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.
There are people who go crazy with cast iron pans, seasoning and whatnot. I have had the same cast iron pan for around 30 years and I washed it by hand like all the other dishes before I had a dishwasher and now I wash it in a dishwasher, it works the same all these years.
You really do need to make sure that you’re drying it, though. If the dishwasher doesn’t do a good job of drying it, and you don’t hand-dry it, you will rust cast iron. And, yes, you can strip some of the surface off and get a rusted piece of cast iron back into shape, but it’s a pain in the rear. Stainless steel doesn’t care if it sits around with water on it.
Going from non-stick to stainless steel buys me not having to worry about using metal utensils. It’s gonna last a lot longer.
But going from stainless steel to cast iron doesn’t really buy me much. I mean, cast iron tends to be thick, but if you want, you can get thick-walled cooking implements that have a stainless steel surface too.
The only thing I can think of that cast iron buys relative to stainless steel is maybe if someone wants some extra iron added to their food – something that might matter more for women who are menstruating – but if one wants iron supplements, I mean, one can just take iron supplements, and that gives more control than the amount coming out of cookware.
Imo pans just take too much space in the dishwasher so I’ll just wash them immediately after use. Takes like 30 seconds because the pan still being hot helps immensely. After drying I like to oil them, just because I like how they look oiled, literally no other reason.