I have a set of 3 Bra Premiere non-stick frying pans that I’ve used for a while. The coating on them says “Teflon Innovations without PFOA”. Recently I’ve noticed that on the most used pan, the 26cm one, the Teflon coating has started to peel off.

I know that Teflon coatings can release harmful fumes and chemicals if overheated, but what about if the coating is physically peeling? Is it still safe to cook with them? Or should I stop using especially the 26cm one? I don’t want to keep exposing my family to anything dangerous unknowingly. Any advice if these types of pans are still safe to cook with if the nonstick surface is peeling would be appreciated!

  • HeartyBeast@kbin.social
    51·
    11 months ago

    So I’ve just read that paper and it’s very interesting. The vast bulk of it is about the danger of polymer processing aid used during the manufacturer of teflon and how they could leach during manufacture, use and product disposal.

    The manufacture and disposal phases encompass environment pollution - important, but not relevant to safety during cooking.

    The in-use section of the paper is largely about concentrations used in cosmetics (who knew?) and the potential affects.

    What about cooking? There is one line that I could find in the paper - I may have missed something, of course. It says this:

    “Fluoropolymer-coated food contact materials (e.g., metal cookware), if not properly pretreated, could lead to the leaching of nonpolymeric PFAS residuals into food during the use phase.”

    So - if not properly pretreated (I don’t think the paper expands on what this means), it could lead to leaching. But the paper has nothing to say about whether this leaching occurs with everyday cookware and if so, if it happens at concentrations that could be harmful.

    So I’m going to suggest that this paper does not present any evidence that non-stick pans are harmful to health during cooking.