Are You Cooking Up a Health Hazard?

by Chef Mardav

If you're a professional cook, you probably learned this lesson in culinary school, or at some point during your professional culinary education. Home cooks may never have heard this important tip, but you don't have to have a culinary degree to know about it.

What's the big tip? It's simple: Never leave an empty Teflon pan on the heat. Too simple? We don't think so. Read further and find out how important this tip can be.

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Are Poisonous Fumes in Your Kitchen?

Non-stick cookware ranks pretty near sliced bread as one of the great inventions of the modern age, but how does cookware become non-stick? Old fashioned skillets, the kind you may get to use if you study cooking at a culinary school, were naturally non-stick.

In the first place, they were made of heavy cast-iron that took the heat evenly and held it throughout the cooking process. These pans were always seasoned. That means a cook had used the pan and kept it carefully oiled and wiped clean. Such a pan never touched water.

The pans in your home kitchen are probably the lightweight, modern kind. Things don't stick to them because the pans are coated with a chemical that seals the surface. Teflon, and other commercial products in this genre, are based on a chemical called perfuorooctanioic acid.

The substance that coats your pots is safe enough when used in normal cooking. If it is heated without moist food covering it, it gives off a gas that eventually causes severe damage and even death.

Throw Out that Old Pan

Even if the chemical is not overheated, it still gets into your food. If the coating is old and worn, bits and flakes of it come off in the cooking and stirring process. Long term exposure to this substance can cause numerous health problems including liver problems, and elevated cholesterol and triglyceride levels.

The old pans were cumbersome to use and maintain, and sometimes food did stick to them. However, they were much safer than what replaced them.

About the Author

Chef Mardav wandered into his mother's kitchen when he was seven years old. He liked what he discovered there and he has been spending time in kitchens ever since.

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