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.
I like french omelets and haven’t once come close to being able to make one successfully on anything but a non stick pan. Even chefs like Jacques Pepin uses them for dishes like that, and a lot of french dishes are low heat, so I understand why they’d want pans that can perform well for that. Personally, I’ve had my non sticks for many years now and they’re still in great condition because I take care of them. I don’t overheat them, I only use silicone or wood on them, and I hand wash them (because dishwashers can’t physically scrub, dishwasher detergents have abrasives in them to dislodge food from surfaces which will scratch up the pan and make it deteriorate. It’s also why you don’t put knives in the dishwasher.). Every time I’ve been over at someone’s house with bad quality non stick pans and observed them cook, they’ve been doing everything wrong, metal utensils, high heat, dishwasher. Those things will destroy your pans immediately, and you’re not going to know that unless you’re already into cooking, and another part of the problem is that the people who will benefit from the pans the most, are also people who aren’t good at cooking yet. Used correctly, they’re still a very good tool to have in your arsenal for many dishes for even an experienced cook.
I do think it’s a big problem that people use the pans incorrectly all the time, it’s bad for the environment to not take care of the stuff you own and have to trash them early, but that’s true in general. In the case of non stick pans it’s extra bad because of the chemicals used in them and that they also will impact your health since the fumes that can be produced by using them wrong is dangerous, so maybe these pans need to come with instruction manuals, or maybe people are just too irresponsible for us to have nice things, but I personally really like them for a lot of specific dishes that they excel at, all dishes that require non stick at low heats.