France votes to ban ‘forever chemicals,’ exempting frying pans
politico.eu
The French National Assembly on Thursday unanimously adopted a bill aimed at restricting the manufacture and sale of products containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — also known as PFAS or “forever chemicals.” The MPs, backed by the government, voted to exclude kitchen utensils from the scope of the text.
Thanks to an intense lobbying push, manufacturers of frying pans and saucepans — including the SEB group, which owns Tefal — are exempt from this ban under the proposed law penned by French Green MPs.
Majority groups initially tried to delay the ban on kitchen utensils until 2030 — a timetable refused by the French Green MPs who instead suggested an exemption until 2026.
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IIRC there's a specific kind of soap that strips the seasoning off cast iron pans, but idk, if they still make them.
Yes it's called soap. Soap is made by mixing a base with fat, and the end result will still be basic. Washing-up liquid isn't soap, though, it's SLS, pH-neutral.
Still it's plainly not necessary to use that on pans: First off, if you know what you're doing (first heat up, then add oil, then fry) things won't stick in the first place, if they do, deglazing will take it off, and if you're not deglazing with wine or such to get a sauce (for which stainless is the better option because you get more stick) some water will do.
My routine is: Shovel dish onto plate, take the pan to the sink, pour in some water, scrub a bit with a brush, at that point the pan is clean. Put back on the hot plate, add a drop of oil, spread it with some kitchen tissue. The residual heat will make the water evaporate and the oil prevents rusting, it's also going to be the source of new patina for the next heat-up cycle. The right amount of oil coating to apply is "try to get it all off with the tissue".
And if you think that's unhygienic may I remind you that the thing gets sterilised every single use: Heat up the pan past smoking point (you'll see the still existing oil coating get dull), add oil and immediately whatever you want to fry.
Oh and get yourself a stainless steel spatula. Practically impossible to find in the kitchen isle nowadays, have a look at the grill section. Plastic doesn't take heat well, wood tends to be annoyingly thick. I even sharpened mine so I can use it to cut stray too-big pieces in the pan easily.
So you are worried about soap affecting the seaosning on your cast iron, but are fine with stainless steel utensils stripping it all off? You wouldn't wash your plates and dishes with just hot water and some light scrubbing, so don't wash your pans that way. Modern dish soap wont do anything to harm your pans and even extend the longevity since they take off leftover food particles that house all sorts of microbes.
No I'm not worried. Stripping or weakening patina is a thing that should be avoided but occasionally happens. Taking care of the patina is a matter of convenience, comparable to cleaning your plates before they're crusty: Both situations can be fixed, by re-seasoning and heavy scrubbing respectively.
First off yes I do if there's no grease to get off, secondly plates and dishes don't get heat-sterilised on every use.
Dish soap is good against fat, it allows it to enter emulsion with water. It does nothing to starches which are already perfectly soluble in water, and preciously little to proteins which tend to have quite good solubility in water.
Not using soap has two principal reasons: a) it's unnecessary, boiling water already takes everything off but the grease and b) I'm going to add some oil afterwards anyway why take off all the grease? If I'm just a bit lucky I don't need that extra drop of oil at all what stays on the pan is sufficient.
Oh no! Do you have allergies? Other kinds of autoimmune disorders? I don't. You can bet your ass that I scrub everything that has touched raw meat thoroughly (short of the pan that gets sterilised by frying), but don't expect me to use soap on a plate with breadcrumbs and a spot of jam on it.
Microbes dont just make you sick by infections. They produce plenty of nasty toxins,most famously botulism, that make you ill, and only incineration is hot enough to make them safe. There is no extra effort to wash your plates and dishes with a little soap, and plenty of downsides not to.
Most famously clostridium botulinum is an anaerobic bacterium: It can't live in the presence of oxygen (though the spores are ludicrously hardy, yes). You should be more worried about your bottles of oil than your plates. Especially if you put chilli or basil or garlic or such in that oil, that's when you actually need to worry: Anerobic environment, food for the bacterium, also, source for the bacterium (if you're unlucky). That's why one shouldn't keep pesto Genoese around for too long, eat it before c. botulinum had time to produce non-negligible amounts of toxin, whether it happens to be in your pesto or not.
Don't pretend like you know what you're talking about that's some true-crime level of bug paranoia you have there.
Yeah, borax soap that no one uses anymore because it just destroys everything. Whatever soap you use to clean everything else is perfectly safe for a cast iron pan.
You wouldn't wash a spoon or a plate with just hot water, so don't wash your pans with only hot water either