Chlorinated paraffins are still legal in the US. In the European Union, the short chain chlorinated paraffins are banned, but the medium and long chain ones are still legal. Devices manufactured in the European Union are marginally safer than ones in the US, but until all chlorinated paraffins are outlawed, one might avoid using motorized kitchen appliances that point down into the food, such as immersion blenders. Or at least, conduct regular inspections of the appliance to help ensure no oil leakage.

With regards to chlorinated paraffins, it’s probably safer to use upright blenders in the sense that less chlorinated paraffins can get up into the container, maybe none.

As far as immersion blenders go, if you must use one, pick one where the driveshaft is made of stainless steel. Cuisinart makes a good affordable stainless steel immersion blender. Bamix is considered the gold standard of hand blenders but it maybe it shouldn’t be because it has an aluminum bell-shaped cutter guard which comes in contact with the food (aluminum isn’t safe to cook with; more on that below) and a chromated brass driveshaft (brass can leach lead and plain chrome is not recommended for food preparation as it can also leach harmful substances into food). I’ve also seen reports of food getting stuck up in the drive shaft which is gross.

The main caveat regarding immersion blenders though is that until all chlorinated paraffins are banned, there is a risk of these chemicals dripping into the food.

Alternatives To Electric Kitchen Appliances

Blenders may not be necessary

There are some studies showing that it is actually healthier to consume a fruit or vegetable by chewing it and swallowing it as opposed to processing it through a blender. Digestion begins in the mouth with chewing and enzyme production found in the saliva. Not that processing a food in a blender is unhealthy thing- I myself use all these electric motorized devices. The purpose of this article is simply to get one thinking about best practices and choices when it comes to food prep tools (rather than introduce an outsized level of paranoia or dread about toxic chemicals in the kitchen haha which hopefully I have not done).

Manual egg beater

A manually operated egg beater performs its duties admirably. This one is by RSVP International is made entirely from 18/8 stainless steel (except the plastic handle). No chlorinated paraffin risk here.

Stainless steel food mill

As for pureeing jams, soups, and baby food, an old fashioned stainless steel food mill or “mouli” is a smart choice. They come in a wide variety of sizes, designs, and price points. There are still numerous models comprised of 100% stainless steel with no plastic seals or components that make contact with the food.

Potato Ricer

A stainless steel potato ricer is a handy device that makes fluffy mashed potatoes, and can also strain/puree baby food and soups.

Chinois

The chinois is a conical sieve with an extremely fine mesh. It is used to strain custards, purees, soups, and sauces. It produces a very smooth texture. You use a wooden mallet type tool to express the food through the sieve’s small holes.

Mortar and Pestle

The mortar and pestle are ancient tools that do a great job of pulverizing food. You can make excellent guacamole in them as well as innumerable other tasty foods.

Why Silicone Cookware Is Unsafe

Silicone is a man-made polymer, but instead of a carbon backbone like plastic, it has a backbone of silicon and oxygen (Silicon is an element on the periodic table and is found in more than 90% of the minerals that make up the Earth’s crust.)

However, to make silicone polymer, silicon is passed through hydrocarbons to create a polymer with an inorganic silicon-oxygen backbone and carbon-based side groups. What all that means is that while the silicon might come from a benign and plentiful resource like sand, the hydrocarbons in silicone come from fossil sources like petroleum and natural gas. So silicone is a kind of hybrid petrochemical based material.” http://myplasticfreelife.com

Silicone has petrochemicals in it, and cooking food in plastic is always a very bad idea. These toxic petrochemicals are toxic to the human body and are proven to leach out of silicone cooking/baking materials: https://safebabyhealthychild.com/is-silicone-in-baby-products-and-bakeware-really-safe/

Why Aluminum Cookware Is Unsafe

There are numerous studies linking aluminum exposure with Alzheimer’s disease. For example, a Canadian group studying brain tissue from deceased Alzheimer’s patients found that certain parts of their brains had two to three times more aluminum than a normal brain. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/963531

Aluminum is linked to a host of health problems including Alzheimer’s and breast cancer and if you’re baking with it, it’s leaching into your food. Don’t cook with aluminum pans (and don’t use anti perspirants either- the active ingredient in them is an aluminum derivative. Magnesium based deodorants like the brand  “Deodomom” are safe and work well. You can also make your own magnesium deodorant by purchasing pharmaceutical grade magnesium hydroxide and mixing it with water.

Why NonStick Ceramic Cookware Is Unsafe

These are relatively new in the market place. Manufacturers do not state how exactly the ceramic coating is adhered to the pan or what exactly the coating is comprised of. Companies lied for decades about the dangers of traditional nonstick coatings, so don’t trust them to be honest about ceramic nonstick products either.

“We didn’t notice any smell off gassing from using the GreenLife pans for the first time. In fact, we were pretty darn happy with them. But after a couple months, we started noticing something really strange. Every time we cooked in our GreenLife pans, our air purifier would go crazy. I have an AIRDOCTOR Air Purifier. It has a VOC sensor that automatically adjust the air purification depending on what’s going on in the house.

When the air was relatively low in VOCs, the air purifier would be green and run silently. But as VOC levels increase in the air, the AIRDOCTOR changes color and speeds up the fan, which becomes very loud.

We had an open concept kitchen and living room. And EVERY TIME we used our GreenLife pans, the air purifier would go into what we called “death con” mode. The lights would become red and the fan would be so loud that it was hard to hear the TV over it. And the air purifier would remain that way for up to an hour after cooking. While I realize that it could be a variety of things increasing the VOC levels while cooking, we did try all kinds of cooking, from pan frying to just heating up liquids in the ceramic coated cookware. And every time the air purifier went crazy.

Can I say for sure it was the GreenLife pans? Nope.

But what I can say for sure is that the GreenLife pans definitely had a chipped coating not too long after we started using them. While I tried to use the plastic utensils (which I HATE but are necessary with non-stick cookware) included in my GreenLife cookware set as much as possible (even though they were shredding and melting after a while), my husband would sometimes use metal cooking utensils. So that’s a problem, for sure.

And we put our cookware in the dishwasher, too. Because I don’t have time to pamper pots and pans.

We also soon found that food stuck onto the ceramic coated pans very easily. Frying onions would leave a black residue that was extremely hard to get off. And over time I realized that baked-on food was just not coming off very well.

For all of these reasons, plus the fact that these pans simply won’t stand the test of time as an investment, I wouldn’t buy ceramic coated cookware again.”

source: https://www.getgreenbewell.com/nonstick-ceramic-cookware-is-the-coating-safe/

The Solution: Stainless Steel

Stainless steel is the ideal material to cook and bake with. And it doesn’t have to be expensive.

First, here’s some info on stainless steel.

Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon. Iron and carbon are elements. But not all steels are the same. You want to cook with  food grade stainless steel which is designated as 304 grade stainless steel. It is also designated as 18/10 or 18/8 stainless steel. “304 grade” and “18/10” and “18/8” all mean exactly the same thing.

304 grade stainless steel is required by law to be manufactured with 18% chromium and 8-10% nickel. This is why 18/10 and 18/8 stainless steel are the exact same thing (the 18 refers to the chromium content and the 8 or 10 is referring to the acceptable range of nickel inside it. 18/10 isn’t better than 18/8, it’s kind of a marketing ploy to make it sound fancier but again, they refer to the exact same thing- food grade 304 stainless steel that contains 8% to 10% nickel.

This kind of steel is very hardy, made to withstand exposure to water, acidic foods, and soapy washings without rusting. Chromium, commonly known as chrome, makes the steel very strong, resistant to high temperatures, and to corrosion (rust).

Nickel also imparts valuable corrosion resistance. The way to tell if the stainless steel has nickel in it is by applying a magnet to the surface- nickel is not magnetic. If the magnet sticks to the steel, it means there is not much, if any, nickel in there and it will corrode a little faster.

Here’s why stainless steel is rust resistant: “The chromium in the steel combines with oxygen in the atmosphere to form a thin, invisible layer of chrome-containing oxide, called the passive film. The sizes of chromium atoms and their oxides are similar, so they pack neatly together on the surface of the metal, forming a stable layer only a few atoms thick. If the metal is cut or scratched and the passive film is disrupted, more oxide will quickly form and recover the exposed surface, protecting it from oxidative corrosion.” https://www.thoughtco.com/why-stainless-steel-is-stainless-602296

*A quick note about 18/0 stainless steel: it is a little less expensive because it has no nickel in it and thus will rust a little quicker, but it is still a good, toxin-free choice and is perfectly safe. Some pots have a 18/10 stainless steel on their cooking surfaces and 18/0 stainless steel on the bottoms so that they can work on induction cook tops.

Stainless steel can be expensive but you can still find affordable great pieces. If one is on budget, it’s best to go for a middle ground price point. There are pieces for around 30-40 dollars which are good, and as long as you purchase them from a reputable store with a good return policy then you can always return it if it turns out to be poor quality.

Purchase stainless steel cookware that is Made In The USA if possible. Again, there is very little quality control in products coming out of China. You may be able to find some good stainless steel cookware that is Made in China but really check it out once you purchase it and keep the receipt in case you need to return it.  It is possible to find excellent used stainless cookware as well.

Don’t buy the ultra-cheap stainless cookware going for around 20 dollars or so. The online reviews for these are sketchy, with reports of odd odors, plastic or chemical smells, discoloration, and warping. You can also find some excellent used stainless steel cookware at garage sales, second hand stores, and online.

*Note- do not buy chemically lined stainless steel

Make sure you don’t buy stainless steel cookware that has been coated with some kind of nonstick chemical. Some companies state they apply nonstick finish to their stainless steel cookware. DO NOT BUY THESE. Also avoid any kind of “electro-chemically plated” or “Silverinox finish” treatment applied to a cookware’s cooking surface. This process is apparently meant to enhance the finish or make it easier to clean but since it may weaken the structure of the stainless steel on an atomic level and cause it to leach nickel into the food. One way you can tell if the steel has been treated is it actually feels plasticky, and will become oddly discolored after cooking with it. Don’t buy anything that looks like it’s been treated with a chemical finish. Do not buy products like these: https://www.chowhound.com/post/chemically-lines-pots-demeyere-silvinox-802027

How To Make Stainless Steel “Nonstick”

Professional chefs do not use nonstick pans. They use stainless steel. Here’s how the pros make their stainless steel pans perfectly nonstick (so you can even cook scramble eggs without nightmare cleanup scenarios).

All you do is put the pan on high heat with some oil in it. When it is hot enough that the oil is very loose and runny and forming a mirror-like sheen on the pan when you tilt it, you can take the pan off the heat.

This next step is important: you must let the pan cool down before you do anything else. You don’t want to burn yourself and you also don’t want to interfere with the process. What is happening is, when you heated the pan with the oil in it, the microscopic pores and cracks of the stainless steel expanded. The oil is then able to sink into and seal those microscopic cracks. Once the pan cools down and contracts, the pan will be nonstick.

When the pan is cool, simply wipe the oil out with a dry towel. DO NOT USE SOAP. The pan will now be nonstick. You now have a stainless steel pan with nonstick capabilities: completely safe and nontoxic.

If you’re scrambling eggs, don’t be alarmed when there appears to be a lot of burned on stickage. Just make your eggs like usual then soak the pan in water. After it has had 30-40 mins to soak, you will easily be able to remove the residue with a plastic knife. Plastic is not as hard as steel so don’t worry about it scratching the pan.

Other kinds of safe cookware

Cook With Cast Iron

Plain old cast iron is safe too. It’s an age old non-toxic way to cook. Acidic foods like tomatoes do leach iron out of the cast iron though and may cause the food to taste metallic. However, plenty of people still cook stuff like chili in their cast iron and it comes out delicious. Cast iron can actually be a good way to supplement your diet with a bit more iron

Season your cast iron with olive oil (there are directions online for how to properly season cast iron.) It’s not recommended to put it in the dishwasher. For hygienic reasons, I recommend washing cast iron cookware with soap and water by hand after you’re done cooking (some cast iron enthusiasts will say this is heresy but leaving a slick of animal fat grease inside a pan is unsanitary and unhealthy). Just wash the vessel and re-season with olive oil.

Cast iron is very economical, even when purchased brand new. At the time of this writing I believe Lodge still makes cast iron skillets in the USA but I would check to make sure they have not moved production overseas. I know Lodge porcelain enamel cast iron  products are now manufactured in China. Again, there simply is not much quality control in products coming out of China. Purchasing second hand Made in the USA cast iron is also another great choice.

Carbon steel is also a safe option but it will react to acidic foods just like cast iron does. However due to positive features like superior heat retention, some people love their carbon steel pans.

Cook With Porcelain Enameled Cast Iron

This Dutch oven is an example of porcelain enameled cast iron. It’s manufactured by baking glass onto the surface of cast iron in extremely high temperatures. It is very safe and long-lasting.

Dutch ovens can be very expensive if you’re purchasing a Le Creuset or a Staub but it is possible to find these brands on sale at their factory outlet stores or good used ones at garage sales or online.

I would not recommend buying any porcelain enamel cast iron that is made in China. Again, not always but often enough, the companies there do not adhere to strict levels of safety and quality craftsmanship. And again, ceramic can be very toxic if the wrong materials are used. For example, lead and other harmful substances have been found leaching from inferior ceramic coatings manufactured in China.

Cook With Glass and Ceramic

Baking is easy and completely safe with glass and ceramic casserole dishes made from reputable companies such as Corning Glass. It’s better to buy these new as the older ones may have potentially toxic impurities in the porcelain or glass. Glass is great and very cheap way to ensure a nontoxic food preparation experience. Again, look for the Made In The USA label. There are also very good ceramic and glass cookware manufactured in Western Europe.

Store Your Food In Glass

Pyrex makes awesome glass food storage containers with BPA-free lids so it’s really easy to keep all your leftovers in glass. Just don’t let the food make direct contact with the plastic. Glass is by far the best way to store food in the refrigerator.

Use Only Stainless Steel Or Wood Implements

Aluminum and silicone implements can leach into the food as it’s cooking. Only use stainless steel or wooden spoons/spatulas when preparing hot foods

Note: some wooden implements come from trees from rainforests. Rainforests must never be cut down for any reason. Always purchase wooden tools that certify they are rainforest-safe.

Finally, now that we’ve covered healthy cookware, here is some fascinating information culled from decades of scientific research on organic food and GMO’s: https://kimcampion.com/organic-health/all-about-gmos-genetically-modified-organisms/