PTFE, PFOA and PFAS: what is in a nonstick pan

Ask ten people why nonstick pans are dangerous and you will hear about Teflon, PFOA, forever chemicals, cancer and a film about a chemical company, often in the same sentence. Some of it is true, some of it was true twenty years ago, and some of it is about a different chemical altogether. This article separates the three acronyms, sets out what the food safety agencies actually say, and explains what is still being decided.

Three acronyms, three different things

PFAS stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances: a large class of thousands of synthetic chemicals built around carbon-fluorine bonds, among the strongest bonds in organic chemistry. That strength is why they resist heat, water and grease, and also why they barely break down in the environment¹. "Forever chemicals" is the nickname.

PTFE, polytetrafluoroethylene, is one member of that family. It is a polymer: a very long molecule made of many linked units. It resists cold, heat and chemicals, has a slightly waxy surface that water and fat do not wet, and is the substance most often used for nonstick coatings². Teflon is its best-known brand name.

PFOA, perfluorooctanoic acid, is another member of the family, and a very different kind of molecule: small, mobile, and able to accumulate in the body. It was used for decades in industry, including in the manufacture of fluoropolymers. When the EU banned it, the law still allowed its use for a limited time in making PTFE for a few specialist industrial products, which shows how embedded it had been in that process³.

Put simply, PTFE is the coating, PFOA was one of the helpers once used to make it, and PFAS is the family name.

Why PFOA mattered, and what happened to it

PFOA is the chemical behind most of the alarming headlines, and the concern was justified. In 2023 the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified PFOA as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1) and its close relative PFOS as possibly carcinogenic (Group 2B)⁴. IARC itself stresses what that means: the classification describes the strength of evidence that a substance can cause cancer, not how large the risk is at a given level of exposure⁴. The agency notes that exposure has been highest among workers who produced or used these chemicals⁴.

Regulators moved long before that classification. In 2006 the US Environmental Protection Agency secured commitments from eight major companies in the industry to cut PFOA in emissions and product content by 95 per cent by 2010 and to work towards eliminating it by 2015; all of them state that they met those goals, and domestic production and import of PFOA in the US has been phased out by the participating companies⁵. In the EU, PFOA, its salts and related compounds were added to the persistent organic pollutants regulation, which applies from 4 July 2020 and allows only trace amounts of up to 0.025 mg/kg of PFOA in substances, mixtures and articles³.

That has a practical consequence when you shop. A new pan sold in Europe is PFOA-free because the law requires it. The sticker tells you nothing about whether the coating itself is a PFAS, which, if it is PTFE, it is.

What the agencies say about PTFE pans

The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) has one of the clearest statements on the subject. When nonstick cookware is used as intended, it says, health impairments to consumers are not to be expected². The manufacturing process does use other, non-polymeric PFAS as emulsifiers, but at the end the coating is sintered (partly melted under heat and pressure), which removes most remaining substances or binds them tightly into the coating². During use, particularly at higher temperatures, very small amounts can still be released, and the BfR's assessment is that these amounts are so small that adverse health effects are not expected, as long as the pan is not overheated².

The US Food and Drug Administration reaches the same view. PTFE coatings are polymerised and applied at very high temperatures, which vaporises virtually all the small PFAS molecules that could migrate, and studies show negligible amounts of PFAS in the coating can migrate to food⁶. Of all the PFAS uses it had authorised in contact with food, the FDA found that only grease-proofing agents on paper and paperboard packaging could lead to exposure of potential concern, and those are no longer sold in the US⁷.

The real risk: an empty pan on high heat

There is one genuine hazard, and it is about temperature. From around 360 °C, PTFE begins to decompose and releases gases that are hazardous to health, without visible smoke². With food in the pan this is very unlikely: water holds the temperature near 100 °C, cooking oils start to smoke between 110 and 270 °C as a warning, and a domestic oven tops out around 250 °C². An empty pan on a powerful gas burner or induction zone is a different story, which is why the BfR says PTFE pans should never be heated empty, and should not be used directly over flames such as on a barbecue².

The fumes cause a short illness called polymer fume fever, with flu-like symptoms that usually clear on their own, although it can be serious for people with existing heart or lung disease⁸. A review of the medical literature names overheated nonstick cookware as one of the more common routes of exposure⁸, and case reports exist, such as a 29-year-old man in Japan who developed fever and breathlessness after inhaling fumes from a PTFE-coated pan and recovered within two days⁹. The BfR, for its part, says the cases of illness it knows of come from industrial PTFE manufacture, not from homes². Birds are far more sensitive: fumes from an overheated PTFE pan have killed pet birds¹⁰. If you keep birds, keep them well away from the kitchen whatever pans you use.

Scratched coatings and tiny particles

Scratched pans are the second big worry. The BfR addresses it directly: tiny particles that come off a scratched coating and are accidentally swallowed are not expected to harm health, because PTFE is inert and the particles are excreted unchanged².

Researchers have also started to count those particles. A 2022 laboratory study used Raman imaging on scratched nonstick pots and estimated that thousands to millions of PTFE microplastic and nanoplastic particles might be released during a simulated cooking process¹¹. The study is about detecting and counting particles, not about health effects, and it is a reason to retire a badly scratched pan and to use wooden or silicone tools. A worn pan also simply stops working, which is the most common reason to replace it.

Where PFAS in your diet really comes from

If you want to lower your PFAS intake, the pan is not where most of it comes from. The European Food Safety Authority says PFAS mostly reach food by building up in water, fish, shellfish, plants and animals, and that migration from processing equipment and packaging contributes little compared with other sources¹². In its 2020 opinion it found PFAS in food most often in drinking water, fish, fruit, eggs and egg products, set a group tolerable weekly intake of 4.4 nanograms per kilogram of body weight for the four PFAS that accumulate most in the body (PFOA, PFOS, PFNA and PFHxS), and identified a weaker immune response to vaccination as the most critical health effect¹³. Toddlers and other children are the most exposed group¹³.

What Europe is deciding now

The biggest open question is regulatory, not scientific. In 2023, authorities in the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Norway and Sweden proposed restricting the manufacture, sale and use of PFAS as a whole group across the EU and EEA¹⁴. The BfR notes that this could result in a ban on PTFE coatings for cookware in homes and restaurants².

The process is long. ECHA's Risk Assessment Committee adopted its final opinion in March 2026, concluding that PFAS pose growing risks and that EU-wide action is needed. Its Socio-Economic Analysis Committee agreed a draft opinion supporting a broad restriction with targeted derogations where alternatives are lacking, and expects to adopt its final opinion by the end of 2026. The European Commission will then propose a restriction for member states to vote on¹⁴. Which uses get derogations, including cookware, has not been decided.

What this means in your kitchen

• Use nonstick for what it is good at: eggs, pancakes, delicate fish, at low to medium heat.
• Never preheat it empty, and take extra care on gas and induction, which heat fast².
• Use wooden or silicone tools and retire the pan when the coating is worn.
• Keep birds out of the kitchen.
• If you prefer to avoid PFAS altogether, cook with stainless steel, cast iron or a ceramic-coated pan; our comparison of stainless steel, cast iron and nonstick and our guide to cast iron care will help you choose.

The honest summary: a PTFE pan used properly is not a health risk according to the agencies that have looked hardest at it, PFOA is a real problem that has been regulated out of new cookware, and the wider PFAS question is about pollution and manufacturing, which Europe is now deciding how far to restrict.