California's Kitchens and Restaurants at Risk: Imminent Vote to Ban Non-Stick Cookware Threatens Jobs, Local Businesses, and Choice

Proposed ban would strip Californians of safe and affordable cookware, cost households hundreds, and wipe out at least 6,500 jobs

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Sept. 12, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- At some point this week, California lawmakers will vote on SB 682, which bans the sale of non-stick cookware and corded kitchen appliances across the state. The proposal risks taking safe, affordable, and reliable kitchen essentials off the shelves, leaving consumers with fewer options for the products they use every day. The Cookware Sustainability Alliance (CSA) urges lawmakers to oppose the ban.

Concerns about PFAS, a chemical category that includes more than 15,000 different chemicals, is driving legislation. However, a broad categorization of all PFAS as dangerous is outdated and not rooted in science. Fluoropolymers, which are used to coat non-stick cookware, primarily polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), are included in the PFAS group but do not share the same characteristics as non-polymeric PFAS. They are recognized as safe by both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European Food Safety Authority for use in food preparation. They are non-toxic and inert, they do not bioaccumulate, and importantly they are not water soluble. In fact, fluoropolymer coatings are used on medical implantation devices such as pacemakers and catheters.

If passed, the bill will create broader, detrimental effects for many, beyond what's available on the shelf:

• Strip Californians of choice: More than half of all frying pans sold in the U.S. are non-stick, valued for affordability, durability, and ease of use. Families and restaurants should be free to decide what cookware works best for them—not the state.
• Raise costs for households & businesses: Replacing non-stick cookware would cost the average California household $300 more per set, while restaurants—still recovering from COVID and navigating continued high grocery prices —would face thousands in added costs, with small, locally-owned businesses facing the heaviest burden.
• Threaten jobs and the economy: California's 110,000 restaurants and 1,000 food trucks depend on non-stick cookware daily. The $2.5 billion U.S. cookware industry supports jobs across manufacturing, distribution, ports, trucking, and retail. A ban could cost California a projected 6,500 jobs and slow down port activity.
• Create more landfill waste: Millions of pots and pans would be prematurely discarded, adding strain to California's waste systems.

"SB 682 would upend California kitchens overnight," said Steve Burns, CSA President. "Lawmakers could ban safe, heavily regulated products that millions of families and restaurants use every day — driving up prices, killing jobs, and sending tons of cookware to landfills. We need common sense solutions to address harmful PFAS, not a sweeping ban on a completely safe product that Californians use every day to feed their families, based on politics, not science."

CSA encourages collaboration for balanced solutions that protect both consumers and the environment, grounded in science, rather than a blanket ban as suggested with SB 682. For more information on PTFEs and how consumers can make informed decisions about what products they buy, visit https://protectsafecookware.com/.

About Cookware Sustainability Alliance
The Cookware Sustainability Alliance is a 501(c)(6) non-profit organization, led by cookware manufacturers, dedicated to providing common sense, science-based information about the safety of cookware products for consumers and policymakers to make informed decisions.

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SOURCE Cookware Sustainability Alliance