5 ms·

I really wish OXO would put out a statement here. A lot of people use it's black plastic tools like this one [1] -- like a lot of brands, OXO calls its black p

I really wish OXO would put out a statement here. A lot of people use it's black plastic tools like this one [1] -- like a lot of brands, OXO calls its black plastic tools "nylon" to differentiate from "silicone" -- and it would be really, really good to know if OXO has always rigorously made sure never to use recycled plastics, or if testing shows that its own products contain flame retardants. In other words, when you pay premium prices for stuff like OXO as opposed to a dollar-store black plastic spatula, are you getting premium quality that avoids the kind of contamination described in the article? Or are the premium prices just going to the design and marketing, but not to the manufacturing? [1] https://www.oxo.com/shop/kitchenware/utensils/sets-holders-accessories/nylon-flexible-turner-black.html https://www.oxo.com/shop/kitchenware/utensils/sets-holders-a...

SoftTalker 2y ago
Just don't use plastic for cooking.
- spacemark 2y ago
  Metal spatulas aren't an option for most, either, as they scratch pans. So what's the suggested realistic alternative? Wood? Edit: wasn't trying to be snarky or anything. Honestly concerned for my family's health and trying to figure out the best path. Wood spatulas it is. Replacing all our PTFE pans with much more expensive cast iron pans isn't an option for our budget right now. Plus I haven't seen convincing scientific evidence that PTFE is as harmful as people here seem to imply. My understanding could be outdated though.
  - bpodgursky 2y ago
    They only scratch nonstick pans. Just use stainless steel, it's not that hard to clean.
    - ebiester 2y ago
      It's not about cleaning. It's about the increased amount of oil needed to prevent delicate foods like eggs and fish from sticking. That adds cost and calories.
      - chongli 2y ago
        Carbon steel solves this issue. You can get nonstick eggs and fish with a very minimal amount of oil. You can also do this with stainless steel but it takes more practice to get the temperature control down. Maybe one day we’ll all have affordable temperature controlled induction ranges similar to the Breville/Sage control freak. If you have the ability to preheat your pan to an exact temperature then getting nonstick results with tiny amounts of oil or butter becomes rather trivial.
        amluto 2y ago
        The Control Freak is fantastic, but it doesn’t work all that well with some cast iron pans. I think there are a couple reasons: 1. Too much thermal mass and too little thermal conductivity. This causes poor feedback and unnecessarily high delay between heat being added and the measurement reflecting it. 2. Manufacturers love to cast their logo right in the bottom center, which means that the sensor doesn’t make good contact with the pan. I wonder if someone makes a nice stainless-aluminum-carbon steel clad pan.
        chongli 2y ago
        I wonder if someone makes a nice stainless-aluminum-carbon steel clad pan This pan exists! It's made by an American company called Strata. Stainless steel on the bottom/outside, carbon steel on the inside/cooking surface, and aluminum sandwiched in between. It came out this year. I've seen a few cookware YouTube channels do some first looks, unboxing, seasoning, and first cook tests but no long-term reviews so far. Cast iron is definitely the most challenging cookware material to use with any flat-top cooking appliance. Whether induction or traditional ceramic, flat-top ranges tend to be quite poor at creating even heating in cast iron. Gas on the other hand works quite well because of the natural upward draft produced by the hot combustion gases which wrap around the sides of the pan, enveloping it in a blanket of heat from below.
  - tkone 2y ago
    the scratch non-stick pans, which also are horrible for your health. cast iron, stainless steel.
  - Gravityloss 2y ago
    Wood spatulas are great. They are also cheap. If you have a fireplace, you can even burn them at the end of life so very little waste!
    - DowagerDave 2y ago
      burning garbage doesn't create any waste? You could just put it in your organics/composting...
    - usea 2y ago
      Burning wood in your fireplace is much more certain to harm you than using plastic in your cookware, and the harm is more severe.
  - stronglikedan 2y ago
    Yes, wood is one. Why not wood?
    - toast0 2y ago
      Wood food working implements get stained, develop cracks and chips that may retain bacteria, can't go through the dishwasher, may have finishes we'll all be concerned about later, etc. They're my least favorite to clean and most likely to throw away because I can't get them cleaned.
      - transcriptase 2y ago
        My mantra is that anything is dishwasher safe if you care little enough about it.
      - NegativeLatency 2y ago
        I put my unfinished wooden cooking utinsels through the dishwasher literally every day. They’ve been fine for 10+ years
      - moralestapia 2y ago
        Hmm, have you actually used wood? I've been using it for decades. >Wood food working implements get stained, develop cracks and chips that may retain bacteria This happens after years of use ... buy a new one? They're like 1 dollar. Lol.
      - arrowleaf 2y ago
        Food-safe wood conditioner (or just beeswax, or coconut oil, etc.) is basically free, and you should be taking care of everything wooden in the kitchen on a semi-regular basis. If your wooden cookware is degrading, I'd be more worried about the state of your wooden cutting boards.
      - emgeee 2y ago
        One thing that's helped me is to every-so-often oil my wood utensils the same way I oil my wood cutting board. It's helps protect the wood and retain moisture so it doesn't crack. Also, at least some (if not all) woods have anti-microbial properties.
  - asow92 2y ago
    I've been a fan of using stainless steel spatulas on cast iron for years now and it doesn't seem to scratch or degrade the "seasoning" on the cast iron in any apparently meaningful way.
    - 0_____0 2y ago
      Seasoning isn't that precious either. I accidentally left my cast iron on the stove and burned off most of the seasoning, took it as an opportunity to smooth out the surface with sandpaper, gave it a couple of coats of canola and put it back into service. Within a couple of days it was basically where it was before. I also do 70% of my cooking in that pan!
      - azemetre 2y ago
        I've been cooking exclusively with Le Creuset cast iron pans. I use to care about seasoning and never using soap to clean but I've gotten way more relaxed as of late. I still take care of the pans and "season them" when it looks pretty bare, but I haven't really noticed much of a difference between seasoned and nonseasoned as an amateur chef. I make up for the lack of seasoning by using more butter or oil. The true reason why I use these cast iron pans is that they have a very long lifecycle (going 12 years now for some of my pans) and they sear way better than other cookware.
        chuckledog 2y ago
        Just another plus one for cast-iron pans and wooden spatulas. We’ve been using those for over a decade, 20 bucks each, never needs replacing, works for everything. We switched from gas stove to induction and now they work even better since the handle doesn’t get as hot and it’s easier to control the temperature. The whole seasoning thing is extra credit, the only failure mode I’ve seen is trying to fry an egg on a completely unseasoned pan, which just means some extra soaking and scrubbing is needed. The pan seasons itself after a few uses. Hand wash the pan instead of sticking it in the dishwasher, done.
        2y ago
  - bongodongobob 2y ago
    Using non-stick pans and worrying about plastic spatulas is wild, imo.
  - the__alchemist 2y ago
    Metal. I haven't noticed scratches, and have been using exclusively my whole adult life. I suspect my pans are covered in superficial scratches, but I don't notice.
    - DoughnutHole 2y ago
      Presumably you’re not using Teflon pans then, because there’s no way you wouldn’t notice the non-stick surface getting destroyed by metal utensils. There’s also a potential health argument against cooking with Teflon pans to begin with, but people do and those people shouldn’t be using metal if they want their pans to stay non-stick for any reasonable length of time.
      - oxidant 2y ago
        I've had my share of non-stick pans, including higher quality ones. They all degrade to the point where I need to use oil. I switched to carbon steel as a daily driver two years ago and it is is trivialy non-stick with a little maintenance. The non-stick properties are infinitely refresha le, unlike "non-stick" pans. I also have cast iron and stainless pans for other uses.
        DoughnutHole 2y ago
        Preaching to the choir here - I love carbon steel and cast iron. Unfortunately try as we might to get people to switch, the fact is that undamaged Teflon is more non-stick than anything else and most people don’t want to put the effort into seasoning their pans. Teflon is popular, and Teflon owners could do with utensils that don’t destroy their pans or give them cancer.
  - chongli 2y ago
    Nonstick pans are covered with plastic; that’s what PTFE is. The answer is wood and metal tools with stainless steel, carbon steel, cast iron, glass, stoneware, and enameled cast iron cookware and bakeware. Aluminum bakeware is also great once you put a layer of seasoning on it to protect the aluminum from corrosion.
  - Melatonic 2y ago
    Why not silicone ?
    - crazydoggers 2y ago
      Yes, exactly. I can’t believe how little mention of silicon and wood there is here. Silicon is much more resistant to heat and chemicals. I believe the polymers are also more tightly bound. I also think people cook too much on nonstick. Non stick has a place in the kitchen for specific dishes. But for the most part you can cook most things in a combination of high quality stainless steel pans and cast iron. Some food sticking in stainless is a good thing (Maillard reaction), deglaze the pan and scrape it up with a good wood spatula.
  - erikerikson 2y ago
    Use cast iron pans. I used to love my non-stick pans but I would never go back.
  - timeon 2y ago
    Where I'm from wooden are norm for stirring while cooking. Plastic are used as well but after the food is already cooked.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - mtalantikite 2y ago
    Lodge cast iron pans are like $20 and will outlast your grandchildren. You can get a set of them for < $100. Carbon steel are more expensive, but are easier to handle and I think are worth investing in at least one for daily use. They'll also last generations.
    - spacemark 2y ago
      Cool, appreciate the tip! I'll check them out.
    - s1artibartfast 2y ago
      +1 for carbon steel over cast iron. They heat much faster and my wife wife doesn't need my help to lift them.
- Wowfunhappy 2y ago
  How do you find a non-Teflon waffle iron?
  - observationist 2y ago
    A superficial web search reveals a handful of options; I'm sure if you spent a little time, like 10-15 minutes, you'd find dozens. If you only look at what's on offer in stores, and aren't in a place with a lot of variety, then you're not going to have many options.
    - DowagerDave 2y ago
      what will "kill" us faster: buying local, or deeply-involved research projects to buy $600 waffle makers that are shipped across the globe?
      - hollerith 2y ago
        Shipping something that weighs only a few pounds and can be shipped along with tens of thousands of shipping containers (i.e., is not needed at the destination in a day or two) costs almost no CO2 emissions.
        shreddit 2y ago
        It costs as much as shipping just one container. Just because you can distribute the emissions over more people doesn’t make it less bad for the environment. Not ordering something from overseas is the only solution.
        deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
  - azinman2 2y ago
- groggo 2y ago
  is silicone ok?
  - britzkopf 2y ago
    Get enough researchers to train their metaphorical microscopes on it and it's interaction with any dimension of human biology for long enough and I have to think the answer will eventually be no.
marvel_boy 2y ago
Dispose of it ASAP.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
pengaru 2y ago
You sure are leaning-in to that username...
paulgerhardt 2y ago
Oxo claims they use Eastman Tritan Renew recycled plastics [1] which are FDA and EFSA certified for food use[2]. That said, I’ve personally been to multiple cookware factories in China and Taiwan and saw bags of Dow thermoplastic resins next to various cheaper-by-half China brands. The reason name brands go with Dow is the consistency in Pantone color matching colored parts. For black, it would be trivial for the contract manufacturer to cost-down to (toxic) China brands without the client (Oxo) ever knowing. It would also be trivial to spot check these products on a mass spectrometer for heavy metal contamination but I never saw that done. If this kind of thing is important to you, I wouldn’t stop at just using Oxo but Oxo made in Asia. And if that’s your threshold you may as well use silicone. I have worse stories about non-stick pan factories. [1] https://www.oxo.com/corporate-responsibility/better-products https://www.oxo.com/corporate-responsibility/better-products [2] https://www.eastman.com/en/products/brands/tritan/about/safety https://www.eastman.com/en/products/brands/tritan/about/safe...
- dingnuts 2y ago
  >it would be trivial for the contract manufacturer to cost-down to (toxic) China brands without the client (Oxo) ever knowing. It would also be trivial to spot check these products on a mass spectrometer for heavy metal contamination but I never saw that done. Aren't these contradictory statements? If it's "trivial" to spot check their product that is otherwise indistinguishable from the competition using mass spectrometry, why wouldn't QA do that? It -doesn't- sound like it's trivial for the supplier to rip off Oxo if it's "trivial" to use an industrial tool for quality control. What am I missing here? Do you somehow have internal knowledge that Oxo does not do that "trivial" QC step?
  - axus 2y ago
    Some corollary to Murphy's law? Whatever is not independently tested / audited will go wrong? I've known plenty of people in my own country who don't take trivial steps, because they didn't feel like it.
  - aaarrm 2y ago
    These are not contradictory.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
newZWhoDis 2y ago
We need to eliminate plastic wherever possible, especially where it might come into contact with food. What I hate is even paper containers have plastic lids. I worry the plastic snap-off lid is shedding microplastics into my orange juice, or by beef is getting plastic strands when I cut in to the vacuum sealed packaging.

SoftTalker 2y ago

Just don't use plastic for cooking.

spacemark 2y ago
Metal spatulas aren't an option for most, either, as they scratch pans. So what's the suggested realistic alternative? Wood? Edit: wasn't trying to be snarky or anything. Honestly concerned for my family's health and trying to figure out the best path. Wood spatulas it is. Replacing all our PTFE pans with much more expensive cast iron pans isn't an option for our budget right now. Plus I haven't seen convincing scientific evidence that PTFE is as harmful as people here seem to imply. My understanding could be outdated though.
- bpodgursky 2y ago
  They only scratch nonstick pans. Just use stainless steel, it's not that hard to clean.
  - ebiester 2y ago
    It's not about cleaning. It's about the increased amount of oil needed to prevent delicate foods like eggs and fish from sticking. That adds cost and calories.
    - chongli 2y ago
      Carbon steel solves this issue. You can get nonstick eggs and fish with a very minimal amount of oil. You can also do this with stainless steel but it takes more practice to get the temperature control down. Maybe one day we’ll all have affordable temperature controlled induction ranges similar to the Breville/Sage control freak. If you have the ability to preheat your pan to an exact temperature then getting nonstick results with tiny amounts of oil or butter becomes rather trivial.
      - amluto 2y ago
        The Control Freak is fantastic, but it doesn’t work all that well with some cast iron pans. I think there are a couple reasons: 1. Too much thermal mass and too little thermal conductivity. This causes poor feedback and unnecessarily high delay between heat being added and the measurement reflecting it. 2. Manufacturers love to cast their logo right in the bottom center, which means that the sensor doesn’t make good contact with the pan. I wonder if someone makes a nice stainless-aluminum-carbon steel clad pan.
        chongli 2y ago
        I wonder if someone makes a nice stainless-aluminum-carbon steel clad pan This pan exists! It's made by an American company called Strata. Stainless steel on the bottom/outside, carbon steel on the inside/cooking surface, and aluminum sandwiched in between. It came out this year. I've seen a few cookware YouTube channels do some first looks, unboxing, seasoning, and first cook tests but no long-term reviews so far. Cast iron is definitely the most challenging cookware material to use with any flat-top cooking appliance. Whether induction or traditional ceramic, flat-top ranges tend to be quite poor at creating even heating in cast iron. Gas on the other hand works quite well because of the natural upward draft produced by the hot combustion gases which wrap around the sides of the pan, enveloping it in a blanket of heat from below.
- tkone 2y ago
  the scratch non-stick pans, which also are horrible for your health. cast iron, stainless steel.
- Gravityloss 2y ago
  Wood spatulas are great. They are also cheap. If you have a fireplace, you can even burn them at the end of life so very little waste!
  - DowagerDave 2y ago
    burning garbage doesn't create any waste? You could just put it in your organics/composting...
  - usea 2y ago
    Burning wood in your fireplace is much more certain to harm you than using plastic in your cookware, and the harm is more severe.
- stronglikedan 2y ago
  Yes, wood is one. Why not wood?
  - toast0 2y ago
    Wood food working implements get stained, develop cracks and chips that may retain bacteria, can't go through the dishwasher, may have finishes we'll all be concerned about later, etc. They're my least favorite to clean and most likely to throw away because I can't get them cleaned.
    - transcriptase 2y ago
      My mantra is that anything is dishwasher safe if you care little enough about it.
    - NegativeLatency 2y ago
      I put my unfinished wooden cooking utinsels through the dishwasher literally every day. They’ve been fine for 10+ years
    - moralestapia 2y ago
      Hmm, have you actually used wood? I've been using it for decades. >Wood food working implements get stained, develop cracks and chips that may retain bacteria This happens after years of use ... buy a new one? They're like 1 dollar. Lol.
    - arrowleaf 2y ago
      Food-safe wood conditioner (or just beeswax, or coconut oil, etc.) is basically free, and you should be taking care of everything wooden in the kitchen on a semi-regular basis. If your wooden cookware is degrading, I'd be more worried about the state of your wooden cutting boards.
    - emgeee 2y ago
      One thing that's helped me is to every-so-often oil my wood utensils the same way I oil my wood cutting board. It's helps protect the wood and retain moisture so it doesn't crack. Also, at least some (if not all) woods have anti-microbial properties.
- asow92 2y ago
  I've been a fan of using stainless steel spatulas on cast iron for years now and it doesn't seem to scratch or degrade the "seasoning" on the cast iron in any apparently meaningful way.
  - 0_____0 2y ago
    Seasoning isn't that precious either. I accidentally left my cast iron on the stove and burned off most of the seasoning, took it as an opportunity to smooth out the surface with sandpaper, gave it a couple of coats of canola and put it back into service. Within a couple of days it was basically where it was before. I also do 70% of my cooking in that pan!
    - azemetre 2y ago
      I've been cooking exclusively with Le Creuset cast iron pans. I use to care about seasoning and never using soap to clean but I've gotten way more relaxed as of late. I still take care of the pans and "season them" when it looks pretty bare, but I haven't really noticed much of a difference between seasoned and nonseasoned as an amateur chef. I make up for the lack of seasoning by using more butter or oil. The true reason why I use these cast iron pans is that they have a very long lifecycle (going 12 years now for some of my pans) and they sear way better than other cookware.
      - chuckledog 2y ago
        Just another plus one for cast-iron pans and wooden spatulas. We’ve been using those for over a decade, 20 bucks each, never needs replacing, works for everything. We switched from gas stove to induction and now they work even better since the handle doesn’t get as hot and it’s easier to control the temperature. The whole seasoning thing is extra credit, the only failure mode I’ve seen is trying to fry an egg on a completely unseasoned pan, which just means some extra soaking and scrubbing is needed. The pan seasons itself after a few uses. Hand wash the pan instead of sticking it in the dishwasher, done.
        2y ago
- bongodongobob 2y ago
  Using non-stick pans and worrying about plastic spatulas is wild, imo.
- the__alchemist 2y ago
  Metal. I haven't noticed scratches, and have been using exclusively my whole adult life. I suspect my pans are covered in superficial scratches, but I don't notice.
  - DoughnutHole 2y ago
    Presumably you’re not using Teflon pans then, because there’s no way you wouldn’t notice the non-stick surface getting destroyed by metal utensils. There’s also a potential health argument against cooking with Teflon pans to begin with, but people do and those people shouldn’t be using metal if they want their pans to stay non-stick for any reasonable length of time.
    - oxidant 2y ago
      I've had my share of non-stick pans, including higher quality ones. They all degrade to the point where I need to use oil. I switched to carbon steel as a daily driver two years ago and it is is trivialy non-stick with a little maintenance. The non-stick properties are infinitely refresha le, unlike "non-stick" pans. I also have cast iron and stainless pans for other uses.
      - DoughnutHole 2y ago
        Preaching to the choir here - I love carbon steel and cast iron. Unfortunately try as we might to get people to switch, the fact is that undamaged Teflon is more non-stick than anything else and most people don’t want to put the effort into seasoning their pans. Teflon is popular, and Teflon owners could do with utensils that don’t destroy their pans or give them cancer.
- chongli 2y ago
  Nonstick pans are covered with plastic; that’s what PTFE is. The answer is wood and metal tools with stainless steel, carbon steel, cast iron, glass, stoneware, and enameled cast iron cookware and bakeware. Aluminum bakeware is also great once you put a layer of seasoning on it to protect the aluminum from corrosion.
- Melatonic 2y ago
  Why not silicone ?
  - crazydoggers 2y ago
    Yes, exactly. I can’t believe how little mention of silicon and wood there is here. Silicon is much more resistant to heat and chemicals. I believe the polymers are also more tightly bound. I also think people cook too much on nonstick. Non stick has a place in the kitchen for specific dishes. But for the most part you can cook most things in a combination of high quality stainless steel pans and cast iron. Some food sticking in stainless is a good thing (Maillard reaction), deglaze the pan and scrape it up with a good wood spatula.
- erikerikson 2y ago
  Use cast iron pans. I used to love my non-stick pans but I would never go back.
- timeon 2y ago
  Where I'm from wooden are norm for stirring while cooking. Plastic are used as well but after the food is already cooked.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- mtalantikite 2y ago
  Lodge cast iron pans are like $20 and will outlast your grandchildren. You can get a set of them for < $100. Carbon steel are more expensive, but are easier to handle and I think are worth investing in at least one for daily use. They'll also last generations.
  - spacemark 2y ago
    Cool, appreciate the tip! I'll check them out.
  - s1artibartfast 2y ago
    +1 for carbon steel over cast iron. They heat much faster and my wife wife doesn't need my help to lift them.
Wowfunhappy 2y ago
How do you find a non-Teflon waffle iron?
- observationist 2y ago
  A superficial web search reveals a handful of options; I'm sure if you spent a little time, like 10-15 minutes, you'd find dozens. If you only look at what's on offer in stores, and aren't in a place with a lot of variety, then you're not going to have many options.
  - DowagerDave 2y ago
    what will "kill" us faster: buying local, or deeply-involved research projects to buy $600 waffle makers that are shipped across the globe?
    - hollerith 2y ago
      Shipping something that weighs only a few pounds and can be shipped along with tens of thousands of shipping containers (i.e., is not needed at the destination in a day or two) costs almost no CO2 emissions.
      - shreddit 2y ago
        It costs as much as shipping just one container. Just because you can distribute the emissions over more people doesn’t make it less bad for the environment. Not ordering something from overseas is the only solution.
        deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- azinman2 2y ago
groggo 2y ago
is silicone ok?
- britzkopf 2y ago
  Get enough researchers to train their metaphorical microscopes on it and it's interaction with any dimension of human biology for long enough and I have to think the answer will eventually be no.

marvel_boy 2y ago

Dispose of it ASAP.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

pengaru 2y ago

You sure are leaning-in to that username...

paulgerhardt 2y ago

Oxo claims they use Eastman Tritan Renew recycled plastics [1] which are FDA and EFSA certified for food use[2]. That said, I’ve personally been to multiple cookware factories in China and Taiwan and saw bags of Dow thermoplastic resins next to various cheaper-by-half China brands. The reason name brands go with Dow is the consistency in Pantone color matching colored parts. For black, it would be trivial for the contract manufacturer to cost-down to (toxic) China brands without the client (Oxo) ever knowing. It would also be trivial to spot check these products on a mass spectrometer for heavy metal contamination but I never saw that done. If this kind of thing is important to you, I wouldn’t stop at just using Oxo but Oxo made in Asia. And if that’s your threshold you may as well use silicone. I have worse stories about non-stick pan factories. [1] https://www.oxo.com/corporate-responsibility/better-products https://www.oxo.com/corporate-responsibility/better-products [2] https://www.eastman.com/en/products/brands/tritan/about/safety https://www.eastman.com/en/products/brands/tritan/about/safe...

dingnuts 2y ago
>it would be trivial for the contract manufacturer to cost-down to (toxic) China brands without the client (Oxo) ever knowing. It would also be trivial to spot check these products on a mass spectrometer for heavy metal contamination but I never saw that done. Aren't these contradictory statements? If it's "trivial" to spot check their product that is otherwise indistinguishable from the competition using mass spectrometry, why wouldn't QA do that? It -doesn't- sound like it's trivial for the supplier to rip off Oxo if it's "trivial" to use an industrial tool for quality control. What am I missing here? Do you somehow have internal knowledge that Oxo does not do that "trivial" QC step?
- axus 2y ago
  Some corollary to Murphy's law? Whatever is not independently tested / audited will go wrong? I've known plenty of people in my own country who don't take trivial steps, because they didn't feel like it.
- aaarrm 2y ago
  These are not contradictory.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

newZWhoDis 2y ago

We need to eliminate plastic wherever possible, especially where it might come into contact with food. What I hate is even paper containers have plastic lids. I worry the plastic snap-off lid is shedding microplastics into my orange juice, or by beef is getting plastic strands when I cut in to the vacuum sealed packaging.