The non-stick pan turned sticky! Did I eat the coating?

In 1938, Americans accidentally discovered a slippery substance; later, a French angler used it on fishing gear; finally, the angler's wife used it on frying pans.

The non-stick pan that benefits millions of people was born and was called the "Happy Pan".

However, if you want your non-stick pan to always be a "happy pan", you have to pay attention to these things.

Don't use a metal spatula!

Please treat your non-stick pan gently, don't use an iron or stainless steel spatula, and don't use a steel wool to scrub it!

The slippery substance mentioned at the beginning is called polytetrafluoroethylene, and when it was a product of DuPont it was called Teflon. It is stable and waterproof.

In order to get the "non-stick" Teflon to stick to a frying pan, the surface of the pan must first be roughened to help it hold the sprayed paint.

Finally, the pan is heated to about 400°C and the "non-stick" coating is fixed on the pan.

Some non-stick pans are not made with solid craftsmanship, the coating is not firmly adhered and easily falls off.

If you often use a hard and sharp metal spatula to cook, the coating inside will be scraped off little by little; washing with a steel wool will also rub off some of the coating.

Gradually, you find that the non-stick pan you bought not long ago starts to stick!

Therefore, when cooking in a non-stick pan, it is better to use a wooden spatula or a silicone spatula that is not so hard.

The coating was eaten?

A question then arises:

The coating of the non-stick pan is slowly scraped off by the spatula. Where does it go?

Could it have been mixed into the food and eaten?

Will it cause chronic poisoning???

Most likely you ate it, but it’s not a big problem!

The main component of the coating is not hazardous

Let’s first talk about the main body of the non-stick coating, polytetrafluoroethylene.

As mentioned before, its properties are very stable and it rarely reacts chemically with other substances. Therefore, even if you eat it, it is still polytetrafluoroethylene in your body and it is also polytetrafluoroethylene when you poop it out.

Experiments on rats have shown that polytetrafluoroethylene is non-toxic when contained in food at a concentration of 25%[8].

By the way, this material can also be used in medicine to make artificial blood vessels, which are safe to implant into the human body.

But PTFE is not lovely at high temperatures.

When heated to 260°C, polytetrafluoroethylene begins to produce smoke;

When heated to 350°C, people in the smoke will experience flu-like symptoms such as headaches, chills, and fever;

Above 400°C, polytetrafluoroethylene will decompose and release toxic fluorine-containing compounds.

What causes a non-stick pan to get so hot? Dry burning!

In 2012, a case was reported in Japan.

A man fell asleep while using a non-stick pan and forgot to turn off the fire, leaving the non-stick pan burning dry for 5 hours, producing a lot of white smoke.

After waking up from the shock, he immediately put the non-stick pan under the tap to rinse it.

The boiling pot came into contact with the cool water, stirring up a large amount of steam. After inhaling the steam for several hours, the man felt tired and had difficulty breathing, then developed a fever and a dry cough.

Fortunately, he felt much better after receiving oxygen in the hospital, and was completely fine after 3 days.

So as long as you don't dry-burn the non-stick pan, the harm of polytetrafluoroethylene will not be great.

(In fact, dry-boiling a pot is quite dangerous, be careful of fire) (Do not try)

Possible carcinogens are "coating excipients"

The widely-rumored rumor that "non-stick pans cause cancer" is not caused by polytetrafluoroethylene, but by an auxiliary ingredient in the coating - perfluorooctanoic acid.

This perfluorooctanoic acid is really sad to talk about.

It was once an essential material for the production of polytetrafluoroethylene, but as time went by, people gradually discovered its disadvantages.

In animal experiments, PFOA can induce some types of tumors, cause death in pups, and be toxic to the liver, immune system, and endocrine system (at doses much greater than those in non-stick pans);

In epidemiological studies, people have found that high levels of PFOA in the blood are associated with an increased risk of cancers such as kidney cancer and testicular cancer, and are also associated with infertility.

There is a movie called "Dark Waters" which talks about the harm of large-scale exposure to perfluorooctanoic acid to the human body and the environment.

Although "correlation" does not mean "causation", it does represent a certain risk. In addition, with technological advances, non-stick pans produced in the past decade or so basically do not use perfluorooctanoic acid.

In 2004, after the health risks of non-stick pan coatings were exposed, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine conducted a special spot check on PFOA. No PFOA residues were detected in 28 products from 18 brands on the market at the time[9].

Even if some small brands of non-stick pans contain PFOA, most of the PFOA will evaporate during the heating step of making the non-stick pans.

If you're still worried

In a word, the non-stick pans purchased in recent years are not toxic and can be used basically casually; they can still be used even if the coating falls off (but the pan will become sticky). If your wallet is thick enough, it is also a good idea to replace them with new ones.

However, the ingredients of non-stick coatings all have long, chemical-smelling names. If this makes you feel uneasy, you may consider using a non-stick pan with a ceramic non-stick coating.

Unlike the "chemical non-stick" of polytetrafluoroethylene, this non-stick pan uses the "physical non-stick" route.

Let's put it this way, "ceramic coating" is not real ceramic, but the main raw materials of ceramics such as silicon oxide and aluminum oxide are ground and processed into slurry, which is then coated and reinforced on the inner wall of the pot. From a microscopic perspective, the surface of the coating looks a bit like a lotus leaf.

The key point when using it is not to use an iron spatula or steel wool. After all, it is a coating and will wear out. Some ceramic coatings are more brittle than traditional coatings, so it is not worth it if they are damaged.

References

[1]https://www.compoundchem.com/2016/02/04/teflon/

[2]Steenland K, Fletcher T, Savitz D A. Epidemiologic evidence on the health effects of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA)[J]. Environmental health perspectives, 2010, 118(8): 1100-1108.

[3] Bartell SM, Vieira VM. Critical review on PFOA, kidney cancer, and testicular cancer. J Air Waste Manag Assoc. 2021, 71(6):663-679.

[4] Tarapore P, Ouyang B. Perfluoroalkyl Chemicals and Male Reproductive Health: Do PFOA and PFOS Increase Risk for Male Infertility? Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021, 18(7):3794.

[5] Sinclair E, Kim SK, Akinleye HB, Kannan K. Quantitation of gas-phase perfluoroalkyl surfactants and fluorotelomer alcohols released from nonstick cookware and microwave popcorn bags. Environ Sci Technol. 2007, 41(4):1180-1185.

[6] Sajid, M., Ilyas, M. PTFE-coated non-stick cookware and toxicity concerns: a perspective. Environ Sci Pollut Res 2017, 24, 23436–23440.

[7] Shimizu T, Hamada O, Sasaki A, et al. Polymer fume fever[J]. Case Reports, 2012.

[8]Naftalovich R, Naftalovich D, Greenway FL. Polytetrafluoroethylene Ingestion as a Way to Increase Food Volume and Hence Satiety Without Increasing Calorie Content. Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology. 2016;10(4):971-976.

[9]http://www.gov.cn/jrzg/2006-03/03/content_217028.htm

Author: The miserable thallium baby

Editor: Li Xiaokui

Guokr (ID: Guokr42)

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