Table of Contents
Nowadays, when many people became aware of commercial nonstick cookware dangers(in the first place Teflon), a huge number of people started to search for safe nonstick alternatives.
However, there are so many types of cookware around. Moreover, it can get frustrating to go over the web and filter all of the information to find what would be the best safe nonstick cookware alternative.
Stainless steel and ceramic non-stick cookware are some of the common options advertised around. However, there are many claims (both good and bad) about these two utensil types. In addition, in most cases, it is not easy to find the reference or proof for what has been stated, which makes it difficult to conclude which one among these two is a safer option.
So, there is a need for a clear answer to the question of what is safer stainless steel or ceramic non-stick cookware?
Stainless steel is a safer option in the long term. Stainless steel arises the question of metal leaking into food, however, it has been shown that this happens to an extent insignificant to health. Ceramic non-stick cookware, on the other hand, loses its nonstick coating and can release certain toxic compounds from the cookware base.
However, to dig deeper into these claims, I would provide you with clear references from where the presented information comes from. I have written two in-depth articles about stainless steel and ceramic non-sticl cookware (also known as ceramic coated cookware) safety where I gathered scientific publications and opinions of food safety authorities about these two cookware types and their safety concerns.
However, In this article, I will summarize some of the main conclusions from both of the articles, and present directly some important scientific/authority references.
This way you can get out of this article with more clear conclusions about the potential health concerns of both stainless steel and ceramic nonstick cookware and what could be a better choice. Additionally, you can always jump to these more comprehensive articles to go deeper into the information you are interested in.
Now let’s go straight to the point
1.Is stainless steel safer than ceramic nonstick cookware?
*In this post I will use both the terms Ceramic-nonstick cookware and Ceramic coated cookware which are synonymous.
To get more in detail about the safety concerns of both cookware types it will be first important to understand what they are exactly made of.
Ceramic-coated cookware, even if it has, ceramic in its name”, Is not ceramic.
I have presented what ceramic coating is and how it si made is made in My post about the difference between pure ceramic and ceramic-coated cookware.
In short words, ceramic-coated cookware is created from aluminum or stainless steel cookware base covered with very thin(few micrometers) coating and is made from multiple layers of silica(Silicium-dioxide) through gel-sol spin coating technology.
This technique applies silica solution in water or other solvents to a metal base in a very thin layer. This is followed by drying the cookware in special conditions, through which the high-density silica coating is formed and silica molecules are creating chemical bonds between(about which you will find all of the details in the mentioned post).
In the end, as for the ceramic-coated cookware, the same question arises about stainless steel cookware. What is it exactly made of?
Stainless steel is an alloy of iron combined with other metals such as chromium and nickel. Apart from iron stainless steel is mainly composed of nickel which improves the ductility and steel-forming abilities and from chromium which increases the alloy corrosion resistance.
Stainless steel grades used for making utensils include several common food grades with slightly different ratios of alloying metals that come with iron(16–20% mass fraction chromium, and 8–10.5% nickel (1), and a few percent of other alloying metals).
However, In my post here, you will be able to find in-depth information about the safety myth busting of the most commonly used food-grade stainless alloy.
So after understanding from which materials stainless steel and ceramic-coated cookware is made, we can dig deeper into the safety concerns behind both. Furthermore, let’s start with ceramic nonstick utensils first, since they are quite intensively advertised as a safe cookware alternative.
The question is what are the health risks of using ceramic-coated cookware? Should ceramic coating fully interact with food since it is a kind of ceramic!?
Take a look at the following chapter.
2. Ceramic-coated health concerns
Since it is made from several micrometer silica coating (2) it gets easily damaged. Usually, after several months or a year, it starts to deteriorate. See my post about how long ceramic-coated cookware lasts where I have gathered some information from practical experiences.
This further cause the situation where the metal base gets exposed to the food. In my in-depth post about ceramic-coated cookware safety, I covered more comprehensively the significance of leaking different compounds from the metal base of ceramic-coated cookware.
To make a summarize, the base of ceramic-coated cookware is made from metal alloys(Usually aluminum, or sometimes stainless steel), which are not designed to come in contact with food.
In other words metals in the base doesn’t need to be food-grade certified. Consequently, these alloys can contain some additives or impurities, which can affect health even in very small quantities such as heavy metals.
Some aluminum alloys contain lead because it improves alloy machinability. According to US law aluminum can contain up to 0.5 percent lead(3).
So it could be expected that this heavy metal is present in some alloys used in cookware manufacturing. (Especially in developing countries)
Heavy is well known for its neurotoxic effects and induction of sterility, and many other health concerns (4, 5). Some of the heavy metals most commonly addressed for their effects on human health are Mercury, Lead, Chromium, Cadmium, and Arsenic and in this reference you will find a comprehensive scientific view about the health impacts for each of them.
We are exposed to them through sources such as contaminated soil and food, water that comes in the contact with lead pipes, or even through air particles. Therefore, it is important to minimize every possible source of exposure.
One of the recent studies that tested heavy metal content in 43 metal cookware products from more than 10 countries found a huge amount of these elements in the majority of the samples(6)
Conclusion- even if the ceramic coating is very inert, it gets easily damaged. Because of damages, it starts to lose its nonstick performance and it needs to be trashed. Additionally, while the ceramic coating gets removed, the food can get in contact with a metal base that doesn’t need to be made from food-grade metal alloys and can leak hazardous compounds such as heavy metals as explained above.
The biggest problem from a health risks perspective is that some people continue using ceramic-coated cookware even if it gets seriously damaged.
A few scratches on ceramic nonstick cookware that doesn’t reveal the metal surface won’t bring exposure to harmful compounds. However, here are some examples of pictures when it is obvious that the utensil needed replacement but it is still in use by some people(pictures from the restaurant kitchen, tourist apartments, and student residences).
In the pictures you can see different types of nonstick cookware and not just ceramic-coated ones, however, the point is the same. They aim to present the coating damage that indicates that cookware should be replaced.
Additionally, I will present a few examples when coating damage is minor and it probably doesn’t require replacement still.
3. Stainless steel
What about the stainless steel? it is also metal, so it potentially also triggers concerns of toxic metal leaking, right?
Unlike the base of some ceramic-coated cookware pieces, stainless steel cookware is made from metal alloys that are intended to come in contact with food so their composition is more strictly controlled. Some of the most common stainless steel food-grade alloys are 304, 316 and 430.
In my post about stainless steel cookware safety, I have covered in-depth information about the safety of the ss alloys, and I referenced ss grade 304 which is one of the most common in use.
Again, to make a short conclusion, the biggest health concern of using stainless steel is the leaking of component metals like Fe, Cr, and Nickel in amounts higher than the limits set by world health authorities. Moreover, these limits are established based on the summary of scientific studies on the levels of metal exposure that affect health. Find more about these limits in mentioned post stainless steel safety.
However, it has been shown by KTH institute which tested 7 SS stainless steel grades that leaking of all component metals is below the limits set by Health authority regulations(In this case by the regulation of the Council of Europe about which you can find more here)
The Nickel presence in stainless steel is important since 12-15% of women and 1-2% of men in the population show an allergy to this metal(7).
Additionally, as it has been shown in some studies(8,9), nickel amounts even smaller than the ones prescribed by regulation Can affect people with skin-related problems like eczema, flare-up dermatitis, etc. by making their symptoms more severe. Moreover, personally, I also suffer from a form of eczemas.
However, for people allergic to nickel, or mentioned skin-related problems like me, there are stainless steel grades without nickel available on the market. Here is one of the examples from Amazon.
Additionally, exposure to nickel can be neglected if certain specific cooking practices are avoided(e.g. cooking acidic sauces for a long time), which are practices that I personally follow, about which I presented more in my post here.
Conclusion- No concerns about the metal leaking from food-grade SS for most people. Additionally, for people allergic to nickel or with skin-related problems like eczema as an extra safety concern could be taking 18/0 nickel-free SS or avoiding certain cooking practices about which I have referenced in the post.
Finally, unlike ceramic-coated cookware Stainless steel is durable and many companies give a lifetime guarantee (Which is a rare case with nonstick ceramic cookware). This means you get your cookware once it will stay for a long time without the need to pollute the world or spend the extra money to replace your utensils.
3.1. Where to find more information about cooking with stainless steel?
Personally, I have been using stainless steel since I started to cook many years ago. On Safetouseit I have published a few In-depth posts about this cookware type, moreover, some new posts and videos are coming out. So you have a lot of information in one place if you are starting with stainless steel
If you have been wondering how to fry things with stainless steel pan, and how to make it nonstick, take a look here. In addition, if you are thinking about which oil will be best to use for frying with stainless steel, and are fats also a good option, I summarized the opinions from scientific publications in the text here.
In the end, if you are someone who tends to minimize or avoid using oil in frying, see this article where I have shown some of my experiments on frying different food with and without oil in stainless steel cookware.
Finally, if you are trying to find some stainless steel pieces for your kitchen you may find a few good ideas in the in-depth review posts that I have published about brands that I use.
Examples are the reviews of Sardel and Misen stainless steel skillets where I shared my experience with these great utensils after more than half a year of use, so you know what you could expect from these brands of stainless steel.
4. Are there some other safe nonstick cookware options on the market?
Apart from stainless steel and nonstick ceramic cookware, other conventional nonstick alternatives are in use.
Some examples are cast iron and carbon steel. However, To be sure about the safety of these products it is important to know if they have proper safety certification, and that you are using cookware practices appropriate to the targeted cookware type(to avoid e.g. any chances of significant metal leaking).
To help people get some directions about safe cookware, I have created a recommendation page where I collected utensils from companies that hold certifications for high safety standards of cookware they produce and clearly present it for every utensil on the page (e.g. FDA or California 65 compliance as well as others).
Moreover, on the same recommendation page of Safetouseit you will be able to see precisely the steps I took to gather all of the presented cookware pieces, including personal testing, getting in direct touch with the manufacturers, and more.
Finally, on the mentioned page, I have created one separate category for nonstick cookware alternatives, where you will be able to find some recommended models of cast iron, carbon steel, or enameled cast iron cookware. These can help give some good directions for your research, so you can more clearly decide what cookware fits your need the best.
