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France votes to ban ‘forever chemicals,’ exempting frying pans (www.politico.eu)

submitted 7 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

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The French National Assembly on Thursday unanimously adopted a bill aimed at restricting the manufacture and sale of products containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — also known as PFAS or “forever chemicals.” The MPs, backed by the government, voted to exclude kitchen utensils from the scope of the text.

Thanks to an intense lobbying push, manufacturers of frying pans and saucepans — including the SEB group, which owns Tefal — are exempt from this ban under the proposed law penned by French Green MPs.

Majority groups initially tried to delay the ban on kitchen utensils until 2030 — a timetable refused by the French Green MPs who instead suggested an exemption until 2026.

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[-] Frozengyro@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago

I presume it's mostly used in the handles. I don't think we cook on plastic.

[-] Not_mikey@slrpnk.net 78 points 7 months ago

It's on the non stick coating for a lot of pans and can easily flake off and be ingested if you damage it by using metal utensils. This is why you should never use metal on nonstick.

[-] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 32 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I have family that makes me rip my hair out over this shit.

They put their non-stick in the oven, They use metal tools on it, and they refuse to replace it when the coating fails and starts coming off.

They denigrate me as some kine of hoity-toity rich man with my "pointless" pain replacements, when they arent getting angry at me for "looking down" on them by saying that their pans unsafe.

Just buy a cast iron or a steel pan for fucks sake!

[-] xnx@slrpnk.net 2 points 7 months ago

What’s wrong with using it in the oven?

[-] Chewget@lemm.ee 13 points 7 months ago

The teflon coating starts to breakdown at higher temperatures. The pan or box they came in has to state not safe for oven use. Also preheating on the burner can cause it. Food in the pan mostly prevents it from reaching that temperature.

Most Teflon pans used to have plastic handles that dummy proofs them from the oven.

[-] Doof@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

I’m more worried that your family forces you to rip your hair out

[-] Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world 22 points 7 months ago

I used to work in food service - I remember one day they replaced all the pans with new ones that had a black Teflon coating... about 6 months later, ALL of the black, except a little bit around the edge, was completely gone. Just bare metal. All of it flaked off into our customers' food.

[-] trashgirlfriend@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago

Were you scraping them with steel wool or something

[-] RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works 12 points 7 months ago

In a commercial kitchen? I'd bet good money they were using metal utensils.

[-] barsoap@lemm.ee 8 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Teflon isn't heat-resistant enough to withstand proper frying temperatures for long and actual chefs are going to do an actual sear. If you want non-stick there's carbon steel or cast iron (as well as proper technique), if you want stick-and-deglaze (yes that's a thing) use stainless steel. All three are going to out-live your great-grandchildren.

If you want something acid-resistant use a ceramic or stainless pan: Stuff like tomato sauce is going to strip patina off cast iron or carbon steel. Sure, you can just re-do the patina but it's going to take some cycles before it's up to its old non-stick properties again. Those non-stick ceramic pans are basically fancy enamel, when they lose their non-stick properties clean them with oxygen bleach that's going to strip fatty residues out of the tiny dimples in the coating and they'll be as good as new. Only way to really damage them is to shatter the coating.

[-] trashgirlfriend@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago

That makes a lot of sense.

A bit odd that a commercial kitchen would buy teflon though considering how fragile it is.

I guess incompetent management is incompetent.

[-] locuester@lemmy.zip 1 points 7 months ago

You don’t think some probably came off in the dishwasher?

[-] Pretzilla@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago

Even so it still goes into the environment forever, per the name.

[-] Gladaed@feddit.de 7 points 7 months ago

To be fair: it is mostly inert. But using carbon steel instead has virtually 0 cost and a much longer lifespan(that yourself)

[-] Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 2 points 7 months ago

Yes, I never understood the problem with carbon steel cookware. Like, we achieved peak ease of overall use. I want tools like that to be always there, stay the same, and that I don't have to ever even think about replacing it. Also its appropriate to cook anything in it.

I've never done it or had the need but at most what you can do is polish the cooking surface of it somehow became scratched/rough & food gets caught in those spots. But seriously, scratching steel (in the amount that doesn't immediately go away with normal use) is kinda hard and an achievement.

I think part of the overall problem is that people start cooking in cold steel cookware?

[-] GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 31 points 7 months ago

That's where you're wrong, bucko

[-] melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee 23 points 7 months ago

Its the non-stick in the non-stick pan.

[-] itsnotits@lemmy.world 5 points 7 months ago

It's* the non-stick

[-] melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee 3 points 7 months ago

I hate this keyboard. You have no idea how much.

[-] Player2@lemm.ee 20 points 7 months ago

Nonstick pans, though most of the harm is from manufacture, not end-use

[-] Daxter101 6 points 7 months ago

Yeah, huge amount of harm to the people around the manufacturing plants.

And some amount of eating extremely inert molecules to the people buying them.

Two separate things, the first worse than the second, but still.

[-] paskalivichi@sh.itjust.works 12 points 7 months ago

Its used as the nonstick coating

[-] itsnotits@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago

It's* used as

[-] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 9 points 7 months ago

PTFE, aka Teflon.

this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2024

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