There was, if memory serves, a voluntary agreement by DuPont with the FDA to phase out PTFE by 2015. I don’t see that happening or even any news coverage to follow up. To the contrary, PTFE continues to find new uses. In recent years, it has even begun to turn up in bathroom cleaning products!

I believe it was Dateline or 20/20 that demonstrated several years back that bacon frying in a pan can release these byproducts into the food because it can, in fact, reach dangerous temperatures. Bird owners, too, find that they can’t keep birds in proximity to Teflon during cooking. If the product wasn’t releasing toxins until 500 degrees or greater, there would be no bird deaths. But there have been. And that means that not every context for human health is safe, either.

With the exception of people who are unusually health conscious, most people I know who own Teflon-coated cookware use it after it begins to scratch. I know MDs who think nothing of it. The problem is that once a substance is common people will push the safety limits. Not unlike the over-use of Tylenol to the point where liver damage can occur in combination with other drugs or alcohol. People think “A little bit didn’t hurt so a lot won’t either.”

I don’t know what sensationalist article you read on the Internet pertaining to the dangers of nonstick coatings, but they aren’t exactly exaggerated. I am not saying that everyone should abandoned properly cared for nonstick products, but I do believe its use should be scaled back and the demand for cleaner, organic solutions should be recognized as a selling point, not unlike the removal of BPA from plastic is now appearing on product packaging as a selling point.

An informed consumer is a consumer that will drive new market innovations. Where there is a buyer there is a market to be tapped. There’s no reason not to fulfill that demand just to keep an old product on the market.

Tanya

The problem is that, like with your bread maker, the base material under the teflon is virtually always aluminium. This means that as long as there are no scratches at all, there is no way for the food to come into contact with the aluminium, but if it does get scratched then obviously it can.

Wash the pans without using a scourer, don’t use metal utensils in them, and check for scratches and you should be fine.

Hope that helps.

Though rare perhaps – still a possibility; and perhaps sufficient cause to give Teflon a miss.

If it was 400°C then it would just burn the outside of whatever you put in it long before the middle cooked.

The numbers I gave are in degrees C, so your grill is still about 55° below the point where there is any chance of danger.

Matt here from Rice Cooker Guide.

I am in the process of getting some feedback about the safety concerns on Teflon since most rice cookers use this substance for the non stick bowls. In doing so, I have stumbled across your post.

I have found the read to be helpful, and will link to this page from my site as a result. Thanks for the information and for putting it in to an honest perspective!

Regards,

-Matt

I hate scare mongering when there is really no reason. The simple fact is that in domestic usage Teflon pans are perfectly safe.

They might conceivably be bad for any pet birds if you overheat them, but then why on earth would you have birds in your kitchen?