Types of Cookware
Pots and pans come in a wide range of materials, and the cooking surface matters more than the brand name. Let’s go through the options, including the brands we recommend.
Non-Toxic Cookware Materials
The following materials can be good cookware choices. The exact product and how you use and care for it matter, too.
Carbon Steel
Carbon steel is often used for frying pans and woks. Uncoated carbon steel is an iron-and-carbon alloy, and its easy-release surface comes from seasoning with oil rather than a synthetic nonstick coating. Like cast iron, it can add iron to food (see more on this under the next entry!).
Cast Iron
Cast iron can add more iron to food during long cooking times, especially with acidic foods. Whether extra iron is helpful depends on the person. If you have iron overload or have been advised to limit iron, ask your clinician about cookware choices. I’m almost always borderline anemic, so the extra iron is a plus for me, and I cook in cast iron as much as possible. It’s still not my favorite because it’s so heavy.
Stainless Steel
Stainless steel pans are generally Best Stuff. Chromium helps form the protective surface that makes the steel resist rust; many cookware grades also contain nickel. Numbers like 18/8 and 18/10 describe the approximate percentages of chromium and nickel.
Stainless steel can release nickel and chromium into food. How much depends on the alloy, the food, cooking time, and the pan’s history of use. The nickel percentage alone doesn’t tell us how much will leach.
If you’re allergic or sensitive to nickel, check the food-contact surface and ask your clinician whether nickel-free cookware makes sense for you. You can also avoid prolonged cooking of acidic foods in stainless steel. Personally, I am not worried about any of this and use stainless steel for much of our cooking.
Glass and Glass-Ceramic
Glass and glass-ceramic are options worth considering. Their hard, nonporous surfaces resist reacting with food and don’t need a PFAS-based nonstick coating. Glass-ceramic starts as glass that’s been heat-treated to form tiny crystals, giving cookware made from it excellent heat resistance. Be sure the particular piece is designed for the way you plan to use it. An oven-safe glass baking dish isn’t necessarily suitable for the stovetop.
Titanium
Titanium cookware comes in several constructions. Titanium naturally forms a thin, stable oxide layer that helps keep the metal from corroding, which is one reason we like uncoated titanium cooking surfaces. Some pans have a titanium cooking surface over other metals; others are made primarily from titanium. The word “titanium” also doesn’t tell you whether a pan has a nonstick coating. Check the actual cooking surface rather than relying on the name alone.
Materials That May Be Safe in Cookware
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.
Clay
For clay cookware, I’d want food-contact testing for the specific finished product. Whether a pot is glazed or unglazed doesn’t, by itself, tell us whether it can release lead or other contaminants.
Magnifique makes clay-pot appliances, including the Claypot Multi-Cooker, which can slow-cook, braise, sauté and cook rice in a removable kaolin-clay pot. The company says the pot and lid have a kaolin-clay glaze rather than a synthetic nonstick coating. Its published Light Labs summary for the Capsule Claypot lists lead, cadmium and the PFAS tested below the reported limits. Those findings apply to the tested samples, so I wouldn’t treat them as a guarantee about every Magnifique appliance.
Coated Ceramic
The ceramic nonstick lines from GreenPan, Our Place, and similar brands aren’t solid ceramic cookware like Xtrema. They’re metal pans with a silica-based coating that creates the nonstick surface. GreenPan and Our Place say these ceramic coatings are made without PFAS, which is one reason we recommend those lines. But the coating can chip and lose its easy-release performance over time, especially with high heat, metal utensils, or abrasive cleaning.
A small chip isn’t proof of a sudden chemical-exposure problem, but that doesn’t make every damaged pan safe to keep using. Follow the maker’s guidance, and replace pans with peeling, flaking, or badly worn cooking surfaces. I’d still like more transparency about full coating formulations and long-term wear; that’s not the same as evidence that harmful trace substances are present. For everyday use, durability is my bigger concern.
Enamel
Enamel is a glass-like coating, often applied to cast iron. This type of cookware is wonderful to cook with. For enamel and ceramic cookware, we look for products intended for food use and relevant testing of the finished pieces. A glaze alone isn’t a safety guarantee.
Materials to Avoid in Cookware
These are the cooking surfaces we generally prefer to avoid. A metal inside a pan can be different from the surface that touches your food, so check the complete construction.
- Bare aluminum cooking surfaces
- Unlined copper cooking surfaces
- PTFE and other PFAS-based nonstick coatings
- Plastic cookware
When looking at testing, check which product and substances were tested, how the testing was done, and what the results actually show. A Proposition 65 warning, or the absence of one, isn’t a comprehensive cookware safety certification.
247 comments
Maia James
I have not tried the new pan (so I can’t speak to how it performs), but it should be as non-toxic as their others:).
temperate
I know that Our Place has a new Titanium Always Pan Pro out now. This is supposed to be a new innovation in pans. Is it really non-slip & non-toxic? Do we have any info on these pans?
Graham Goss
Hey Nicole! I totally get it. The sad reality is that we are forced to pay much more to ensure that the proper certifications and safeguards are in place. Similar to organic foods, sometimes what we are paying for is the certifications and transparency of the “Good Stuff”. But if we find anything that is more affordable AND Good Stuff we will update this guide and let you know.
nicole.m.keller
I left a comment already but forgot to add, where can I find good quality baking pans that are less expensive? The good stuff (and even okay stuff) here prices a single loaf pan at over $50 and in some cases a few pieces of bakeware is $300 :( I’m struggling to find plain stainless steel that isn’t of dubious quality… thank you!
nicole.m.keller
Hello, any good choices for baking sheets? I need to order a springform cake pan, donut baking tray, a pie pan, and loaf pans. I don’t know where to find non-toxic ones! Thank you so much!