Welcome to another Air Fryer Bro article. Today we are looking at quite a hot topic among air fryer buyers in 2024, finding a good air fryer that doesn’t use Teflon. There are a growing number of people that are trying to avoid Teflon at all costs, so hopefully today we can help those people get into the air fryer market! It won’t be easy as Teflon (or something similar) is quite widely used, but hey, the Air Fryer Bro is up for a challenge!! Teflon free air fryers!! Let’s do it!!
What is Teflon?
The actual technical or scientific name for Teflon is Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). Good luck attempting to pronounce that!! You can see why Dupont came up with the commercial or brand name Teflon. It rolls off the tough way better, right?
An employee of Dupont (called Roy Plunkett) accidentally discovered Teflon. Roy was working with a gas tank in the process of developing something for the refrigeration department, when he noticed that even an almost empty gas tank had some weight to it. After sawing one of these in two, he discovered a white material clinging to the inside. To cut a long and highly scientific story short, this material was the basis for what turned out to be Teflon.
They found that Teflon had excellent self lubrication properties, hence why it has been used a lot as a non-stick surface in a variety of kitchen products.
Teflon is often referred to by its technical abbreviation PTFE in air fryer communities. So if you see people talking about PTFE, you know what it is now!
You will also hear the term PFOA (Perfluorooctanoic Acid) thrown around in these conversations, as this is a material that used to be in Teflon and has been tagged by some as being a potential health risk. Although the official Teflon product has been PFOA free for some time (since 2013) you should check any other non-stick coating to make sure it is PFOA free.
If you haven’t already fallen asleep with all this technical talk, let’s get on with the article 🙂
Where is Teflon often found on an air fryer?
Usually, Teflon and other PTFE coatings are found on the air fryer basket or air fryer accessories such as a grill pan. You might even find it as a coating on the metal liner that goes into a traditional bucket air fryer.
An oven style air fryer seems to have an advantage here, as most simply come with metal racks and non-stick coatings don’t seem to be so much of a thing with those.
Why do some people want to avoid teflon?
There has been a debate raging amongst air fryer users around the safety of Teflon, and whether it is OK to use inside an air fryer.
The technical standpoint is that an air fryer doesn’t get hot enough to cause a problem for Teflon, which at normal temperatures is non-toxic, but has been shown to start degrading and release toxic chemicals at 570°F (300°C).
However, some people would rather take the ‘better safe than sorry’ approach and not use anything that has the potential to break down.
The other point is that some non-stick coatings in air fryers have been known to peel, and people don’t want to risk flakes from this coating ending up in their food.
To read up on the dangers of Teflon yourself, you can read articles such as THIS. Just make sure they are dated after 2013 (when PFOAs were taken out of Teflon).
What alternatives do we have?
As stated above, oven style air fryers seem to be a good option as they have no real need to use Teflon or non-stick coatings. As they use racks, they don’t have any large surface areas that touch food and require such a coating. Some of the interiors of oven style air fryers do contain teflon though, so you should watch out for this!
For the traditional bucket style air fryers, a good option is to find one with a ceramic-based coating, which is considered much safer. Even better, I found one with a stainless steel basket!!
Is there a Downside to Teflon/PTFE/PFOA Air Fryers?
These coatings were made to help with easy clean up with this particular kitchen appliance. Some of this may be lost when you switch to aluminum or ceramic coatings…. especially with the former! Hilariously, I have already seen customers complaining to Ninja, saying ‘why didn’t you just use Teflon’. Clearly, you can’t please everyone 🙂
What are the best Air fryers without Teflon/PTFE?
As more and more air fryer manufacturers abandon PTFE or PFOA non-stick coatings, it is becoming easier to find a good air fryer with these criteria. In fact, many air fryer makers will use the PTFE/PFOA free angle as a part of their marketing push as a non-toxic brand.
Be aware that manufacturers will also proclaim their air fryers are BPA (Bisphenol A) free, another chemical used to make polycarbonate plastics. This is another chemical that consumers are worried about, but it differs from Teflon/PTFE. So don’t get confused by BPA and PFOA talk. If you are specifically worried about Teflon, the term you are looking for is PTFE.
Again, I will state that the air fryer oven is a good choice for a non toxic air fryer kitchen appliance, as they often have stainless steel racks rather than Teflon coated baskets.
MaxiMatic EAF-05SS Air Fryer
If you are concerned about any of the materials used in the non-stick coatings on your air fryer, this specific MaxiMatic air fryer model is for you.
It comes with a stainless steel air fryer basket, which means that you don’t have to worry in the slightest about PTFE, PFOA, BPA or even the integrity of aluminum!! It’s simply the safest option for anyone worried about coatings full stop!
This air fryer also comes highly rated over at Amazon. However, it’s a shame that this model is the only one in their range with a purely stainless steel basket. Hopefully, if this model is popular, they may start to add more models. This model is only just over 3.2 Quarts in size, so pretty small by modern air fryer standards.
To go and see for yourself over at Amazon, please click the image below.
You can also check out some of the latest reviews from Amazon here:
Ninja Foodi
Not only are Ninja trending as an air fryer maker because of their innovative ideas, also because they know how to follow current trends in the market. They always proudly state their products as using an aluminum basket with a ceramic coating, with no use of PFOA/PTFE. This is good for the health conscious Ninja air fryer owner!
Not only are you getting a PTFE free air fryer, you are also getting one that is highly rated and recommended by the air fryer community. In fact, they were top in my recent article talking about air fryers recommended by the Reddit community.
The pure air fryer by Ninja is great but seems to have the occasional issue with a burning rubber smell on some models (hopefully Ninja will get this sorted soon), so I usually recommend their hybrid air fryer/pressure cooker models instead. Click the image below to go see for yourself on Amazon.
The Elite Platinum
Elite have been making air fryers for a while and were one of the brands pushed a lot through TV shopping channels back in the day. It is good to see that they are making top rated air fryers that don’t use PTFE. Go check out the specific model I am talking about here by clicking the image below and going over to Amazon.
Finally, we are getting into the realms of some decent digital air fryer models.
The Ninja SP101 Digital Oven
Ninja also have an excellent new oven style air fryer on the market which is also Teflon free. You can view that on Amazon by clicking the image below.
It’s more ‘oven like’ form factor is good if you want to air fry and also replace something such as a toaster oven or traditional oven. You can roast one minute and air fry those french fries another 🙂
The air fryer oven is a good appliance if Teflon is an issue. As you can see below, a Ninja rep confirmed on Amazon that the product is free from both PFOA and PTFE.
Big air fryer brands you should avoid if you are worried about PTFE
At the time of writing, my research shows that the following brands do use PTFE coatings on at least some of their products. Please do your own research on specific models to confirm this.
Philips
Instant Pot Air Fryer (Vortex models)
Cosori
Power Air Fryer XL (The traditional bucket style air fryers)
GoWise
Omorc
If you don’t see your brand in this article, I recommend doing your own research.
How can you find out if your air fryer contains teflon?
Most modern air fryers will have information about PTFE or PFOA’s in their marketing material. They won’t refer to Teflon as this is a trademark and they don’t want Dupont chasing them for various legal reasons 🙂
If your manufacturer doesn’t mention anything, you can simply contact them. The easiest way to do this is to message them through social media. If this fails, you can fall back on the more traditional method of emailing the question to them.
Any more recommendations?
In my personal opinion, if you are worried about the materials used in your air fryer, I would stick to using established brands in the air fryer space. These brands are far more likely to follow the non- PTFE or PFOA approach, and you can trust any claims they make about this.
For example, I am not confident I would trust a generic Chinese brand of air fryer here, even if they made claims about their air fryers. I am not sure anyone would make them accountable for these claims.
That’s all your PTFE Air Fryer related news for today 🙂
As I have seen, an increasing number of people worried about PTFE’s in air fryers, I had to address it as someone that calls himself ‘Air Fryer Bro’. Hopefully, I gave you a good starting point to think more about this subject.
I would always recommend that you don’t just take my word for it, but also do research yourself.
If you have any opinions of your own on the subject of Teflon in air fryers, we would love to hear all about them in the comments section below.
In the meantime, enjoy your crispy air fried delights in the safest way, without worrying about PFOA, PTFE or a Teflon coating 🙂
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Hi – I just got the Aria brand ceramic air fryer and so far LOVE it! It’s my first air fryer and it’s easy to operate. I purchased it specifically to avoid Teflon. https://ariaairfryer.com/collection/#ceramic
Thanks for the heads up.
Thank you for posting this brand. I am getting it for Christmas.
Hope you like it 🙂
Hi –
I recently ran across your article regarding Teflon and parrots. I have a couple of macaws and I’m terrified that I may kill them by using something coated in PTFE.
There were a lot of reviews on Amazon for the MaxiMatic fryer That said that only the basket was stainless steel but the rest of the Interior of the machine was coated in nonstick material. Do you know if any of the other models are 100% PTFE free?
Thank you for your time.
To be 100% sure I would contact the manufacturers to make sure that the model you are interested in is Teflon free.
I have a parrot also and was wondering if you found a ptfe and pofa free air fryer yet? I’ve been holding back buying one.
If a parrot is involved, I would say do your own research and contact the manufacturers! I don’t want to be responsible for a dead parrot 🙂
Just to make this more complicated; the non-stick alternatives used by many manufacturers have also been shown to have the same or similar health concerns as PTFE & PFOA coatings. So unfortunately, statements similar to this “All [insert name here] bakeware is PTFE & PFOA free” is not a guarantee of safety.
You’ve probably come across non stick cookware that’s labeled PFOA or PFTE (aka Teflon) free and wondered if that means it’s safer. Well, probably not.
U.S. chemical manufacturers have replaced the phased-out chemicals with reformulated “short-chain” PFCs with six or fewer carbon atoms. Manufacturers claim the new chemicals are less likely to build up in your bodies, but they were not adequately tested for safety before going on the market.
The limited research that has been done suggests they may have similar health hazards. For example, one study found that the short-chain alternative PFC chemicals are absorbed into the organs of mice just as easily as the long-chain versions. The study also reported that the replacement PFCs entered the brain in higher amounts than the banned version.
As always, it is up to consumers to do their research carefully and make their voices heard.
Thank you for your comment, you clearly know a lot more about this subject than myself. I think this is unfortunately the problem with capitalism. Companies will often do whatever they can to get around safety concerns to continue making money at any cost.
Unfortunately, so true.
This is good to know – thank you. Have you found a safe alternative?
I have an article about stainless steel air fryers here : http://airfryerbro.com/stainless-steel-airfryer/
Thanks everyone for all of the input. I just picked up the Emeril Lagasse Power AirFryer 360 convection oven air fryer & now I’m second guessing the purchase & planning to return. I’m having a difficult time determining which do and don’t contain dangerous coatings. I’m finding that with covid, seems some of customer call center lines no longer active. Super frustrated!!
Have you asked on Amazon listings? Sometimes company employees will answer those. Or you could try asking through social media….
After reading all of the comments and learning about the shady business practices, I think I’m going to go back to a Fry Daddy I’d rather have coconut or peanut or avocado oil in my body than all of this crap. Seems to me these companies are the Big Pharma of the food industry. Such a shame.
Concerning the Ninja Foodi: It has an aluminum basket with ceramic coating. Aluminum is a neurotoxic metal. Elevated levels of aluminum have been linked to several central nervous system diseases (Alzheimer’s, ALS, …). The coating is prone to chipping, releasing the toxic metal.
Thanks for your input on this Mirka.
Hi, So I have just called Shark ninja, and spoken to one of their advisors asking about the chemicals used in their products. As expected they never heard of these chemicals or the potential harms caused. They had to ask their managers of details on all their products. They stated that all there products don’t use PFOA. However, all of there products including the ceramic bowl types use PTFE to ensure they are non sick. They initially stated PTFE was used as a base coat, but then stated it’s used to finish whatever binding chemical it’s is. So I’m afraid all ninja products are TOXIC!