While the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continues to authorize certain PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also commonly referred to as “forever chemicals”) for use in food-contact materials, state lawmakers and regulators in Maine, California, Minnesota, Colorado, and Connecticut have stepped up to protect consumers from these hazardous chemicals in cookware.
Companies selling cookware such as pots and pans, air fryers, coffee makers, and muffin tins have been required by California to disclose intentional use of lead, arsenic, formaldehyde, and PFAS forever chemicals since 2023 and disclosures are required to be available online, but most consumers (and even regulators from other states) didn’t know where to find them.
Defend Our Health, a Maine-based nonprofit that advocates for evidence-based policies that reduce families’ exposure to toxic chemicals, reviewed the websites of more than 200 cookware brands and compiled a searchable directory of chemical disclosure pages including whether brands disclose intentional use of PFAS chemicals. This free public resource can help consumers who are shopping for cookware make the choice that’s right for them with the best information about what’s in the products they’re buying.
This project began, as all Defend’s work does, rooted in Maine – starting on January 1, 2026, the sale of cookware and many other consumer products with intentionally-added PFAS were prohibited in the state. Defend’s team started checking in person and online sales at major retailers to monitor implementation of the sales ban in Maine, looking at PFAS disclosed by a company on a product description or on the company website, then crosschecking those cookware items to see if they had been removed from sale in Maine.
“We quickly realized that Maine’s powerful sales ban could be even more impactful if we looked at rules and data from multiple states together — California required public disclosure of PFAS in cookware, but didn’t ban it from sale. Maine, Minnesota, and Colorado banned it from sale, but didn’t know which cookware items contained PFAS. Connecticut had an upcoming public reporting deadline, but didn’t know which companies actually needed to submit reports about PFAS in their cookware. But by connecting the dots, coordinating data from multiple public sources including the brands’ own public disclosures, the rules from these states can benefit consumers not just within their borders but nationwide,” said Defend’s executive director, Emily Carey Perez de Alejo, explaining the project’s evolution. “For consumers in states that do not yet prohibit the sale of cookware that contains PFAS, knowledge is power – these disclosures give consumers the option to opt out of PFAS cookware.”
Defend’s team searched for the (sometimes hard to locate) California-required public disclosures from over 200 cookware brands, and read them to find all the cookware items that the brand said contained PFAS. The formats were varied; the fonts sometimes tiny; the product disclosures hard to understand without deep knowledge of the class of PFAS chemicals. Carey Perez de Alejo noted, “Our review found multiple cookware brands that disclose use of PFAS, lead, arsenic, and formaldehyde. But importantly, we also found that many brands make equivalent products that are affordable and free of these chemicals.”
After checking hundreds of PFAS-containing cookware items to see if they were still being offered for sale in the three states with active sales prohibitions, the team contacted companies to ask clarifying questions about disclosure pages and to alert them if a PFAS-disclosed item appeared to still be shipping to a sales ban state. “Most of the companies we contacted regarding PFAS items still available for shipping to Maine updated their websites very quickly – some within just a few hours! – it was clear that these were accidental oversights, which shows why education and outreach around new laws are such a critical part of successful implementation,” said Carey Perez de Alejo.
Today, Defend Our Health is releasing the searchable directory of cookware brands, their disclosure pages, and their PFAS status — anyone shopping for new pots and pans, coffee machines, air fryers, or muffin tins can look up the brand they’re considering and quickly check if a product contains PFAS. The resource also includes digestible science and policy summaries relating to PFAS cookware, with links to peer reviewed scientific articles, government safety assessment reports, and regulatory references for those looking to dive deeper into the topic.
“Our initial goal was to help make sure that PFAS cookware items weren’t being accidentally sold to Mainers, but by working together with multiple states’ aligned rules, we’re accomplishing so much more,” Carey Perez de Alejo noted. “States like Maine and California are leading the nation to protect consumers from this class of toxic chemicals, and coordination between states improves consumer safety nationwide.”
Consumers and policymakers can find the full resource, including the searchable Cookware Disclosures directory, at https://defendourhealth.org/our-stories/whats-cookin-good-lookin-uncovering-cookware-materials-in-your-kitchen/, and consumers who think PFAS doesn’t belong in cookware can sign the petition urging cookware manufacturers and retailers to phase out intentionally-added PFAS in all their cookware products.
Who We Are
Defend Our Health is a Maine-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit with national impact working to reduce exposures to toxic chemicals like PFAS forever chemicals, pesticides, microplastics, and other petrochem-based poisons. For over 20 years, Defend has put the best health-protective science into practice, making sure all communities have toxic-free food, water, and clothing, cosmetics, couches, cookware, and more. We advocate for solutions that are accessible to all, regardless of where you live, the color of your skin, or how much money you have.
Even if you haven’t heard of us, you’ve heard about our cutting edge sustainability and environmental justice work — we’re the organization that passed Maine’s first-in-the-nation phaseout of PFAS in consumer goods and food packaging, pushing big name international companies to kick toxic PFAS out of the products they sell. We’re laser-focused on advancing government policies and corporate practices that help our economy move towards more sustainable solutions and connect community members with products that are non-toxic, safe, and effective! Our work in Maine and with advocates across the country is the path forward to protecting families’ health, especially at this moment. Together, we can set strong rules to clean up our communities, stop polluters in their tracks, and drive economic progress through innovation and safer solutions.
