Healthy cooking doesn’t start with fresh ingredients: it starts with your pans.
In recent years, there has been considerable discussion about the potential dangers of certain types of pans, most notably those with Teflon coatings. Home cooks worry about substances like PFAS, PTFE, PFOA, BPA, and lots of other scary-sounding chemicals like lead, cadmium, and formaldehyde seeping out of their cookware and into their food and potentially causing health problems.
Historically, you’ve had to choose between performance and health, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Made In’s large selection of professional-quality, clean and healthy cookware will keep you and your family safe while maintaining that performance you crave.
Where Are The Healthiest Pans Made?
If healthiness and clean materials are important to you as a home cook, then you should ensure that you trust the source of your pans. The United States and Europe, in particular, have stricter manufacturing standards and requirements than other parts of the world. Made In’s largest assortment of Clean Cookware is manufactured in the United States and Europe, ensuring the highest-quality standards to keep you and your family safe.
What Are the Healthiest Cookware Materials?
According to experts, the top four choices for clean cooking are stainless steel, ceramic-coated, carbon steel cookware and enamel-coated cast iron pots and pans. These materials are considered to be safer because they are durable, and they don’t contain compounds that flake off or leech out into your food. Recently, Made In Cookware has introduced its Seasoned Carbon Steel cookware to the home cook, which has sold over half a million pans to health-conscious home cooks.
What Are the Healthiest Cookware Materials?
A significant part of making informed decisions about clean cooking begins with knowing which pots and pans to avoid. Let’s take a look at some of the biggest offenders when it comes to hazardous cookware.
The worst cookware options for health include some of the most common types often found in home kitchens, like older Teflon, aluminum, and copper with no stainless steel lining. There are also questions surrounding the health and safety of nitrated cookware, which undergoes a toxic nitrogen treatment process.
1) Old Teflon or Flaking Non-Stick Coating
While everyone loves a good non-stick pan, the most famous types are coated with Polytetrafluoroethylene, also known as PTFE, also known as (the much easier-to-pronounce) Teflon. Studies and case reports have proven that this coating can emit fumes into the air when heated improperly. If you are using these pans, you also want to make sure you trust the company you are buying from and where these pans are coming from, as quality and health standards vary by region.
2) Aluminum
Aluminum cookware has been linked to several health problems, especially when used to cook acidic ingredients like tomatoes, tomato sauce, or anything citrus-based. According to a study from Environmental Sciences Europe (ESEU), even a marinade with just a small amount of lemon juice can cause a reaction with the pan, increasing the amount of aluminum you ingest when eating food cooked in it. Excessive accumulation of aluminum in the body can lead to liver, heart, brain, or bone diseases.
3) Unlined Copper
Copper cookware has recently seen a surge in popularity, but if a copper pan lacks a stainless steel lining or has one that can be scratched off, it can be just as risky to use as aluminum or Teflon. This is because, while the body does need copper to stay healthy, too much of it can lead to problems like bone fractures, coronary artery disease, or even neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and more.
What Are The Healthiest Cookware Materials?
The healthiest cookware materials offer users a cooking surface that stays clean and keeps chemicals from getting into their food. Made In Cookware offers the highest-grade, third-party tested assortment for clean cooking.
Here’s a look at the four best healthy materials:
1) Stainless Clad
Stainless Clad pans are the top choice of most chefs who cook for a living because they not only last for decades (making their higher price point worth it), but they are also highly resistant to corrosion. Most importantly, though, stainless clad’s material stays on the pan itself: no matter what you cook in it, no chemicals will leach out into the food. Plus, stainless steel is just plain great at cooking: whether it’s deep frying at high heat, steaming vegetables, or even cooking sauces and soups that stew for hours. Made In’s Stainless Clad pans are used in over 3,000 restaurants and over 1 million homes because they pair healthiness with great performance.
2) Ceramic-Coated Non Stick Pans
Cookware that features a ceramic coating is considered safe because it does not contain coating materials that have come under scrutiny in recent years. Be wary of low-quality ceramic-coated pans, as they will break down quickly. The cheaper the pan, the quicker you will become disappointed with it. Also, the majority of Ceramic-coated pans, like Caraway, most Green Pan pans, or Our Place, hide cheap aluminum underneath the ceramic coating, making them dangerous if the ceramic coating gets scratched, as aluminum can leach into your food. This construction also creates uneven and subpar cooking and searing.. It is best to stick with pans like Made In’s CeramiClad line, which features a 5-ply stainless clad base with a healthy ceramic coating that is free from any chemicals that may harm you.
3) Enamel-Coated Cast Iron
Enamel-coated cast iron pans take all the benefits of a good, sturdy cast iron pan and add a porcelain coating that will never succumb to rust and needs no seasoning. It is not completely non-stick, but it doesn’t contain chemicals, it will never degrade, it doesn’t react with acidic foods like aluminum does, and, best of all, it’s easy to clean. With regular cast iron, soap is a big no-no, but with the enamel-coated option, you can clean to your heart’s delight (well, as long as you don’t get too heavy-handed with a scratchy sponge). Made In’s enameled cast iron skillets and Dutch ovens can also be used for everything from baking biscuits to roasting chicken to slow-cooking chili with no worries about wear and tear.
4) Seasoned Carbon Steel Cookware
Made In introduced Seasoned Carbon Steel to the US market as an alternative to Non Stick cookware, and it quickly became adopted by hundreds of thousands of home cooks and professional chefs.
Made In Cookware’s Seasoned Carbon Steel undergoes two seasonings at the factory using natural oils, resulting in a naturally non-stick surface that is free from synthetic coatings. Most home cooks are turning to fully uncoated pans, and Made In’s Seasoned Carbon Steel provides a naturally non-stick surface that will last forever, and is a great bridge between buying non-stick pans that you have to replace every few years, with the daunting nature of cooking on fully Stainless Clad cookware.
The Best Assortment of Clean Cookware
From ceramic to stainless steel to enamel-coated, Made In has the largest assortment of clean cookware of any brand. For those who are into ceramic, Made In’s CeramiClad pans feature ceramic-coated stainless clad sauciers, frying pans, stock pots, and more that are compatible with induction stoves, oven safe to 500F, and non-stick without the use of toxic chemicals. Those who want to cook like a professional chef will like Made In's award-winning, Italian-made Stainless Clad Cookware (which is also induction compatible), and those who love a good cast iron skillet or Dutch oven will want to check out our French-made Enameled Cast Iron collection that is oven safe to 580F and includes fun, colorful options along with the classic black. And, don’t sleep on Made In’s naturally non-stick Carbon Steel line.
All these pans are:
- Free from harmful chemicals
- Durable and built to last a lifetime
- Crafted by trusted heritage manufacturers in the US and Europe
Ready to Shop?
If you’re ready to make the switch to healthier pots and pans, check out our Clean Cooking Collection now.
