Justice. Are Teflon pans "safe"? Tefal and Seb targeted by a complaint from associations
Several associations have denounced the "deceptive commercial practices" of the two manufacturers after they claimed that their Teflon pans were "safe" for health.
A new controversy surrounds Teflon pans. The cause: Tefal's website communications and a 2024 advertising campaign touting the safety of the non-stick coating. This message is not going down well with France Nature Environnement (FNE), Générations Futures, and the Citizen and Secular Consumer Association (ACLC). These associations filed a complaint on Wednesday.
By "ensuring that the non-stick coatings of its pans are recognized as safe because they contain PTFE [polytetrafluoroethylene, another name for Teflon, editor's note] and not PFOA," PFAS (or eternal pollutants) which are banned, the group "fails to mention the risk of substances being released into the environment due to the use of PTFE, throughout the product life cycle, as well as the health risks when using the brand's pans," they argue. Before emphasizing: "It is unacceptable to communicate in this way when the health of populations, particularly workers, and the environment is at stake," protests Anne Roques, FNE's lawyer.
The Seb group took note of this new action, recalling that health authorities and health agencies in Canada and Australia have confirmed the safety of PTFE for decades.
The Ministry of Health website states that "PTFE is theoretically a PFAS, but its stability and safety have been confirmed, which is not the case for the vast majority of PFAS." For their part, the associations argue that the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a UN agency, concluded that "there is insufficient data to classify PTFE as a carcinogen, but does not comment on the absence of carcinogenicity or on the fact that PTFE is "safe."
Enacted in February 2025, the environmental law aimed at restricting the manufacture and sale of products containing PFAS excludes kitchen utensils. This was the result of a strong mobilization by manufacturers, notably Tefal, and their employees in the spring of 2026 during the examination of the text before the National Assembly. At the time, the CIR declined to comment on Seb's claims about the safety of Teflon, "due to the age" of its assessments.
Le Républicain Lorrain
