Air-fried chicken: crispy and delicious. PFAS chemicals: not so much.
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You see a recipe for “healthy” chicken fingers, pick up all the organic ingredients at the grocery store, put in the effort, and pop them in the air fryer until they get that perfect outer crisp. Air fryers are 70 percent healthier than deep frying due to their fool-proof cooking technique without the use of fat- and calorie-dense oils. But chances are, you haven’t considered what your air fryer is made out of, and how its non-stick coating might be leaching chemicals into your food.
Those seemingly healthy homemade chicken tenders we mentioned above? If cooked in the wrong air fryer, you could be adding extra PFAS to your meals, and heightening your risk for some cancers (1), decreased fertility, thyroid disease, and developmental delays, among other health issues (2).
The Best Air Fryers at a Glance
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (or PFAS) are used in non-stick coating on many cookware, bakeware, and kitchen appliances, including air fryers. You’ve probably heard about the health concerns linked to Teflon, the brand name of the most famous non-stick coating, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), which is a type of PFAS chemical. PTFE coatings (like Teflon) use a binding agent called perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), which is linked to various health concerns (3). Other non-stick cookware is made with perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), which is another toxic PFAS chemical.
PFAS are manmade chemicals that don’t break down for decades, earning them the nickname “forever chemicals.” When heated to extremely high temperatures over 400 degrees Fahrenheit, PFAS, which are often present in non-stick coating, can seep into food and into our blood, kidneys, and liver. They’re present in products as unassuming as sparkling water, and researchers have also found them in drinking water, household dust, rainwater, and soil across the planet, in the ocean, at both poles and simply floating in the atmosphere. As such, a 2007 study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that PFAS chemicals could be detected in the blood of 98 percent of the US population.
If that all sounds a bit alarming, there are things we can do to lessen our exposure to PFAS—especially when it comes to how we prepare our food. Whether you’re in the market for a new air fryer or you’ve been meaning to buy one, it’s wise to consider a non-toxic air fryer to keep unnecessary PFAS out of your food and your body.
For an air fryer to be deemed non-toxic, it must be free of harmful chemicals and surfactants including PTFE (Teflon), PFOS, PFOA, PFAS, BPA, lead, and cadmium. In their place, non-toxic air fryers use materials like ceramic, stainless steel, glass, enameled steel, and chrome-plated steel to achieve a non-stick effect without the use of harmful chemicals.
Hone Health is a team of health-obsessed journalists, editors, fitness junkies, medical reviewers, and product testers. For this story, we searched the Internet, high and low for the best non-toxic air fryers on the market. We take your health seriously, so we vetted each pick for PFAS anywhere your food could touch like fry baskets or grill grates—and then re-edited that list to ensure every pick solved a specific problem, from price to size and more.
Made entirely of glass, the Big Boss Air Fryer uses Halogen lights and an air-circulating convection method to crisp food perfectly without the use of oil. Don’t want to air fry everything you cook? Its wide temperature range (180℉ to 400℉) allows you to air fry, bake, grill, roast, or toast with minimal mess, easy cleanup, and no toxins.
If you’re looking for a compact option that isn’t a total eye sore on your countertop, opt for Oster’s oven. It combines four appliances into one tiny footprint: convection oven, air fryer, toaster, and broiler—all of which use a non-toxic stainless steel tray to crisp and cook food without added chemicals. Bonus: it’s even big enough to fit a 9-inch pizza or up to four slices of bread at a time.
Food capacity: 3.9 quarts
Dimensions: 9.8″D x 16.65″W x 9.8″H
Temperature settings: 250° – 450° Fahrenheit
Materials: Stainless steel
When it comes to non-toxic cookware, GreenPan reigns supreme. The brand’s entire range of products is PFAS-free for peace of mind no matter what you’re making. Its nine settings (bake, broil, air fry, proof, dehydrate, slow cook, toast, warm, pizza) make cooking fool-proof, and its non-toxic non-stick interior coating plus stainless steel trays and baskets allow for chemical-free food at any temperature. Plus, cool-touch handles and a large LED display add extra safety and convenience.
Food capacity: Fits a 13″ pizza and air fries up to 4 lbs
Dimensions: 16.46″D x 15.83″W x 13.78″H
Temperature settings: Up to 450° Fahrenheit
Materials: PFAS-free non-stick, stainless steel
Can’t live without your Instant Pot? Swap it for this non-toxic air fryer/toaster oven combo. With a whopping 14 functions in one (air fry, broil, bake, roast, dehydrate, reheat, rotisserie, toast, warm, convection, slow cook, proof, split cook, and temperature probe) it can quite literally replace your entire kitchen. Its tech features are next-level, too. Split Cook allows you to combine two cooking programs to run in sequence, like baking mac-n-cheese and then broiling for a crisp finish on top. While Temperature Probe allows you to see the real-time cooking temperature of your food and ends cooking when the target internal temperature is reached. Plus, it’s big enough to fit a 12-inch pizza, six slices of bread, or a whole chicken, all without taking up too much countertop space.
Aria’s air fryer features a large internal capacity that fits three non-toxic mesh stainless steel baskets, allowing you to create a full meal in minutes, or attach the included rotisserie accessory to cook an entire chicken to perfection. If you’re irked by the need to flip veggies midway through cooking, use the spinning cage attachment to automatically flip them continuously for an even crisp on both sides. It also features eight convenient built-in presets for things like chicken, seafood, fries, desserts, and more, so you never have to guess.
If you’re looking for a do-it-all air fryer, BLACK+DECKER’s multitasking oven is it. Easy-to-use settings and five cooking functions (bake, broil, toast, warm, and air fry) keep things simple while making everything from French fries to chicken cutlets to a 12-inch pizza. It looks sleek on the counter and cleans easily—remove the crumb tray, toss charred bits in the trash, and remove the tray and air fryer basket to pop them in the dishwasher.
Classic Cuisine’s non-toxic air fryer/oven uses halogen heat and infrared light for quick cooking—50 percent faster than a conventional oven. We love that meals can also be cooked from frozen, so you don’t have to waste time thawing from the freezer. It includes a heat-resistant 12-quart capacity glass bowl and an added extender ring for 5 additional quarts (large enough to fit a 16-pound turkey). Everything about this oven is safe and easy: the glass bowl and stainless steel fry pan are non-toxic can can be cleaned in the dishwasher.
Cooking for one? Elite Gourmet’s air fryer takes up just a few inches of counter space and holds up to 1.5 pounds of food, making it ideal for one person. It features a removable, dishwasher-safe and PFOA/PTFE-free non-stick coated air fryer pan with rack for easy cleanup and zero toxins. It also has an adjustable digital time and temperature to fry, bake, grill and roast all in one, plus a cool-touch handle, so you can dump its contents out without burning yourself.
GreenPan is a leader in the non-toxic cookware space, and its no surprise it got in on the non-toxic air fryer game, too. As the product name suggests, this heavy-duty machine is equipped with 13 different functions: broil, grill, air fry, bake, roast, dehydrate, rice, steam, stew, yogurt, sear/sauté, slow cook, and keep warm. Its diamond-infused ceramic non-stick coating, called Thermolon Volt, is specially designed to withstand the strain of modern appliances—it cleans easily and is free of PFAS, PFOA, lead, and cadmium.
Want to cook two different types of food at once? You need the Ninja DZ401 Dual-Zone Air Fryer. It features two individual non-toxic air fry baskets (made without Teflon) so you never have to worry about your Brussels sprouts getting cold while your chicken air fries—or about unnecessary chemicals infiltrating your healthy meals. Each cooking basket functions independently, so you can customize the time, temperature, and cooking mode (air fry, air broil, roast, bake, reheat, and dehydrate) to your needs.
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