Safe Non-Stick Pan Alternatives: The Best and Worst Pans In 2024

If you’re looking for non stick pan alternatives to avoid toxin-emitting fluoropolymers used to make Teflon pans, this article reviews and lists out all the different types of alternatives to non-stick pans.

I share all the best options, as well as the worst.

So you know how to wade through bad quality non-sticks trying to fool you with greenwashing.

Jump straight to the list of non-stick pan alternatives.

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Why You Should Switch To Teflon Pan Alternatives

Kept at the right temperatures, something harder to do on home stovetops, they say that Teflon (PTFE, polytetrafluoroethylene) is an inert chemical compound that is not toxic to humans if used under proper conditions.

PTFE production relies on a group of synthetic chemicals called PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.

These are the “forever chemicals” in Teflon pans.

Don’t let any Teflon pan marketing fool you into thinking that the new Teflon pans don’t have PFAS in them anymore.

They do.

They’re just newer ones now.

Once you discover PTFE cookware dangers, there’s no going back.

You either find the best non stick pan without teflon,

…or you let the idea haunt you each time you eat.

I’ll choose option A.

Most Non-Stick Pan Alternatives Don’t Cut It.

Non-stick pan alternatives are not all sunshine and rainbows as their “PTFE-free” marketing may suggest. After public knowledge of the damage inflicted by PFOS and PFOA used to make Teflon pans had come out, many alternative non-stick coatings were created. 

But unfortunately, these have their own toxicity issues.

For example:

• Diamond-infused ceramic-coatings use nanoparticles which are known to disrupt the endocrine system.
• And many ceramic non-stick coatings use toxic metals like lead and cadmium in their formulations.

If the pan is cheap, there’s a reason why.

But expensive non-stick pans can be just as bad (GreenPan).

It’s good to be weary of all the new types of non-stick pan coatings.

Instead, stick to a pre-seasoned, cast iron skillet or carbon steel pan. Both can be good non-stick pan alternatives.

The Forever Chemicals In Non-Stick Cookware

It’s not easy to eat a clean diet, void of any chemical pesticides these days. It’s virtually impossible to avoid all the manufactured, GMO foods.

By the time you’ve beaten your social-conditioning, unlearned what you needed to unlearn, and know more than well how bogus the USDA food pyramid is…

By the time you’re eating mostly organic, grass fed, free range, far lower carb, mostly home-cooked, and all with ease as a part of your lifestyle…

…you’d think that would be enough.

But if you’re using nonstick pans to cook those hard-earned quality ingredients, PFAS chemicals are tainting your food and the whole cooking experience. You should know about this additional obstacle to overcome in your pursuit of health.

Forever chemicals are a group of man-made chemicals that otherwise would not exist in the environment.

They are called PFAS or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.

And they have been shown to be horrible for us.

While ingesting Teflon or PTFE itself off an old, chipped pan may not be bad, as it may pass right through you without harm, the PFAS chemicals used to make that coating are toxic.

These PFAS are in the fumes you inhale while cooking. It’s why indoor pet birds will die, and why people suffer flu-like symptoms when within the vicinity of an overheated Teflon pan.

And it’s not just some temporary flu you get.

Because of our heavy use of these PFAS in non-stick pans as well as things like waterproof gear and fire extinguishers, we have now polluted our wildlife, waters, animals and ourselves with chemicals known to cause cancer, fertility issues, liver damage and more.

Today in America forever chemicals are said to exist in over 95% of the population.

Contaminated food and water are the main ways PFAS has entered our bodies – as fumes and particles or pieces coming off old teflon pans.

These chemicals are ubiquitous in the American environment. More than 2,800 communities in the US, including all 50 states and two territories, have documented PFAS contamination.

– 2022 report on CNN Health on PFAS

Below, the Pennsylvania Department of Health PFAS Fact Sheet mentions how these chemicals have declined since around the time of the public exposure.

Awareness about forever chemicals is undoubtedly behind this decline.

Exposure to PFOS, PFOA and other PFAS like perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), and perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS) are widespread and have been detected in blood samples of the general U.S. population and wildlife. These chemicals have been detected in 95-100% of samples of people’s blood in the years 1999-2000 and 2003-2004. Recent monitoring data show the levels of these chemicals in people’s blood appear to be declining. From 1999-2000 to 2017-2018, blood PFOS and PFOA have declined by more than 85% and 70%, respectively.

– Pennsylvania Department of Health

The main cause of this widespread ingestion of PFAS came from this new Teflon material created and manufactured by the DuPont chemical company in the 1930’s.

Their teflon non-stick cookware contained PFOA and PFOS.

There are thousands of these PFAS chemicals, old, new and soon-to-be.

Older ones like PFOA (Perfluorooctanoic acid) and PFOS (Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid) were the originally widely-used PFAS in Teflon pans. But the contaminatino has also come from decades of DuPont dumping these PFAS chemicals into the Ohio River, poisoning people, animals, lands and everything else in the area and beyond (source).

True Stories About The PFAS (Forever Chemicals) Crisis

1. A 2019 movie called Dark Waters that shows how DuPont contaminated a community for decades. 
2. The Devil We Know is another good one on the subject. It’s an informational docu-film.
3. And lastly, here is an informative article on the situation: “Welcome to Beautiful Parkersburg, West Virginia” 

PFOS and PFOA have since been removed from Teflon cookwares. However, new synthetic PFAS chemicals now replace them.

Around this same time in 2015, DuPont split off into Chemours.

The PFAS chemicals and Teflon operations were split off into the new chemical company.

Today, the problem persists. This September, 2022 article titled “Outrage over Chemours’ plans to expand production after widespread chemical pollution in NC drinking water” shares more about the current PFAS contamination situation.

If everyone stopped buying Teflon, and most importantly taught their children why they did this switch, they wouldn’t be expanding right now in the year 2023. 

Are The New Non-Stick Cookwares Safe?

We have big websites like Healthline sharing that the new Teflon pans are safe to use.

And because PFOA and PFOS have been removed from the non-stick formulations, these pans’ marketing has joined the greenwashed masses.

But there are still mystery forever chemicals in these PTFE formulations.

The new PTFE non-stick pans will still make you sick if you overheat them.

The new Teflon pans will still kill birds.

New PFAS are continually under production.

There are over 3,000 of them today.

And new PFAS have replaced the previous now-exposed PFOS and PFOA.

So new PTFE non-stick cookware is not free from forever chemicals.

The issue persists, and the questions remain unanswered as to how the new PFAS used in their new non-sticks will affect our health in the long term.

Elimination Half-Life Of PFAS From Non-Stick Pans

All PFAS chemicals are known as “forever chemicals” because they are designed to be resistant to degradation.

The elimination half-life of PFOA in humans is roughly estimated to be 3.5 years and for PFOS, approximately 4.8 years.

– the National CDC’s Biomonitoring Program

Below are some more elimination half-life estimations based on type of PFAS.

• Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA): The elimination half-life of PFOA in humans is estimated to be around 2-4 years.
• Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS): The elimination half-life of PFOS in humans is estimated to be around 5-7 years.
• Perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS): The elimination half-life of PFHxS in humans is estimated to be around 5-9 years.
• Perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA): The elimination half-life of PFNA in humans is estimated to be around 2-4 years.

Modern Teflon Pans Still Use PFAS. They’re Just Newer Types.

It is similar to how BPA-free plastic baby bottles will have other harmful chemicals (plasticizers) besides BPA.

To replace BPA in these baby bottles, various similar plasticizers are used.

These include, BPS (bisphenol-S), BPF (bisphenol-F), and the list goes on.

And as parents we end up using these with boiling hot water, or with bottle warmers keeping the plastic bottles hot due to a false sense of security created by this BPA-free marketing.

PFAS-free marketing is misleading because these nonstick coatings still use PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) in their coatings. Modern PTFE coatings have simply replaced old PFAS for new PFAS.

Some of the NEW PFAS in modern pans:

• Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs)
• Perfluorobutanesulfonic acid (PFBS)
• Polyfluoroalkyl ether acids (PFEAs)

Additional PFAS have been shown to be inside the new PTFE non-stick pan coatings as well.

A 2018 statement from a group of scientists and environmentalists, titled, The Madrid Statement on Poly- and Perfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs), advised against the use PFAS chemicals in cookware and revealed some new PFAS chemicals found in nonstick pans and other cookware.

They showed how PFAS chemicals can still be found on PFOA-free nonstick pans. 

More new PFAS found in these PFOA-free marketed nonstick pans, include:

• PFHxS
• PFNA
• PFDA
• PFHpA
• PFHxA

Potential health and environmental impacts from these new PFAS chemicals is unknown.

According to The Environmental Working Group (EWG), once heated to approximately 500°F or above, PFOA-free or not, new PTFE pans still release toxic fumes.

The dangerous chemical, Perfluoroisobutene (PFIB), being the most notable of these released in the fumes. (source) 

How Hot Is Too Hot?

The common advice for Teflon is to keep temperatures below 500°F (260 °C), the temperature where its coating can start to separate and emit toxic particles and fumes.

But a conventional stove top can surpass 500°F (260 °C) in just 2 to 5 minutes! 

In new tests conducted by a university food safety professor, a generic non-stick frying pan preheated on a conventional, electric stovetop burner reached 736°F in three minutes and 20 seconds, with temperatures still rising when the tests were terminated. – The EWG 

Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen blog states that small electric stovetops with the small-coil can reach 932°F to 1112°F when set to high. And gas flame stovetop’s medium heat is 350°F (177°C).

But open flames on a gas stovetop can reach temperatures exceeding 3,000°F! (source)

Health Hazards From Non-Stick Pans

Teflon flu, Polymer fume fever or fluoropolymer fever are the different names for the sickness you get from inhaling an overheated PTFE pan’s fumes.

An inhalation fever caused by the fumes released when polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE, known under the trade name Teflon reaches temperatures of 300 °C (572 °F) to 450 °C (842 °F).

– Wikipedia on Polymer Fume Fever 

But if these fumes can kill birds at “safe” temperature levels, what are these pans’ fumes doing to us at these “safe” temps?

If you care for and have pet birds, you likely already are aware of the dangers. 

You can learn more about how polymer fumes affect birds in this article titled, “Environmental Toxicology: Considerations for Exotic Pets” from the Journal of Exotic Pet Medicine. 

Metals in Non-Stick Pans

Besides PTFE, metals are another concern for non-stick pans.

Metals are used on most non-stick pan alternatives.

The problem with cheap non-stick pans is that they use cheap metals apt to leach.

Leached metals can bind to body proteins and accumulate on your internal organs.

Metals may accumulate in fatty tissues of human bodies, have middle and long-term health risks, and can adversely affect their physiological functions, disrupt the normal functioning of internal organs, or act as cofactors in other diseases [48], [49].

PLOS ONE

• Aluminum – Best to always avoid any additional aluminum ingestion beyond what’s being ingested outside of our consent (it’s in the air).
• Cadmium and Lead – Bright ceramic cookwares often have lead or cadmium, two extremely toxic heavy metals more prevalent in cookware than you’d have ever thought.
• Nickel – If you’re allergic to nickel (wristwatch or metal belt buckles eventually give you skin rashes), look into 18-0 stainless steel which does not use nickel.
• Chromium – The body actually requires a tad amount for some processes. The amount released from an intact, undamaged high quality steel cookware is negligible.

When discussing safe non-stick pan alternatives, health risks from using cheap metal pans or chipped ceramic pans must be considered.

Because metal cores can leach out metallic compounds into the food you’re cooking, even with a fully intact coating.

Metals are also found in non-stick coating formulations.

List of the Best & Worst Non-Stick Pan Alternatives

Starting WITH the best..

..And ending with the worst non-stick pan alternatives.

Most Teflon non-stick pan alternatives have their own sets of issues.

Ceramic, steel, porcelain, etc.

Ceramic chips easily,

Cheap steel leaks out toxic metals like nickel.

Cast Iron pans are the best and least toxic cookware we have at our disposal.

These cast iron pans can come in one of three ways unseasoned, pre-seasoned or enameled.

Traditional Cast-Iron

Cast Iron pans can come unseasoned, pre-seasoned or enameled.

Anything outside of these three main types of cast irons will be inferior (just in case there is a cast-iron quasi-ceramic being sold out there).

The good ole cast iron pan is ultimately the best alternative to toxic non-stick pans.

There is evidence of cast iron cookware being used as far back as 6th century ancient China. The more modern enameled cast iron is made through a process called sand casting. This dates back to 18th century Europe.

Cast iron cookware is long-lasting.

Your cast irons can be your children’s and their children.

And if you’re lucky enough, you already have some passed down to you.

You may prefer to season yourself, but if you want to buy a cast iron skillet and want to make it your non-stick pan right out of the box, then you can buy a triple seasoned cast iron skillet.

Like this one from Lodge:

The only downside is the potential for iron toxicity.

If you’ve taken a blood test and know you’re already high in iron, you should make sure the cast iron skillet is very well seasoned.

There’s a seasoning oil that you can spread around and get it so hot on there that it hardens and creates a natural non-stick surface in the cast iron.

This would likely result in less iron being leached. Cooking your acidic foods in a stainless steel saucepan could be best.

What if cast iron is too heavy for daily cooking?

A carbon steel skillet is a cast iron skillet alternative that once seasoned, becomes an excellent non-stick pan alternative.

Carbon Steel

Cast iron and carbon steel each have their own distinct advantages.

Carbon Steel Pans Advantages Over Cast Iron:

• Lighter weight
• Easier to season than an unseasoned cast-iron.
• Faster cook times because they heat up faster
• More responsive to temp changes vs cast iron’s slow temperature adjustment speed
• Easier to clean as its surface is smoother than cast iron’s.

Carbon steel pans can withstand much higher temperatures than non-sticks.

Many people have switched to carbon steel over their cast irons. The majority of cast iron owners probably haven’t. But it might not be a bad idea to have a carbon steel as a backup to your cast iron. Carbon Steel is a great wok material.

Pure Ceramic Cookware

Xtrema is the only brand I had down as potentially non-toxic.

However, Tamara Rubin from LeadSafeMama found metals within the clay substrate and glaze.

I will leave this as a third option in hopes to find one pure ceramic that is a non-stick pan alternative. But as of now, these should be moved down to the no-good list.

A non-stick coating can be put onto different core metals. Below I’ll share both the alternative coatings and the metal cores used with them.

Enameled Cast Iron

Here are 3 different examples of enameled cast iron cookware

Enameled Cast-Iron pans are also excellent alternatives to Teflon pans.

You may guess that an enameled cast iron skillet would be dark in color.

However, they look more similar to ceramic pans.

These modern ceramic-coated-looking pans you see with the white, shimmering cooking surface are enameled cast-iron.

You wouldn’t guess it’s cast iron if you’ve never seen enameled cast iron before.

You shouldn’t use metal utensils or abrasive cleaners on enameled cast iron pans.

In this way they must be treated a bit like ceramic-coated pans.

Enamel cast iron pans can chip if you mishandle or even overheat.

Another downside is that they are expensive. Le Creuset is one of the more well known brands who make good quality enameled cookware. 

If you’re on a glass top electric stove and want to avoid scraping it or worse with your traditional cast-iron cookware, enameled cookware has a smoother bottom surface that will not scrape the glass, but this doesn’t come without a cost.

Enameled cast-iron pans if chipped will also present toxicity issues. Lead and cadmium can be in them. 

Stainless Steel

Above is an example of a nickel-free stainless steel pan that could work as a non-stick alternative.

The least toxic by far.

The rating on this non-stick alternatives list must be kept low simply because food sticks these very easily (for me).

Can you cook flawless scrambled eggs on a steel pan?

If so, can you tell me your secret?

Regardless, when purchasing a steel saucepan, pot or any cookware type, opt for a nickel-free stainless steel pan.

This would be something like 21/0 or 18/0, or a 304 or 316Ti steel.

There are other good stainless steel alloys as well.

Avoid all the cheaper steels and you’re in good hands with steel cookware (once you get things not to stick!).

Ceramic-Coatings

Of all the PTFE non-stick pan alternatives out there, Ceramic-coated nonsticks are the most popular. They’re also the worst. These degrade just as easily and even faster than PTFE pans.

They have similar low maximum temperature points. And many of these “ceramic-coated” pans use nanoparticles, lead or cadmium. These can go by names like “quasi-ceramic” or “ceramic-titanium”.

There is even less regulation amongst these newer nonstick coating types by the FDA. So we really don’t know what is in some of these ceramic nonstick coatings. 

For example, GreenPan’s Thermolon is a ceramic-coated frypan that is supposed to be 100% safe, yet a lawsuit against them revealed that Thermolon’s “proprietary” ceramic coating was made using toxic ingredients including, aluminum oxide, silane, silicon dioxide, titanium dioxide and thermal polymers.

In this review of a study done where scientists measured the release of titanium dioxide particles from non-stick surfaces of quasi-ceramic frying pans, you learn these ceramic-coated nonsticks don’t even have to be overheated in order to release a “considerable migration of both ions and particles, partially in nanoform”

…mechanical degradation studies showed that the surface wear due to scratches and other types of damage occurring during normal use may lead to significant release of titanium-containing particles, a large proportion of them nanosized.

Food Packaging Forum

Non-Stick Ceramic Pan Brands (Ceramic-Coated):

All of these are not recommended. Each has a metallic core with a non-stick ceramic coating.

• Caraway
• GreenPan Thermolon

GreenPan is a quasi-ceramic cookware. There aren’t any non-toxic quasi-ceramics that I’ve seen, including this one.

• Swiss Diamond – Diamond or titanium-infused ceramic coating.
• Tefal Thermospot – PTFE and ceramic-coatings.
• ScanPan – Titanium-infused ceramic-coatings.

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Aluminum

Is aluminum cookware safe? No, but there’s a hard anodization process that can be used on aluminum to strengthen it and make it a much safer cookware material.

This process changes the molecular structure of aluminum’s surface. So in a way it’s a coating. But it’s not a coating that’s layered on top of a metallic core like any other non-stick coating. When treated with acid and electricity, its molecules change at the pans surface. The result being a better quality, more scratch-resistant and less toxic aluminum for cookware.

Anodized aluminum is safer than non-anodized, and HARD anodized aluminum is better than anodized. However they can all leach aluminum into your food.

If you were to use aluminum, it would be best if it were the hard anodized aluminum. These are more durable and can fend off scratches more successfully compared to regular anodized aluminum pans.

However, they coat the hard anodized aluminum with PTFE or ceramic non-stick coatings, and none of these would be recommended.

Even hard anodized aluminum can leach, so this one is not on any non-toxic cookware lists. But it could be featured in a least toxic cookware list.

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Granite & Stoneware

Granite non-stick pans are not made from granite. And the same goes for stone non-stick pans.

Most of them have PTFE coatings (along with PFOA-free marketing). Others may be a ceramic-coated metal.

There’s nothing granite or stone about these other than their separate appearances.

Each is made with a metallic core, and then has particles infused with the non-stick coating to give it the signature “speckled granite” look for example. Stone pans have that same speckled look, but are lighter in tone to resemble real stones.

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Titanium

When used as a pan’s core or as cookware itself, you can find camping gear made with 100% titanium, but any non-stick pan with a titanium core will be coated with a non-stick coating. Considering none of these are safe, anything with titanium will not be good non-stick alternative.

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A Condensed Alternative Non-Stick Pans List

The Good

• Cast Iron – Once seasoned. You can also buy pre-seasoned.
• Carbon Steel – once seasoned
• Pure Ceramic – Xtrema cookware used to be featured here. 

The Meh

• Enameled Cast Iron – The best of the worst alternatives
• Stainless Steel – 304, 18/0 (if you have a nickel allergy), or 316Ti are great cookware material for everything (if uncoated), but just not very non-stick.

The Bad

• Aluminum pans (coated or uncoated) – Anodized & Hard Anodized
• Non-stick copper pans – As great as copper is, any copper nonstick pan will be lined with a dubious nonstick coating or liner. Cooking with a 100% unlined copper pan would leach dangerous levels of copper.
• Titanium – Pans come coated + used as a coating ingredient
• Ceramic non-stick coatings are popular, but not non-toxic.
• Granite coatings 
• Stoneware coatings
• Silicone-based coatings – Silicone is usually used with a ceramic or PTFE coating. It can potentially release trace amounts of aluminum, chromium, copper, iron, nickel and zinc.
• Earthenware – As natural as it sounds, clay and other uncoated cookware can be just as dangerous, depending on the chemical makeup of the earth used to make it.
• Soapstone cookware can contain asbestos

Have You Switched Away From Traditional Non-Stick Pans?

If you decide to make the switch to non toxic cookware, this in itself immediately transforms your home with improved air, food quality, and people!

Finding non stick pan alternatives was a prerogative for our household once we learned about the dangers of non-stick pans. There’s a quote about ignorance being a choice in this age of information. I think that’s unfortunately true. Being willfully ignorant is not a valid excuse when you’re suffering a consequence. And many consequences have been tied to PFAS, aluminum and heavy metal ingestion.

Am I missing any non-stick pan alternatives?

Do you know any non-toxic, pure ceramic non-stick pan out there?

The above list I hope shares all best non-stick pan alternatives available.

After you’ve guarded your family from toxic cookware, your home’s air will now be cleaner.

But there ARE still potentially some other unknown toxins from everyday household items lingering in the air.

From indoor air fresheners to shampoo, there are many other toxins to learn about and eliminate from our lives.

Next up: View our next article on this subject of air quality, a list of air purifying plants.

Last update on 2024-04-25 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API