How we rank

Every ranking aggregates published, checkable sources - never our own lab work, because we don’t do lab work. The inputs, roughly in order of weight:

• Construction. Uncoated cookware (stainless, cast iron, carbon steel, bare titanium) has no nonstick coating to contain PFAS. That is a physical fact about the product, not a claim to trust, so it ranks above any coating promise.
• Independent testing.Published third-party test results, attributed by name to whoever ran them, with what exactly was tested. We never rebrand someone else’s testing as our own.
• Regulation.State PFAS laws - Minnesota’s ban on intentionally added PFAS in cookware (effective 2025) and the states following it - give a hard compliance signal brands must answer to.
• Brand disclosures. Materials pages, published lab reports, and compliance statements from the brands themselves - always labeled as self-reported.
• Price.Checked against the merchant on the date shown on each page, because “safest” without “at what price” is half an answer.

Verdict language is matched to the strength of the evidence - this is the whole system:

• Invent numeric rankings from pass/fail data.
• State a precision the source doesn’t support.
• Call a named product dangerous without published evidence.
• Let a commission move a verdict - see our disclosure.

When the honest answer is “nobody has independently tested this,” that is what the page says. It is less tidy than a fake number - and it is the reason to trust the rest.