Forever chemicals. That is what this is really about. Or, if you want to sound legalistic, PFAS.
Caraway thinks “Big Cookware” is trying to silence them. The upstart company made a name by promising pans without the scary stuff. Now they are suing—and being sued—in return. Two giants, Groupe SEB USA and Meyer, filed suit in New York in February. They say Caraway’s ads lie. Not by naming names. Just by calling the competition “toxic.”
The lawyers for the big guys, Carmine Zarlenga and team at Mayer Brown, say size doesn’t matter.
“Claiming to be a smaller公司是 no defense to false advertising.”
False advertising laws apply to everyone. Even the little guys with the slick websites.
This isn’t just a court drama. It’s political theater too. Last year, two dozen states tried to ban PFAS. The cookware industry banded together. They formed the Cookware Sustainability Alliance. Steve Burns runs it. He told WIRED they just want to protect “perfectly safe cookware.” They say bans are too broad. They write letters. They testify.
Then came the celebrities. Rachael Ray. David Chang. Marcus Samuelsson.
They sent letters opposing a California ban. Coincidence? Chang and Ray have ties to Meyer. Samuelsson partners with All-Clad (owned by Groupe SEB). Did they respond to questions? No.
The Alliance challenged Caraway earlier too. They went through the National Advertising Division. An indie watchdog group. NAD ruled Caraway could call itself “nontoxic” and “PFAS-free.” Okay. Cool.
But.
NAD said don’t say other pans release toxins during normal use. Don’t do the comparison shots. Caraway ignored that? The lawsuit says yes. Caraway says no.
“The tricky thing is… a lot of the ads speak toward Caraway itself versus running a comparision.”
Founder Jordan Nathan blames tech glitches. Or old ads lingering in the cache. He insists most ads comply. Michael Goodyear, a law prof at NY Law School, notes the gray area. You can brag. That’s puffery. You just can’t state falsehoods as fact.
Where does the science stand?
The jury hasn’t decided yet.
PTFE is the chemical in most nonstick coatings today. Groupe SEB says it is fundamentally safe. Meyer agrees. The lawsuit claims it never causes health risks under normal cooking. You’d have to burn the pan to high, dangerous temps. Something people rarely do.
But what about the fumes?
“Teflon flu” is real. 250 suspected cases reported in 2023 alone. Caraway’s founder, Nathan, started the company because he got sick.
The FDA allows some PFAS in cookware. But their approval? It only looks at food contamination. It ignores the air you breathe when you overheat a pan.
Courtney Carignan from UMich puts it plainly: we don’t have enough studies on cookware emissions. Not really.
There’s a lot we know. A third of Americans drink water with forever chemicals. Nearly all of us have some PFAS in our blood. It links to cancer. Reproductive issues. Immune system failures. The industry phased out the worst offenders. The ones from the 90s. But different chemicals still go into making PTFE. Factory workers face the risks first. Then the air. Then the water.
Is Caraway lying? Are Groupe SEB and Meyer protecting their sales? Or are they fighting for scientific accuracy against fear-mongering?
The trial is coming. The lawyers are ready. The science is messy.
Who eats the poison?
