Many people love to practice healthy lifestyle in their daily life; that’s why they keep the non-stick pans as an essential culinary gadget in their kitchen.
Over the decade, cookware inventors have designed multi-faceted & varieties of non-stick pans.
Most pans have either aluminum or stainless steel inner core metals. In most of the cases manufacturers use the aluminum; yes its is a cheap priced metal & also has super thermal conductivity feature.
As a result, users enjoy seamless cooking experience with no to a low amount of oils.
Consequently, the manufacturing cost of the cooking sets becomes low & popularity becomes high.
But, what should you do with a scratched non-stick pan?
Because it will leach aluminum into your food. On the other hand, foods might get a stick on the cookware.
Briefly, either you have to do re-coating on the scratched non-stick pans or need to replace them.
After reading this article, you will get all your answers about- what to do with scratched non-stick pan & how you can fix this issue?
How To Fix A Scratched Non Stick Pan?
In one sentence to fix a scratched non-stick pan, you need to do seasoning or recoat them with fat polymerization.
But, there are multiple types of non-stick pans available on the market; you can’t apply the same seasoning technique on each one.
The seasoning technique widely depends on the factors-
- Pans oven safety temperature.
- Cookware handle construction; is it metallic or protected with thermal insulators.
- Type of non-stick coating applied on it.
Hold your breath; I will provide you the best solution; that can be applicable for most of the non-stick pans. Here is the procedure-
Wipe Out Cooking Residues:
Flashing out the cooking odors & food residues is very important; otherwise, you can’t do proper seasoning on your pan.
Rinse your non-stick pan with warm water, put some low alkaline soap on it. And finally, rub your pan with a sponge pad. Make sure the pan is entirely clean.
Once you finish that, soak excessive water using a soft cotton kitchen towel & light heat it on a stove-top.
Coated With Some Seasoning Oil:
When the non-stick pan becomes entirely moisture-less, spray some seasoning oils into it. Another thing you have to keeps in mind the seasoning oils must have a higher percentage of polyunsaturated fat.
Wipe your pan with a paper towel; that helps to smear the oils uniformly & the coating becomes smoother & thinner.
The dying oils are the best option for seasoning. But, most of the dying oils have smoke points between 400F to 450F. Therefore if your pan thermal safety temperature below 400F, then go with canola oils.
Note:
If you are seasoning anodized or cast-iron non-stick pans with uncovered handles, use flaxseed oils for seasoning.
Bake Your Pan:
If your pan-handle is plastic or silicone wrapped, use stovetop (gas stoves) for seasoning.
Put your non-stick pan on the gas stove & set the flame on medium low heat for 15 minutes. After that, upend your pan for another 15 minutes.
Now turn off the flame, & hold on for 20 to 25 minutes; until the pan come at its surrounding temperature.
Related Post: How to find if a pan is oven-proof or not?
Rub Out Burnt Oils:
If you have any cotton balls in your kitchen, mildly wrap them on the pan surface. It will help to clean all the burnt oils from your pan.
Alternatively, you can use a paper towel. To get a solid, long-lasting seasoning, repeat the same procedure two more times.
Rinse Your Pan Thoroughly:
Once you clean the burnt oils from the pan, rinse it with lukewarm water & gently rub it with the sponges.
By doing this, your check whether the coating is stick on your pan or not.
If the seasoning coating starts stripping off from your pan, either you have to re-season your pan, or you have to replace it.
Note:
If the pan-handles are wrapping with some plastics, silicone grips, you can put them under an oven.
Teflon, granite coated & ceramic non-stick pans are oven safe in between 350F to 450. Similarly hard anodized, cast iron pans are oven safe 450F to 550F.
Based on the oven & thermal safety temperature, you have to choose the seasoning oil. Cause the oil smoke point must be lower than pans oven-proof or thermal safe temperature.
Is It Safe To Use A Scratched Teflon Pan?
No, scratched Teflon pans are not 100% safe. If the inner core metal is stainless steel made like hybrid cookware, then it’s ok.
However, if the core metal is aluminum, you might be facing mineral excessive mineral leaching in your foods.
So, should you throw away your scratched non-stick pan or not?
No, you don’t have to through it out from your kitchen. Just wash your pan properly & recoat it with some good edible oil. Do it once in a month for regular users.
The polymerize fat re-coating creates a natural non-stick layer on this cookware. Finally, your Teflon pan will be risk-free.
Side Effects Of Cooking With A Scratch Non-Stick Pan:
Different scratched non-stick pans create several issues. Had anodized ceramic & granite coated pans are not as dangerous as Teflon pans.
As per NCBC, at high temperature the Teflon coating starts breaking off quickly; let out toxic chemicals in the air.
The Teflon coating might get scratched because of many reasons like harsh cleaning or improper uses.
A small chunk of scratched coating can leach into your food during cooking or during pre-heating at high temperatures dissolve in the form of gases.
These toxic fumes are unsafe for humans & pets also; that’s why never cook your pet meals in a scratched Teflon pans.
As per the Pub Medical Center, these fumes create polymer fume fever, called Teflon-flu.
Besides that, if a well-seasoned cast-iron skillet pan gets scratched, it intricate excessive irons in your food.
Not only stop here!
If the scratched spot gets rusted, & the rusts seep into your food, you might face tetanus bacterial infection.
The scratched ceramic & granite coated non-stick pans also purge chemicals in our foods during cooking. But, these chemicals are not as harmful as the chemicals discharged from Teflon.
How To Cook & Maintain A Non-Stick Pan To Reduce The Health Risks?
You don’t need to do over thinking on this topic, remember few simple steps & you will be risk-free.
Any non-stick pan performs best to cooking oil-free cooking like egg omelets, stir-frying, pancakes, etc.
- Use premium quality Teflon non-stick pans, like hybrid cookware.
- Never preheat any non-stick at a high flame or temperature & never cross the pans oven-safe temperature.
- Avoid all metallic or hard utensils that can hurt the non-stick coating. At high temperatures, Teflon coating gets soften. That’s why this coating might get coming off with metallic utensils uses. Use silicone or wooden spatulas, especially for Teflon & ceramic non-stick pans.
- Chopping veggies on any non-stick pan is a bad habit. Please don’t do that; knives scratch the non-stick layer of your pan.
- Once you have finished the cooking, wait for some time; to tranquilize the pan at its surrounding kitchen temperature. Strictly avoids rinsing any hot non-stick pans with regular water; often, the coating gets flakes off.
- Forget to clean your pan under the dishwasher regularly, even if the manufacturer said their product is dishwasher-proof. The dishwasher soaps & hot water often damages the non-stick coating.
- Use sponge pads, warm water & low alkaline soaps to clean the food remnants. The scouring pads, steel wools & other hard scrubbers slowly peeling off the non-stick coatings.
When To Throw Away Non Stick Pans?
If you find the following situation are arises on your pan, become confirmed that you have to through away your non-stick pan-
- When the pans get scratches on their cooking spots.
- The foods get a stick on its cooking surface.
- The non-stick layer starts peeling off.
- You need frequent seasoning to make them non-stick.
However, if you are using a cast-iron skillet, no needs to it out from your kitchen. Just clean your cast iron properly, & recoat it with some good seasoning oil.
Final Words:
I hope you are pretty much confident to handle your scratched non-stick pans. The non-stick pans have a lifespan of between 2 to 5 years, and this time period depends on various factors. Like- types of coating, uses & maintenance.
The Teflon non-stick pans have a typical lifespan of 2 to 3 years. Once if the scratched non-stick pan reaches its longevity time period, go with recycling.
My final words are- whatever tips & tactics you have learned here, apply on your non-stick culinary, that will surely increase the cookware longevity periods.
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How find if a non-stick pan get ruined?