with the messaging here.
Watch the movie, “Deep Water”
I'll keep using my Teflon pan since those health risks are minimal to minor, but I will be getting a different type of pan when I'm finished with it
So, don't throw it out, just don't buy another. Throwing it out does no good, it's already been made, and will just break down in a landfill somewhere.
I just can’t help the Teflon non stick addiction. It just makes cleaning up so so much easier as well as cooking. 😢
You already own your pan...so throwing it away does not decrease demand in the slightest. This is the equivalent of someone buying a jersey or pair of shoes to burn them in protest. You're not helping your cause in any way, just destroying your own stuff.
Sure, you can wait until it's time to replace them - then buy something that doesn't contain PFAS! As you can see in the video, mine was all scratched and at the end of its useful life.
Wrong take. Throw away the Teflon pan so that the harmful part doesn't become part of your biology.
Didnt know about the PFAS problem. Thank you for the information and giving good alternatives.
Teflon kills, ceramic kills, steel kills, iron kills, mud kills, surgical steel kills my wallet. LEAVE ME ALONE ALREADY!!!! I CAN'T LIVE LIKE THIS!!!!
Cast iron is cheap. It gets better over time. Iron is good for you, especially for women.
Iron pans do not kill lol
Tried every kind of pan out there, and I settled on stainless steel for everything. You can abuse them, and no patina will ever be damaged. You can cook tomato sauce, gelaze with awesome alcohols, and just put them in the dishwasher. If you get good ones, they will even distribute heat better than any iron/carbon ever will, because of slim aluminium or even copper layers.
I will stick to Teflon I'm 70 years of age and I'm sure it's not done me much harm. Treat it well and it's OK. Lots of people eat chicken and that's far more dangerous If not cooked properly. Just think about it. I tried cast iron, very much so. It's in the bin. Life is too short.
You already own the pan, the environmental harm of production has already been done, there's NO good reason to throw out a perfectly good pan because of the production process. It's not like throwing it away now will undo a single iota of the damage. Might as well use it as long as you can, then consider getting something else in the future if and when you ever need to replace it.
Once your Teflon-pans do not work anymore, are scratched up and whatnot, invest a little bit in a really good cast iron or wrought-iron pan. These go in big sized and really high quality for 60-70 bucks. Then season it well (meaning: drip some oil in it and put it in the oven for a while at high temperatures). Repeat if needed. Now you have a great non-stick pan that will serve you for your lifetime, probably your children and grand-children as well. The seasoning get usually better with usage (in contrast to Teflon pans).
First thing I did before bringing home my parrot was switch to cast iron. That was 18 years ago. Both the pans and the bird are still going strong.
A good, smooth stainless steel pan and a oil tamper/spreader when used at higher temperatures makes for an amazing and cheap non-stick solution. I often make crêpes with this method, with absolutely 0 problem with sticking, plus the crêpes come out nicer and fluffier. Carbon steel is of course better but it is higher maintenance and more expensive.
I ended up getting an "Orgreenic" frying pan when it made the "As-Ignored-On-TV" pile at Walmart after my previous Teflon frying pan began flaking. I looked and it's one of the ceramic pans, albeit one of the earlier ones. I barely use a frying pan, so I'm not a good measure for durability, but it does have good...let's call it "shelf life". I went through, I believe 2 Teflon pans over the same amount of time I've had the Orgreenic one. It does stick a little bit, but so does Teflon coated, both before and since the PFOA ban and I honestly can't tell a significant difference.
I definitely do not support switching to cast iron or carbon steel, though. They are fine if maintained properly, but most of the people who say they're not a problem to maintain don't maintain them properly.
Throwing away Teflon pans seems to have similar problems to plastic recycling when tackling plastic waste in that the main contributor is industry, which is out of our hands, but we still drive ourselves to do it because we feel like it's accomplishing something, when in reality there are other things we can do that have better outcomes. Prolonging the life-cycle of a an existing household product is going to be better on the long run, and in this case it would mean sticking (heh) with your Teflon pan for as long as it still works. That saves on the carbon produced and water consumed in manufacturing the new ceramic pan, and it might even save on PFAS too, depending on whether they are used in the manufacturing of the ceramic pan.
such an adorable channel and explaining style. I love this
I've been slowly switching to cast iron and stainless steel, along with the occasional ceramic pan (which is only nonstick for a year or two). Switching to induction has helped speed that along as the older non-sticks we had didn't work with the new stove.
As an Ithkuilist, every video makes us spend a decent bit of time translating
Glad I’ve never used non-stick cookware! I bought several cast-iron skillets and pots back when I was in college. They were what my Cajun grandmother cooked with so I figured they were the best. When I moved in with my boyfriend, he had a huge set of old stainless steel and aluminum pots and pans that he got from his mother years earlier. In the 25 years since then, I’ve just never bought anything else.
Of course, I’ve had type 1 diabetes since I was a kid, I have a degenerative neurological disorder, and I was diagnosed with my first cancer earlier this year, so I don’t think avoiding Teflon has had a huge impact on my health…
If you have Teflon or related coating pans already, why not keep them until worn out, then discard and switch to something else. Enameled pans were not mentioned here but are nice, and aluminum can be enameled making for good heat conduction. To add nonstickiness to such pans, use pan sprays for each use.
thank you for the bird clarification 👍
But why is seasoning safe? I use cast iron and carbon steel but I still have this question too. Burnt oil that polymerized into something else completely would never get that hot in the natural world just also seems like it might have drawbacks when ingested
My family has a full set of ceramic pans and have had them for years. With how much we use them it's amazing that the surfaces of them still look hreat
Are you sure pieces of nonstick coating are ingested, and not poured down the drain? I would guess that washing damages teflon, not cooking
I stopped using teflon years ago when I switched to ceramic. And since I only use it to cook eggs, it still looks brand new.
I prefer stainless for the rest.
May I ask, do you put them in the dishwasher?
@@JamesLloydKeyboardist No. Rarely use the dishwasher and never for pots and pans.
@@ThisOldChris Thank you for the reply. Does that go for stainless steel as well? I’ve been putting 3 ss pots in there for over a decade and they work great. Does the dishwasher supposedly ruin ss pots & pans? I have a fairly new made in fry pan that I’ve only put in twice so far.
@@JamesLloydKeyboardist in the past, I found that it could damage the aluminum or copper in multi-ply pots. Also hand washing was just better.
Cooking without having to always think of avoiding overheating the pan's coating is just more enjoyable - and I've had great experience with some well seasoned cst iron pans that are the better part of a century old. And will last another few generations.
Firefighter here, feels like pissing on a wildfire when PFAs are literally in our gear that gets super heated
I gave up on non-stick pans a long time ago. It was just too frustrating dealing with them when they started failing.
I've been mostly cooking on cast iron and carbon steel for years, at least partly to contribute less to the problems of PFAS pollution. However, throwing away perfectly good teflon cookware that you already own doesn't really help much. The thing that helps is to stop buying it. So go ahead and keep using the pans you already own until they wear out. But when it's time to replace them, go with something that's PFAS free.