If you’ve browsed our product category ratings pages or looked through our Top Rated list you may have noticed that there are a few categories of products that have a limited number of companies that we feel comfortably recommending. Part of the reason is that our rating criteria are TOUGH. It’s not easy for a company to receive our top rating (Recommended) or even our middle rating (Consider). That’s intentional on our part. We have high standards for companies we prefer to invite into our homes. We want to choose products that are made by companies that take the health of our children and our planet seriously.

Here’s the challenge: We all still need some types of products in our homes even when there aren’t top-tier companies producing them. We can make better choices about those products and where we choose to buy them. And if we’re really frustrated about the lack of choices, we can let the companies know about it. The following sections include insight about how we go about choosing products for our homes from some of the product categories that lack many Top Rated options.

Kitchen products are a priority for us because of the frequency with which we use them, the potential for these kinds of products to contain and regularly expose our families to toxic chemicals (through ingestion and sometimes inhalation), and the lack of companies that we currently feel comfortable recommending.

We have some general recommendations about the kinds of materials we tend to prefer that are applicable across most if not all of the product categories we evaluate including this one. Here are the three ways we try to choose safer and more sustainable kitchen products:

1. Choosing inherently safer materials

We look for products made out of raw materials (e.g. glass, stainless steel, cast iron, wood, bamboo, plant fibers) that tend to be inherently safer when they are not coated or treated with other chemicals. For example:

• We like to do our food preparation (e.g. cutting boards) on wood or bamboo, and use glass or stainless steel bowls.
• Nearly all of our cookware (e.g. pots and pans) are made from stainless steel, carbon steel, glass, and cast iron.
• When baking (e.g. sheets, trays, pans) we try to use glass and sometimes ceramic but also own several aluminum trays that we use with uncoated parchment paper.
• Our kitchen tools (e.g. spoons, tongs, spatulas, etc.) are made from wood, stainless steel, and food grade silicone.
• For serving (e.g. plates, bowls, cups) including for our kids, we choose products made from stainless steel and food grade silicone from companies with credible material safety efforts. Note: We avoid silicone-based cookware or bakeware.
• Our go-to material for food storage (e.g. containers, bowls, bins with lids) is glass and sometimes stainless steel or food-grade silicone; We prefer to use wax coated canvas or parchment paper when we need more flexibility for storage.
• When it comes to cleaning up the kitchen (e.g. dishwashing and surface cleaning) we try to use organic cotton cloths, plant-based loofa sponges.

We try to buy these kinds of products from companies that score better on our ratings when possible. Sometimes that’s possible (see Lodge Cast Iron for cookware and Ahimsa [LINK] for kids serviceware) but with this particular category it’s often not. So we focus on finding the highest quality products we can afford that are made from materials that tend to be safer as noted above.

While these companies may not have an overall rating of “Recommended” or “Consider” (often because they have foundational gaps on their environmental, worker fairness, and/or accountability efforts), they exhibit strong performance when it comes to ingredient and material safety. In our homes we prioritize safety first and then try to find companies who are also doing well when it comes to their other impacts on people and the planet.

2. Looking for trustworthy certifications

For kitchen products there aren’t many certifications we trust. One that we prefer but isn’t widely used yet in this category is Made Safe. For wood products we try to find products that carry the Forest Stewardship Council certification. In the absence of certifications we’re looking for kitchen products made out of inherently safer materials (above). When buying products made from stainless steel, ceramics, or cast iron, we look for companies that use heavy metals testing to verify the purity of these materials. We also avoid some materials that routinely include toxic chemicals or lack transparency about what they are made from (more below).

3. Buying direct and from better retailers

The last part of our general recommendations for this product category is about where you choose to buy things you need rather than what they’re made out of. We often try to buy direct from the company that manufactures the product we need. And we tend to avoid buying from platforms like Amazon and stores like Walmart, where we find less trustworthy information and the companies have well-documented issues with protecting our environment and their workers.

We know that in some cases, it’s just easier and faster to go to a physical store and buy it. In those cases we try our best to buy from local or regional chains because they tend to be more accountable to their customers and the public in our experience. We find that most of the national (and international) retailers are generally the same when it comes to their safety and sustainability efforts. But the two that we believe represent somewhat better options are Costco (for worker fairness) and Target (for ingredient safety).

While we’re focused on highlighting the kinds of materials that we believe offer safer options for kitchen products, we think it’s also useful to share our opinion on the kinds of materials that we work hard to avoid. For example:

1. Plastics

Plastics are everywhere in many kitchens. They often contain a number of toxic chemicals and degrade into microscopic particles over time that migrate from the products and find their way into our bodies, our water supplies, and the food we feed our kids. We do our best to avoid plastic tableware (e.g. bowls, plates, cups), food storage (e.g. containers, bags), water storage (e.g. water filter pitchers, soda streams), coffee makers, cutting boards, kitchen utensils (e.g. spatulas, spoons, tongs), microfiber cloths, and traditional dish sponges.

2. Non-stick coatings

While some states have started passing laws that phase out some fluorinated chemicals (e.g. PFAS, PFOA, etc.), many places including online retailers still sell cookware and bakeware with non-stick products with coatings made from these kinds of chemicals. Don’t buy new ones. If you already have one, go ahead and throw it out. Despite what you may have read on sites (cough, cough, Wirecutter) that do not include reliable information about ingredient safety or sustainability in their reviews, forever chemicals have a robust body of science linking them to health impacts. Here’s an extensive list of scientific studies about the toxicity of fluorinated chemicals.

3. Ceramic coatings including “PFAS-free” versions

We were intrigued by these “non-toxic” non-stick options when they first appeared in the store. The company GreenPan was one of the first we saw making these kinds of products. There are many others now. But they always seemed too good to be true. Our main issue with these is that no company making or selling these ceramic coated products like frying pans will disclose what chemicals are actually used in the coatings. The typical line from these companies is that the chemicals used in the coatings are “proprietary” or “confidential business information”. That lack of transparency makes us suspicious.

A lawsuit against GreenPan (owned by the Cookware Company) a number of years ago related to safety claims for their ceramic nonstick coating included a list of the following chemicals and potential hazards. According to the lawsuit filed in 2019 their “toxin-free” ceramic coatings include:

• Silane, a colorless, flammable, and poisonous gas, with a strong repulsive odor. It is easily ignited in air, reacts with oxidizing agents, is very toxic by inhalation, and is a strong irritant to skin, eyes, and mucous membranes.
• Aluminum oxide has been given a hazard rating of 2 out of 4 by the New Jersey Department of Health, and which noted on its Hazardous Substance Fact Sheet that repeated exposure can lead to lung damage.
• Tetraethoxysilane causes serious eye irritation, may be harmful if swallowed, may cause respiratory irritation, and may cause skin irritation.
• Methyltrimethoxysilane can cause specific target organ toxicity, in addition to serious eye irritation, respiratory irritation, and skin irritation.
• Potassium titanate is suspected of causing cancer and is also harmful if inhaled and may cause respiratory irritation.

As you can see, the hazard profiles of some of the chemicals used in these kinds of coatings don't look good. It’s possible that the chemicals used in these kinds of ceramic nonstick coatings have changed over time. But we don’t know because these companies won’t publicly share what is in them. Our decades of experience with these situations tells us that we are right to avoid products and companies using these kinds of materials in their products.