[ifwinterco]

Teflon pans are still legal in every country in the world and used in every restaurant and food preparation industry.

It's basically impossible to avoid this stuff unless you cook all of your meals from scratch and never eat out anywhere

[tonyedgecombe]

> It's basically impossible to avoid this stuff unless you cook all of your meals from scratch and never eat out anywhere

Which is pretty much what you should do if you are concerned about your health at all.

[pibaker]

You can absolutely care about your health and still enjoy some unhealthy things every once in a while, be it dinning out, a grill party, a glass of wine or a motorcycle ride.

Thinking that you must optimize every single bit of your health 100% of the time or you do not care about your health at all is just pathological black and white thinking. What a miserable way to spend the mere decades you have on this planet.

[bilekas]

PFOA was used previously, but now it's changed to PTFE, this is supposedly less harmful, but its considered perfectly fine (afaik) as long as the temperatures dont exceed 260°C.. Which at that stage you're probably using the wrong tool.. Maybe some Iron cast skillet or something ?

[mrob]

PFOA is a surfactant that was previously used for emulsion polymerization of PTFE. It's not found in the finished product. It's since been replaced with other less well studied PFAS surfactants that might be less dangerous or might not, which seems to me an example of bad regulation. It would make more sense to regulate disposal of PFOA, which can be done safely with processes such as supercritical water oxidation.

PTFE itself is about as inert as you can get, assuming it's not overheated. If you use PTFE cookwear, I recommend getting an IR thermometer so you can learn how your cooking setup responds and control the temperature properly.

[array_key_first]

My understanding is that Teflon is perfectly safe. The concern comes from by-products of Teflon manufacturing which leech into water. The Teflon molocules are really long, they can't get stuck anywhere and your body just removes them through your urine.

[protonbob]

You don’t have to completely avoid it, reducing exposure is helpful. It’s not hard to get rid of it in your own home where you probably spend most of your time and eat most of your meals.

[Yizahi]

And it's amazing. I'd rather eat some inert and safe teflon flakes than carcinogens in the charred or burned food.

[dust42]

Whenever you see a Youtube video from a restaurant kitchen you can almost be sure to see some pans where the teflon has been scrubbed down to the pure metal. Probably not that healthy...

[mrob]

PTFE is extremely chemically inert. There's possibly some risk from ultra-fine particulates that could be absorbed by the body, but compared to all the other sources of particulate exposure I don't think it's a major problem. I'm more concerned by thermal decomposition, which forms all kinds of mystery chemicals of unknown risk profile. Restaurants love to sear food and I wouldn't be surprised if some of them do it on PTFE cookwear.

[stuff4ben]

its highly unlikely any restaurant uses teflon coated pans. Most use carbon steel or stainless. Teflon just won't hold up in daily use at a restaurant.

[SkyeCA]

Teflon is so useful when cooking that I'm going to use it until the moment it gets banned regardless of health impacts.

[hyperbovine]

Cooking with it at normal fry pan temperatures (350-400f) is safe, this has been repeatedly confirmed in experiments, some not even funded by DuPont. Don’t do crazy things like really high temp searing and don’t use metal utensils that cause the coating to flake off. Also if you’re really concerned ceramic nonstick + oil has come a long way. And I should add the the most nonstick pan I own is actually a properly seasoned carbon steel wok, yes it’s really possible if you know what you’re doing.

[asimovfan]

If you mean just a skillet / frying pan, i found that a cast iron pan is much better (for non stick), have been using a €10 one for about three years now. You can ignore all warnings about keeping it oiled etc. They also have glass air fryers now (borosilicate glass, quite durable). You can scrub both with a steel sponge.

[chadpaulson]

I use ceramic, but recently learned that nitrided carbon steel pans are the way to go. They are both useful AND safe. Do yourself a favor and invest in one.

[Cthulhu_]

I'll keep using teflon frying pans for eggs, but we do most cooking in stainless steel pots and pans anyway.

[SamBam]

Honestly it doesn't take too long to learn how to cook properly on other types of pans. I use my cast iron pans for nearly everything. I have stainless steel for the rest. There is nothing I can't do in them.