What PFAS-Free Cookware Tests Can Tell You

A pan labelled PFAS-free can still produce a fluorine reading in a lab. That happened when CHOICE, the Australian consumer organisation, tested 17 cookware items advertised as made without PFAS, a large family of man-made chemicals. Frying pans, saucepans and air-fryer trays carried a reassuring promise. CHOICE wanted to find out how the makers backed up that promise.¹

The lab scraped material from the cooking surfaces and measured total fluorine, a chemical element found in PFAS. But fluorine also occurs in minerals used in ceramic coatings. A reading could point towards PFAS without revealing which substances were actually there. CHOICE therefore had a reason to look more closely at the labels.¹

CHOICE followed up seven higher readings with tests for particular compounds and asked makers for evidence. The lab found traces of one specific PFAS, listed on its test report as PFBA. This result identified one member of the chemical family, not the whole family. It appeared in all seven samples, at 5.1 to 170 micrograms per kilogram of coating. Oliver Jones, an analytical chemistry professor quoted by CHOICE, did not consider those traces concerning. CHOICE reported that their origin was unclear. The tests included PFOA, PFOS and PFHxS, names for three well-known PFAS found in the environment. Those and the other chemicals checked were below the level the lab could reliably measure. CHOICE said it was confident in the claims of the manufacturers it had approached. Not every maker replied to its questions. Some supplied statements about what went into the coating. One maker sent an independent lab’s food-contact test, which showed no chemical transfer into the food. It also sent results that did not detect the particular PFAS compounds checked. The food-contact test asked what reached food; the compound test looked for certain chemicals. Those results gave CHOICE different ways to examine the same claim.¹

For someone choosing a pan, the useful question becomes what was measured and how the pan is made. The health question needs another step: how could a substance reach a person, and under what conditions?

Heat changes what a coating can do

Extreme overheating can turn a useful non-stick coating into a source of hazardous gases. Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment gives a clear warning about PTFE, the man-made material used in many non-stick pans. It advises against heating an empty pan coated with it. At around 360 degrees Celsius and above, the coating can break down and release gases into the surrounding air.²

PTFE belongs to the PFAS family. Its resistance to water and fat helps food lift away from the cooking surface. That is a real benefit, especially when easy release and cleaning matter. The same pan needs care that suits its coating; the danger of extreme empty-pan heating gives the advice a purpose beyond keeping it looking new.²

The German institute expects no adverse health effects when PTFE cookware is used as intended. It also says that, to date, illness from the gases has been reported only in industrial manufacture, rather than people’s homes. The advice to avoid overheating is a step a cook can follow today. The institute’s review also makes clear where illness has been reported.²

A scratched surface raises another question

CHOICE’s lab had scraped coating to learn what was in it. A cook sees that surface in a different way, as something that can wear or get scratched. What happens when small pieces come away?

Yunlong Luo and colleagues explored particle release in a 2022 study. They used Raman imaging, which uses scattered light to tell materials apart, on non-stick pots in a lab model of cooking. Their paper describes how they worked to pick out the weak signal of tiny pieces of PTFE. Using that method, the team estimated that thousands to millions of tiny PTFE particles might be released during the lab’s model of cooking.⁶

The two investigations measured different things: Luo’s team studied particles, while CHOICE’s compound tests looked for named chemicals. The German institute expects no harm from accidentally swallowing small pieces of a scratched PTFE coating. It explains that PTFE reacts very slowly and the pieces pass through the body unchanged.² Particle detection alone does not establish an illness caused by a particular pan. A study that followed the pan’s release, the amount reaching a person and a health outcome would let the health advice become more specific.

For the pan in your kitchen today, the next step is care. CHOICE recommends low to medium heat for non-stick coatings, and keeping metal utensils and scourers away from them. Together with the warning about empty PTFE pans, that gives the coating a practical set of limits.^2,7

A lasting coating can create a lasting concern

Keeping a coating useful is one task. Keeping its chemicals out of water and soil is another. In the German institute’s podcast about frying pans, biologist Claudia Lorenz explained this difficulty: PFAS break down slowly after they enter the environment, so they can accumulate. The qualities that make these chemicals useful do not disappear when their useful job ends.³

Once pollution reaches water and food, a different route into the body opens. The US Environmental Protection Agency lists drinking polluted water and eating affected food among the ways people encounter PFAS. Europe’s food safety authority describes how these chemicals can build up in fish, plants and animals. Its 2020 review of four PFAS used a weaker immune response to vaccines to set a limit for dietary intake.^4,5

That dietary finding gives the wider concern a physical health consequence. The food authority also says cookware and food packaging make a small contribution to people’s PFAS exposure compared with other sources.⁵ The dietary finding does not identify the pans in CHOICE’s test as its cause. The evidence reviewed for this October 2026 report does not establish the long-term health effect of each tested pan formulation. The US agency says work continues on low exposure over long periods; much of the evidence concerns a small group of better-studied chemicals.⁴

A cook can hold both points in mind: there is a supported reason to reduce avoidable PFAS use, while these sources do not settle the long-term effects of each pan formulation. The gap proves neither safety nor harm. You can still choose a surface that meets your cooking needs with fewer doubts about its materials and upkeep.

Choose a pan that can stay useful

When a replacement is needed, a cooking surface without a man-made non-stick coating avoids relying on that coating. The pan still has to suit your kitchen. CHOICE describes cast iron as heavy and slow to heat and cool. Stainless steel is strong and resists rust, but is poor at spreading heat. Pan bases often combine it with aluminium or copper to help heat spread. A pan that you can lift and cook with comfortably deserves a place in the choice.⁷

Cast iron also shows why maintenance deserves attention. Manufacturer Lodge explains that a rusty bare cast-iron pan can be cleaned and seasoned again. Seasoning is a protective layer of baked-on oil: removing rust and renewing that layer can return the pan to use. Follow the maker’s care guide for the actual pan; some damage may need a different answer.⁸

Repair and care should come before throwing away a pan where they are possible. Ask how every material can be recovered without losing quality once repair is no longer possible. That means checking how the pan is built. A familiar metal name does not tell you whether its handle comes off or its base layers can be pulled apart.

Some suggested buying questions follow from that aim. Ask the seller what each part is made from and which parts can be repaired or taken apart. Ask the intended recycling service whether it accepts each of those materials. A full recycling route still needs proof for the actual pan. Its weight, care needs, price and what is sold locally also matter.

The pan’s useful job remains cooking food. A PFAS-free claim can help describe its coating, but the fuller decision includes the test behind the claim, care during use and what happens when a part wears out. Those are details worth having before the next pan comes home.