Non-stick cookware is useful because it’s not necessary to spray the cookware with oil in order to make sure that whatever is being cooked doesn’t stick to the pan. This saves a lot of time and energy. It is especially convenient if someone doesn’t have oil on hand.
Non-stick cookware was invented by accident. In 1938, Roy Plunkett, an Ohio-born scientist, and his research team were looking for a less toxic chemical to use as a new refrigerant. He had set up a mixture that was supposed to produce tetrafluoroethylene gas. Plunkett left it overnight and when he arrived the next day, it had turned into a white, waxy substance. This substance turned out to be polytetrafluoroethylene.
Let’s break down the word polytetrafluoroethylene. Poly means more than one or many. Tetra means four. And fluoroethylene is the chemical compound known as vinyl fluoride. All these words really denote the chemical makeup of polytetrafluoroethylene.
Polytetrafluoroethylene is also known as PTFE and is extremely slippery. Marc Gregoire was a French engineer who sought a way to make PTFE bond with aluminum. This is how the first non-stick cookware was made. In 1960, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved PTFE for food processing.
PTFE is a fluoropolymer. A fluoropolymer is a polymer (a molecule that is made up of smaller, but the same, molecules) that is inclusive of the element fluorine. Fluorine is the lightest halogen and is extremely reactive. Luckily, the fluorine is bonded with carbon and hence, the compound overall is nonreactive. Fluorine is part of the reason why PTFE is so slippery — it gives PTFE a low coefficient of friction. This is a measurement of how easily substances slide against each other. The lower the coefficient of friction, the more slippery the substance is. The feature of being non-reactive and slippery makes PTFE useful for non-stick cookware.
Teflon is the brand name for PTFE. People who use non-stick cookware will usually talk about Teflon, when they’re talking about their non-stick cookware.
The first step in making non-stick cookware: Spray the pan — usually made up of aluminum — with a mild alkaline cleaner and then spray the pan again with high-pressure water. This step removes dirt and oil. Step 2: Hot water is used to wash the pans and then dried with air. Step 3: Iron grit is spread throughout the pan and spread evenly. Step 4: Air blast it. Step 5: Do step 1 again. Step 6:
Use acids and other cleaning agents to make the pan look bright and shiny. Step 7: Spray PTFE/Teflon on the pan. Step 8: Bake the pan at about 700-725 degrees for 3-5 minutes.
While cleaning non-stick cookware, be careful not to scratch the surface too much. Scratches create friction, which means the pan will be less slippery. It is suggested that warm, soapy water is used to wash the cookware and to use utensils consisting of wood, plastic or a coated material. The biggest thing is to make sure the cookware doesn’t become too scratched.
There is debate about whether PTFE/Teflon is safe to use. The debate is primarily about perfluorooctanoic acid (shortened to PFOA), which is used a lot in several fluoropolymers. The Environmental Working Group petitioned the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to put warning labels on non-stick cookware because they found that there were many bird deaths credited to fumes of PTFE and because they found that PTFE fumes were causing temporary flu-like symptoms in humans. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission denied the petition and hence warning labels were not required.
Two years later, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released an assessment about the health effects of PFOA. Three-fourths of the Science Advisory Board found that PFOA was “likely to be carcinogenic,” which means they found it likely to cause cancer. But the EPA is still investigating the effects of PFOA.
The current stance is that there isn’t any reason to stop using non-stick cookware because PTFE is the end product of what is used, not PFOA. But, using non-stick cookware is safe because PTFE is nonreactive. In fact, the American Cancer Society isn’t concerned about PTFE as being cancer-causing.
Heating non-stick cookware to more than 660 degrees can cause temporary symptoms such as coughing, fever or sore throat.
But these symptoms aren’t going to last forever.
Using non-stick cookware versus the traditional one is a matter of personal preference. Those who start using non-stick cookware often adhere to it because of ease and convenience.
All in all, there aren’t negative effects with using non-stick cookware directly. It is useful and efficient.
Vaageesha Das is a sophomore at Morgantown High School. Today’s information comes from: Brown, J. (2008, December 30). How Nonstick Cookware Works. Retrieved from https://home.howstuffworks.com/nonstick-cookware.htm; Fluorine. (2020, June 8). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluorine#::text=Fluorine is a chemical element,argon, neon, and helium.; How does a Teflon non-stick pan work? (2020, January 23). Retrieved from https://www.explainthatstuff.com/nonstickpans.html#::text=Photo: This nonstick pan is,better known as Teflon®.&text=That’s because the cohesive forces,molecules and the nonstick surface.; Klahre, A.-M. (2019, May 1). What Exactly Is Teflon? And Do I Need to Worry About It? Retrieved from https://www.thekitchn.com/what-is-teflon-260009; The Science of Nonstick Cookware – Article. (2012, May 3). Retrieved from https://www.finecooking.com/article/the-science-of-nonstick-cookware
