Although non-stick pans have become very popular, compared with iron pots, non-stick pans are still a bit too "squeamish", so many middle-aged and elderly people still prefer to use iron pots, and at the same time, more and more young people have joined the ranks of iron pots.
Anyone who has bought an iron pot should know that in fact, the price gap between iron pots on the market is still relatively large, hundreds or thousands of expensive ones, and cheap ones can be bought for dozens of yuan, and even in some areas, you can buy an iron pot for twenty or thirty yuan.
This makes people wonder, can cheap iron pans really work, why are some iron pans on the market so cheap, and which is better, iron pans or non-stick pans?
The "poisonous iron pot" was exposed by CCTV, and the chemical waste barrel turned into an iron pot!
Many people have black hearts in order to make money.
As a result, some unscrupulous merchants have seen the huge business opportunities hidden in the iron pot, and they have stretched out their sinful hands to the pot that we use every day.
CCTV has repeatedly reported on the black workshop of iron pot processing, where chemical waste barrels are cut and pressed into tablets, sulfate hydrochloric acid is put into battle, and then waste barrels are processed through multiple processes, which are directly turned into iron pots.
Somewhere in Jiangxi, a CCTV reporter ventured directly into a local iron pot processing workshop.
As soon as he entered the workshop, the reporter was stunned by the "spectacular" scene in front of him. I saw that the yard was filled with dense chemical waste barrels, which came from various chemical companies, and before that, these waste barrels were all used to store chemical raw materials.
Even from a distance, you can still smell the pungent chemical smell coming from these waste barrels.
After a series of processes, the black workshop made the original worthless chemical waste barrels into our iron pots for stir-frying.
Due to the low cost, the price of iron pots made from chemical waste barrels is also very low, basically around ten or twenty yuan. Even if the price is already very cheap, these black workshops can still make a lot of money, which shows how low their cost is.
Through further investigation, the reporter found an even more astonishing fact: there are many similar black workshops in the whole village, and in this one village, more than 500,000 such "poisonous iron pots" can be produced a year.
In addition to local wholesale, these poisonous iron pots will also be sold to all parts of the country through e-commerce platforms.
Use it to stir-fry, and the food becomes "poison"!
Although these poisonous iron pots look no different from normal iron pots on the surface, they actually hide a great danger.
Because its predecessor was a chemical waste barrel, these iron sheets will be more or less immersed in some chemical raw materials, and even some are highly toxic chemical raw materials that are insoluble in acid.
In addition, the treatment method of these chemical waste barrels in the black workshop is also very simple and rude, directly soaked with sulfate acid, and after the rust layer on the surface of the iron sheet is removed, it is directly completed. At this time, the surface of the iron sheet seems to be very clean, but there are still a lot of chemical raw materials left inside.
Finally, these chemical waste barrels are used to store chemical raw materials, so most of them are processed from the most common iron, in order to prevent rust from being corroded, some iron barrels will even add various heavy metals when making, such as lead, manganese, nickel and so on.
Earlier, a 6-year-old boy in Jiangsu was shorter than children of the same age, so his mother thought of a way to cook food for the child, and also used the "iron pot to supplement iron" method.
As a result, after a period of time, the boy had dizziness, nausea and frequent diarrhea, and when he went to the hospital for examination, he found that the heavy metals in the boy's body were seriously exceeded, and the culprit was the "poisonous iron pot" used in the boy's home!
How to identify a "poisonous iron pot"?
The first is to look at the certificate, the regular manufacturers will have a QS certificate, and will mark the manufacturer's name, address and contact information and other information, and even some high-end iron pots will come with a test report.
Some people may say that the certificate can be faked, but the quality of the iron pot cannot be faked. The surface of a good quality iron pot should be relatively smooth, without rust and blemishes.
Then there is the smell, if there is a pungent smell on the surface of the iron pot, especially when the taste is more obvious when stir-frying, then be careful. So after we buy the iron pot, we can dry boil it for a while to see if there is any peculiar smell.
Finally, it depends on the price, although the iron pot is not a valuable thing, it cannot be very cheap, because it requires raw materials, production technology and labor costs when making it. If you encounter an iron pot of more than ten or twenty yuan, you must pay attention.
Non-stick "related substances", or increase the risk of cancer!
There is a substance that you may never have heard of but that you may come into contact with on a daily basis, such as nonstick pans and cosmetics, and this substance is called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
PFAS is a general term for a class of substances, including PFOA and PFOS, etc., which are widely used in our lives because of their long-lasting properties, stain resistance, heat resistance and oil resistance.
In food packaging, PFAS are most widely used as surfactants in the production of non-stick pan coatings.
On October 24 last year, a study published in the Lancet journal e Bio Medicine showed that when the concentration of straight-chain n-PFOS in PFAS doubled, the diagnosis rate of thyroid cancer increased by 56%, and the diagnosis rate of papillary thyroid disease increased by 56%.
So, does that mean nonstick pans can't be used? Of course not!
All of the above conclusions have a premise, that is, inappropriate use.
Earlier, CCTV and a research team from Beijing University of Chemical Technology specifically studied this issue. The experimental results show that when the coating is heated to 300°C, the material begins to decompose, and the toxicity tends to increase as the temperature increases. And to reach this temperature, it means drying the nonstick pan for a few minutes.
In 2022, a study was published in "Whole Environmental Science", which showed that a few millimeters of scratches on non-stick pans can release a large amount of plastic particles, which can enter the food and be ingested by the human body.
Pay attention to 5 points when using a non-stick pan!
Although non-stick pans are not as safe as we imagined, as long as you pay more attention when using them, you can completely minimize the impact.
(1) Do not dry burn, the dry burning temperature exceeds 300 °C, which will cause the coating to decompose;
(2) Do not use steel wool balls to wash the pot, because the steel wool balls are hard, it is likely to scratch the coating, try to use a soft cloth or sponge to clean the non-stick pan;
(3) Do not make acidic food, because non-stick pans also have restrictions, especially do not use acetic acid;
(4) Do not use shovels made of iron, steel, aluminum, etc., so as not to scratch the coating;
(5) Do not wash the pot with cold water immediately after use, wait for the temperature to decrease before cleaning, long-term high temperature quenching will accelerate the destruction of the coating, thereby reducing the service life of the non-stick pan.
All in all, iron pans that are too cheap should be cautious when buying, and although non-stick pans are easy to use, you must pay attention to how you use them. Pots and pans are related to the health of the family, so don't be careless!