The French National Assembly on Thursday unanimously adopted a bill aimed at restricting the manufacture and sale of products containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — also known as PFAS or “forever chemicals.” The MPs, backed by the government, voted to exclude kitchen utensils from the scope of the text.
Thanks to an intense lobbying push, manufacturers of frying pans and saucepans — including the SEB group, which owns Tefal — are exempt from this ban under the proposed law penned by French Green MPs.
Majority groups initially tried to delay the ban on kitchen utensils until 2030 — a timetable refused by the French Green MPs who instead suggested an exemption until 2026.
This seems pretty stupid, just use carbon steel or cast iron: They both work great and don’t poison everyone!
Both of these do require more maintenance and patience than nonstick, which will inevitably make some people upset
Only if you are putting the nonstick into the dishwashee.
If I was French I’d probably demonstrate against the lobby groups and the government decision right now.
I mean, it’s almost Monday again, have to find a reason to get a long weekend no?
Fucking teflon lobbying wins wtf
Stoneware ftw. Couldn’t pay me to go back to Teflon.
Do tell. Stoneware as a brand name, or material?
Dunno if it’s what they are talking about, but I bought a set of the GraniteStone brand and fell in love. So much so that I bought a complete second set and a giant frying pan, lol
I’ll bet that is a brand of PFA
Probably not, I’m guessing it’s a ceramic coating similar to GreenPan (https://www.greenpan.us/pages/faqs-is-greenpan-cookware-healthy-to-use)
Note: I admittedly do not know enough about ceramic coatings to be able to say if they’re any better, but generally speaking they’re typically free from PFAS/PFOA/plastics
The secret of these coatings, which is deeply buried and requires some research, is their “sol-gel” structure.
Basically they are like a sintered bronze “oilite” bushing, where oil is stored in the pores between the bronze to lubricate the surface.
In this case the oil is silicone oil, and while it performs amazingly and is totally inert and harmless it sets a lifespan for the pan. Once the oil is depleted, the pan is worthless.
I’ve gone back almost entirely to cast iron and stainless steel, though I do have one Greenpan that I save for scrambled eggs and similar.
Cast iron FTW. Seasoning makes it non-stick, and it’s so much easier to clean compared to other cookware, not to mention it holds a fuckton of heat to give everything a nice sear, and I can put it in the oven.
I’ve never used stone pans, though, so IDK how they compare.
Stainless steel cookware is cheap, easy to clean, and extremely durable. Nonstick pans are for people who don’t know shit.
I love that tefal stuff ngl.
Eh, at least this will reduce the amounts of PFAS being produced. I mean, teflon pans at least actually have a useful purpose, rather than things like PFAS coated burger wrappers.
Exactly, this’ll limit the exposure to them in things you wouldn’t expect them to be on/in. You can avoid Teflon pans and go iron or steel but the amount of stuff coated in PFAS is ridiculous. Hell, even sofas, rugs, blinds, etc all sorts of stuff. And before anyone says “you don’t eat that stuff”, try telling my toddlers that! I bought a black milk frothing jug for my espresso machine. The black coating? Teflon. Not mentioned anywhere, not even marketed as non-stick.
Barely useful. Stainless steel and cast iron can achieve an almost equal non-stick effect, and handle much higher temperatures without toxic offgassing or stuff chipping off and ending up in the food.
Leaden flatware works too, but why use it when we have ceramic?
Teflon isn’t necessarily even easier to use than cast iron or stainless steel, I think the main issue there is that the education around how to use cookwear is very poor. It’s not just pop on the stove and go.
Yeah, I’ve never liked teflon either. The coating always seems to get scratched up no matter how careful you are with it (and some of those flakes end up in your food). But some people swear by it, so I could see them getting angry about a ban.
I’ve been auper happy with my ceramic pans the past couple years. Seems like nothing stocks to those bad boys
A dear friend of mine keeps birds, and she exclusively uses ceramic cookware. She swears by it, and honestly I get it.
Carbon steel can, too. Plenty of non-nonstick options. And, amusingly enough, many of the highest quality of these items are produced in France.
I’d completely forgotten about carbon steel, but you’re right!
Almost as good and much bigger pain to use? Yeah, great deal lol
Cast iron: cook a load of bacon bacon before you try making tomato sauce and don’t put it in a dishwasher. Trying not to scratch Teflon is way more of a pain.
We just have plastic and wood utensils for cooking. I guess it would be a pain if you had metal ones
I just would probably avoid a tomato sauce in cast iron, high carbon steel, or aluminum pans. That’s what stainless is for.
It really isn’t that big a pain if you know how to use them. Carbon steel is also a fantastic option.
if you know how to use them
Right
You really think it’s that hard for somebody to learn to scrub something with salt instead of soap, or to let a pan heat up before you put stuff in it? You must hang around some dumb fucking people.
You’re ironically perpetuating a myth that cast iron needs special care. You can clean cast iron with soap just like anything else. You just have to make sure it isn’t wet for extended periods of time
I was trying to keep it brief. It doesn’t usually need the special care, but it’s still easy.
Sounds great, let’s ban it in every form except the one we literally eat…
I presume it’s mostly used in the handles. I don’t think we cook on plastic.
Its used as the nonstick coating
It’s* used as
It’s on the non stick coating for a lot of pans and can easily flake off and be ingested if you damage it by using metal utensils. This is why you should never use metal on nonstick.
I have family that makes me rip my hair out over this shit.
They put their non-stick in the oven, They use metal tools on it, and they refuse to replace it when the coating fails and starts coming off.
They denigrate me as some kine of hoity-toity rich man with my “pointless” pain replacements, when they arent getting angry at me for “looking down” on them by saying that their pans unsafe.
Just buy a cast iron or a steel pan for fucks sake!
What’s wrong with using it in the oven?
To be fair: it is mostly inert. But using carbon steel instead has virtually 0 cost and a much longer lifespan(that yourself)
I used to work in food service - I remember one day they replaced all the pans with new ones that had a black Teflon coating… about 6 months later, ALL of the black, except a little bit around the edge, was completely gone. Just bare metal. All of it flaked off into our customers’ food.
PTFE, aka Teflon.
Nonstick pans, though most of the harm is from manufacture, not end-use
Yeah, huge amount of harm to the people around the manufacturing plants.
And some amount of eating extremely inert molecules to the people buying them.
Two separate things, the first worse than the second, but still.
That’s where you’re wrong, bucko
Hon hon hon hon
