Unfortunately, pots and pans might be introducing toxins into your food as you cook. The big takeaway from our research is that most types of cookware do infuse small amounts of material into our food. Some of those things are bad for us, some are good in the right quantity, and some are neutral.
And as much as we should avoid toxins in what we breathe and touch, we REALLY should avoid eating them! For this reason, we consider upgrading to non-toxic cookware an important step for those of you looking to make your homes safer.
You’ll find lots of details on a variety of non-toxic cookware options in this guide, as well as materials we’d rather see you avoid. If you’re short on time, here is a cheat sheet of the brands we love.
1. Xtrema / 2. Lancaster Cast Iron / 3. 360 Cookware / 4. Visions / 5. Caraway / 6. Our Place/ 7. Le Creuset / 8. GreenPan
I’m lucky to live in a neighborhood with lots of great “healthful” restaurants. I put that word in quotes because while organic French fries cooked in trans-fat free oil are better than what you’ll get at McDonald’s, they aren’t exactly kale chips.
So we try to cook at home most nights. My husband is much more of a chef than I am, so he is the one who purchases most of our pots and pans (and woks and stockpots and mandolins and 87 different knives…he loves kitchen gadgets!).
As with many products in our home (from toilet paper to laundry detergent to shampoo), Daylon is primarily worried about the performance of his cookware, and I am mainly worried about the safety. The good news here is that you really can have both. We’ve managed to find high-performing AND non-toxic cookware that both Daylon and I are happy with.
I hope this guide helps you decide what cookware to eliminate, and what non-toxic cookware to buy when it’s time for new pots and pans.
Pots and pans come in a wide range of materials. Some cookware materials are okay, if you have the right variety, or if you don’t use them every day.
The following materials are always non-toxic, and we will share our favorite brands below, under The Best Stuff.
Carbon steel is sometimes used for frying pans and woks. It’s similar to cast iron, and can leach small amounts of iron into food, which is great if you happen to have someone with slight anemia in your home!
For most of human history, people suffered from iron deficiencies, so cooking with cast iron helped to prevent anemia. In modern cultures, the opposite is true. Most of us get plenty of iron, and there’s a point at which ingesting too much can be problematic. In our kitchen, we try to switch between cast iron pans and pans made of other materials throughout the week. If you want to be extra cautious, you could avoid cast iron for recipes with long cooking duration or acidic foods, as this will cause increased iron leaching.
Stainless steel pans are generally Good Stuff, but stainless steel is made with nickel. The more nickel in the mix, the more “stainless” it is. The problem is that our bodies can handle some nickel, but too much isn’t healthy. This means that high quality stainless steel cookware, which has higher percentages of nickel, is actually of more concern than lower quality stainless steel! We know that stainless steel pans do leach nickel (along with some chromium and iron), especially with longer cooking times and when cooking acidic foods such as tomatoes. To minimize the potential for nickel leaching, you’d ideally want a pan that’s 18/4 or 18/0 stainless steel (that first number is the percentage of chromium; the second is nickel). I wouldn’t be concerned about using stainless steel as long as you just switch up your cookware. If you sometimes using cast iron and enamel pots and pans, you won’t be exposing yourself to too much nickel from stainless steel. If you’re still worried, you could avoid stainless steel when cooking acidic foods for long time periods.
Glass is probably the most inert of any cooking surface, and you can even get pots and pans made of this ultimate Good Stuff!
Titanium is a non-toxic and biocompatible metal, so it is used for medical instruments, dental implant devices, and joint replacements. Titanium is also lightweight and extremely strong. Titanium cookware uses an aluminum base for even heat transfer and distribution. The non-porous, non-stick titanium outer surface does not allow any aluminum to leach through.The only reason to be cautious about titanium cookware is that it seems that most manufacturers now coat their titanium cookware with non-stick finishes, rendering it “Bad Stuff.”
When shopping for non-toxic cookware, some of these materials come in safe forms. Other times, they are treated (or untreated, as the case may be) in a way that renders them less safe.
Without testing a clay pot for every possible contaminant, you have no way of knowing what might be leaching into your food—without a glaze on the pot, there is no protective barrier between what’s in the clay and your meal.To me the risks of unglazed clay pots and pans outweigh the potential benefits of the good minerals that might leach into your food—calcium, iron, etc.
Made from natural materials such as clay and minerals, ceramic cookware offers excellent heat retention and distribution. Its non-reactive surface makes it ideal for cooking acidic foods, and it is also appreciated for its nonstick properties, requiring less oil or fat during cooking. Furthermore, it is generally considered safer than nonstick alternatives since it doesn’t contain potentially harmful chemicals like PFOA or PTFE. Ceramic cookware can be considered a safe less-stick if not truly truly non-stick material. Some ceramic cookware is coated with materials that may contain harmful substances like lead, cadmium, and other heavy metals. To ensure safety, it is crucial to choose ceramic cookware that is labeled as free from toxic materials and is certified as being compliant with safety standards.
In essence, enamel is a form of glass. Enameled cookware is most often cast iron with an enamel coating. This type of cookware is wonderful to cook with. Some people have worried about lead in the enamel cookware, since the enamel coating is often made of clay, which can leach lead. For this reason, we suggest choosing high quality enamel cookware from well-known brands.
For more details on these materials, and the brands we like most (and which brands should be avoided), check out the Best, Good, Bad, and Sneaky brands that follow.
Xtrema‘s non-toxic cookware is the best option if you want NO non-stick treatment. We can’t call it non-stick, but it is “less stick” than the other safest options. You’ll read more about traditional non-stick pans and the newer materials, below.
Shop Xtrema
The following materials are always unsafe when used for cookware. You’ll learn more about how to avoid them under the Bad Stuff and Sneaky Stuff, below.
The main concern with nonstick cookware is the chemical perfluorooctanoic acid (PFAS), which has historically been used in the manufacturing process of many nonstick coatings.
There are two big problems with PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals“:
If you choose to use traditional nonstick cookware with PFAS, it’s important to follow the manufacturer’s instructions. Avoid using metal utensils or abrasive scrubbers that could scratch the surface of the coating. Overheating the cookware can also cause the coating to break down and release toxic fumes. Of course, our recommendation is that you switch to one of the less toxic types of cookware below.
Believe it or not, you can actually get a plastic pot. Don’t buy one; all kinds of Bad Stuff—from phthalates to BPA to worse—leaches out of many types of plastic when heated. (You probably already know that you shouldn’t microwave food in plastic either, right?).
Various studies have linked elevated aluminum levels to everything from anemia and other blood disorders to ALS and Parkinson’s. Avoid all aluminum cookware. Note that pans with an aluminum core within cookware made of safer metals (such as stainless steel) are fine—you just want to make sure that no aluminum touches your food.
Like iron, copper is an essential mineral. A healthy diet supplies plenty of copper, but elevated levels of copper in your body can be toxic.
Many foods can react with unprotected copper cookware (where the food comes in direct contact with the copper) and leach too much copper into your food. Copper-core cookware is fine, though copper cookware that is “protected” with a coating of stainless steel is subject to the same concerns as stainless steel (see above, under The Good Stuff).
You can read many reports claiming that Teflon is harmless, but the studies showing it to be toxic are far more convincing. The EPA told companies in 2015 to phase out some of the chemicals in their formulations due to health concerns, and the EWG advises consumers to avoid Teflon.
Most nonstick pans are aluminum coated with polytetrafluoroetheylene (PTFE), otherwise known as Teflon. The big issue with Teflon isn’t ingesting it, but rather breathing it in when it gets hot (it’s actually toxic enough to kill pet birds!). Teflon-coated pans should be avoided.
And yes, even expensive, high-tech non-stick pans (such as Circulon) should be avoided. You can read more about PFAS chemicals in this posts’s introduction, above. A few examples of nonstick brands that have been found to contain PTFE:
Newer “safe” nonstick pans are increasingly available, but unless we’ve included them above, under The Good Stuff, we advise you to proceed with caution.
Any nonstick pan that says it’s “PFOA-Free” is really Sneaky, because no nonstick pans contain PFOA (it’s created during production but always burned off in the final product). Pans that specify that they are free of PFOA almost certainly contain PTFE.
One especially Sneaky brands is Ozeri, which claims to be PTFE free, but which was found to contain it in samples tested in 2020 by Ecology Center.
Companies like Earthen Cookware and Vitaclay have gained popularity because they contain no finish of any kind. However, the clay itself can provide a health risk, as it may contain harmful—albeit natural—things like aluminum, cadmium, and lead.
While both Vitaclay and Miriams’s Earthen Cookware do provide testing showing their products free of specific heavy metals, the actual composition of the clay in both cases is “proprietary,” which is why I’m calling both of them Sneaky Stuff.
Under The Good Stuff, I mentioned ceramic cookware. This is just remember to avoid any ceramic pots and pans that are treated with nonstick materials, which includes brands like Caphalon and Farberware.
Lots of you have asked about the best non-toxic teakettle. Our picks are the kettles from Xtrema, Staub, or Caraway.
Stay sane,
About the Author
Maia, Founder & CEO
Maia grew up in a Vermont household without a TV or microwave. She has been researching and writing about non-toxic products since 2010, and has appeared in a variety of media outlets, including The New York Times, The Huffington Post, New York Magazine, and The Dr. Oz Show. Maia lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two sons, and you can follow along as she tries to live a less toxic, more planet-friendly life here.
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