The Best Nontoxic Cookware, Tested by Our Experts (2025)

The Staub Round Cocotte is our top pick when it comes to Dutch ovens. While it performed similarly to the one from Le Creuset, commerce writer Emily Farris gave the Staub the edge because of its dark textured enamel interior, which is less prone to showing discoloration. She also felt the textured surface allowed food to release more easily.

Read more about our favorite Dutch ovens.

The best carbon steel skillet: Merten & Storck Carbon Steel Frying Pan

Merten & Storck Carbon-Steel Pro Induction 10″ Skillet

Carbon steel is sort of the Goldilocks of the cookware space because it affords you the nonstick qualities and lightweight feel of a coated nonstick pan and the durability of a cast-iron or stainless-steel skillet. The key caveat is that in order to achieve said nonstick qualities, you’ll need to spend some time properly seasoning your new pan. But with a bit of work at the outset and occasional maintenance, you’ll be rewarded with an heirloom-worthy piece of cookware that has a well-earned, nonstick patina.

If we had to recommend a pan to start you on your carbon steel journey, we’d undoubtedly pick the 10-inch model from Merten & Storck. At $50 at the time of publication, it comes pre-seasoned and ready to go, saving you the trouble of multiple rounds of initial seasoning. Our testers were wowed by how nonstick its surface was out of the box, noting that “a fried egg slid right off with the ease of Teflon.” It may not be the prettiest of pans, but it’s a workhorse that’ll make you forget all about those PTFE-coated nonstick pans of yore.

Read more about our favorite carbon steel pans.

The best nontoxic rice cooker: GreenPan Bistro 8-Cup Rice Cooker

GreenPan Bistro 8-Cup Carb-Reducing Rice Cooker

The vast majority of rice cookers on the market today—including all of the top performers in our product test—feature a PTFE-coated inner pot. Given how sticky rice tends to be, this is a feature that’s certainly nice to have in a rice cooker. In our minds, the more stable heating element and less significant amount of friction the inner pot of one of these cookers is exposed to as opposed to, say, a skillet, makes us less concerned about the PTFE coating wearing down and chipping off. That said, if you’re looking for an alternative, GreenPan makes a ceramic nonstick-coated rice cooker that fared well in the Epicurious product test. There are also a few models that feature a stainless-steel pot, like this 2.5-cup model from Aroma.

Read more about our favorite rice cookers.

The best nonstick waffle iron: Presto Flipside

Presto Flipside Belgian Waffle Maker

Waffle irons also frequently feature a nonstick coating, and again, this makes a lot of sense given the sticky nature of the batter. Luckily, one of our favorite, product test–winning models happens to feature a ceramic nonstick interior. As with the rice cooker, because a waffle iron isn’t subject to the same amount of scraping or daily wear as a pan, the ceramic should hold onto its nonstick properties for longer.

Read more about our favorite waffle makers.

The best nontoxic sheet pans: Nordic Ware Naturals

Nordic Ware Naturals Half Sheet (2-pack)

As a general rule, we don’t tend to recommend any bakeware or sheet pans with nonstick coatings of any sort. If you’re baking a seasonal loaf cake or making a batch of muffins, it’s always best to use a combination of oil or butter and parchment to ensure you’ll be able to easily lift your bakes out of their vessel when the time comes. As for baking sheets, our favorite uncoated aluminum pans from Nordic Ware are remarkably easy to clean with just a sponge and soapy water, even when you use them without any parchment or aluminum foil.