Is Caraway Safe? An Honest Score for the Pan Everyone Asks Us About
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Short answer: yes, it’s safe to cook on. It’s a 3 on our scale — the same 3 we gave GreenPan — and if you want a Caraway that scores a 5, the company makes one. Just not the one in the ads.
Caraway is the pan people ask us about most. It’s on the counter in every third kitchen photo online, in sage or cream, and the question is always the same: is it actually non-toxic, or is it just pretty? We don’t own one (we own a GreenPan, scored here), so this is a materials review, not a two-year kitchen diary. Materials are what we score anyway.
What Caraway actually is
Caraway’s flagship cookware is an aluminum pan with a ceramic nonstick coating on the inside — two coats, applied by the sol-gel process, where a silica-based liquid is sprayed on and cured hard — plus stainless steel handles and a stainless plate on the bottom so it works on induction. Caraway says so itself on the product page: “aluminum body, ceramic coated interior cooking surface, and stainless steel handles and base plate.” Caraway sells the fry pan alone and as part of a 12-piece set that’s usually discounted from its list price.
That construction is the same basic recipe as GreenPan’s aluminum lines, Our Place, and most of the “non-toxic nonstick” category. What differs is the exact coating chemistry — proprietary at Caraway and everyone else — and how much the company is willing to show you.
What Caraway gets right
It’s not PTFE. Caraway’s coating is made without PTFE, PFOA, or any PFAS. That’s the entire reason to consider it over a conventional nonstick pan, and it holds up: the thing we score PTFE pans a 1 or 2 for — a fluoropolymer surface that degrades with heat and scratches into food — isn’t in this pan.
They publish the lab reports. This is where Caraway is better than GreenPan. Caraway posts third-party test reports from SGS, an accredited lab, on its website: tests of the coating itself for lead and cadmium, leaching tests in hot acidic solution for a list of metals including titanium, and — per the company — screening for over 600 PFAS compounds plus total organic fluorine, with nothing detected above reporting limits. We would rather read a report than a promise. Caraway hands you the report.
It’s built like a decent pan. Oven-safe to 550°F, induction-compatible, and reviewers who cook on it for months say it browns evenly and cleans up in seconds. One thing worth knowing: because nothing sticks, you don’t get fond — the browned bits that make a pan sauce — so it’s a breakfast-and-weeknight pan, not a searing pan.
Why it’s a 3 and not a 5
It’s aluminum under the coating. Every ceramic coating wears out — usually in one to three years, faster with high heat, the dishwasher, metal utensils, or cooking spray. When Caraway’s goes dull or scratches through, the surface touching your food is the aluminum body. Caraway’s warranty is one year and specifically excludes “non-stick deterioration” from heat and coating damage from utensils, which tells you what the company expects. GreenPan, for what it’s worth, sells stainless-clad ceramic pans that stay a 4 after a scratch. Caraway’s ceramic line has no stainless version. (Caraway does make bare stainless steel cookware — see below — which skips the question entirely.)
The coating is still a secret. Caraway publishes what’s not in the coating: lead, cadmium, PFAS, a list of metals. It doesn’t publish what is. That’s standard for the category, but it matters, because a widely shared home test (Lead Safe Mama, using a handheld XRF gun on a used Caraway pan) reported trace lead and a lot of titanium. Caraway’s accredited-lab results show no lead or cadmium in the coating and no titanium leaching. We put more weight on the lab: XRF on a used, stained pan with an aluminum body has real limits, and the lead numbers reported were near the instrument’s floor. But we’d like Caraway to say plainly whether titanium dioxide is part of the recipe. A short ingredient list would end the argument.
The marketing has a court date. In February 2026, Groupe SEB (All-Clad, T-fal) and Meyer (Farberware, Anolon, Circulon) sued Caraway in federal court for false advertising and disparagement. The complaint is about how Caraway describes other people’s pans — calling PTFE cookware “toxic” and cancer-causing — and it leans on a 2025 National Advertising Division finding that Caraway hadn’t substantiated those claims. Caraway calls the suit meritless and has moved to dismiss it. Two things are true at once: nothing in that lawsuit says a Caraway pan is unsafe, and a company that’s been told by the ad industry’s referee that its scariest claims weren’t backed up is a company whose marketing you should read carefully. We think PTFE pans deserve a low score. We also think “toxic” is doing a lot of work in Caraway’s ads, and that’s the tone we try not to take here.
So: a coating we like, on a metal we don’t, with a shelf life. Same math as GreenPan. Score 3 new, 2 when it’s worn.
How to make it last
Same rules as any ceramic pan — and the reason most people’s Caraway “stopped working” in a year is that they skipped them:
- Low to medium heat. Caraway’s own instructions: preheat up to 90 seconds on low-medium, oil first.
- No dishwasher. Caraway’s care page says so. Hand wash after it cools.
- Wood or silicone utensils only.
- No cooking spray. The propellants bake on and turn the surface sticky.
- Replace it when it’s dull or scratched through. It isn’t dangerous the way a flaking PTFE pan is; it’s just not the product you bought anymore.
Which Caraway to buy, if you’re buying Caraway
Caraway Stainless Steel Fry Pan — Score 5
Why it’s here: Five-ply stainless steel, no coating at all, nothing to wear out. Same brand, same handles, same colors on the lids, and it’s a 5 on our scale for the rest of your life. If the reason you wanted Caraway was “a pan I don’t have to think about,” this is that pan. The 12-piece stainless set lists for more than the ceramic set, and it’s usually discounted too.
Caraway Ceramic Fry Pan, 10.5″ — Score 3 (new) / 2 (worn)
Why it’s here: If you specifically want ceramic nonstick for eggs and fish, buy the one fry pan, not the set. A single nonstick pan you replace every couple of years is a reasonable thing to own. A full set of consumables is not. Everything else on the stove can be stainless, cast iron, or carbon steel.
Skip: the full ceramic cookware set. Not because it’s unsafe — because you’re paying set money for four pieces that all have an expiration date, when only one of them (the fry pan) needs to be nonstick.
The 5s, if you’re open to them
Lodge 10.25″ Cast Iron Skillet — Score 5
Why it’s here: The cheapest 5 on this page. No coating, gets better every year, and after a few months of use eggs slide on it too. It’s the daily pan we’d hand anyone.
Made In Carbon Steel 12″ Pan — Score 5
Why it’s here: Lighter than cast iron, heats faster, seasons the same way. It’s what most restaurant cooks use instead of nonstick.
GreenPan Venice Pro — Score 4
Why it’s here: If you want ceramic nonstick and a metal under it you’d cook on anyway, this is the one: the same kind of coating as Caraway, on tri-ply stainless instead of aluminum. It’s the pan we’d buy over Caraway’s ceramic line, and we explained why here.
What would change our mind
A published list of what’s in the coating, and a stainless-clad version of the ceramic line. Do the first and we stop asterisking. Do the second and Caraway’s ceramic pan becomes a 4, same as GreenPan’s Venice Pro.
Caraway’s ceramic scores a 3; enameled cast iron is a different material class. Is Le Creuset safe? explains why glass fused to iron is a 4, and which colors we’d buy.
If you’d rather buy a pan once, the bonded stainless lines from All-Clad are a 5 and made in Pennsylvania; just avoid its nonstick versions. Is All-Clad safe? sorts the lines.
A ceramic coating lasts longer with the right utensil in it: wood or one-piece silicone, never metal. We scored every utensil material, including which silicone to trust.
Frequently asked
Is Caraway better than GreenPan?
On transparency, yes — Caraway publishes its lab reports and GreenPan doesn’t. On construction, no — GreenPan sells stainless-clad ceramic and Caraway’s ceramic line is aluminum only. Both companies’ aluminum-body ceramic pans are a 3. If you want ceramic and can only buy one pan, GreenPan Venice Pro (4) beats Caraway ceramic (3). If you want a Caraway, buy the stainless (5).
What about HexClad?
Same family — ceramic nonstick, this time in the valleys of a stainless steel pan — with a $2.5 million false-advertising settlement behind it. It scores a 3 too, for different reasons. We scored HexClad here.
Does Caraway have lead in it?
Caraway’s accredited-lab tests found no lead or cadmium in the coating and none leaching from it. One home XRF test of a used pan reported trace lead; we explain above why we weight the lab result more. Either way, lead in a ceramic coating is exactly the thing a company should test every production run for, and Caraway says it does.
Is a scratched Caraway pan dangerous?
Not the way scratched PTFE is. The coating is a silica ceramic, not a fluoropolymer. What the scratch exposes is aluminum, which is why we say replace it rather than fear it.
Should the lawsuit scare me off?
No. It’s a fight between cookware companies over advertising language, not a finding about the pan. It’s worth knowing about because it tells you to read the marketing skeptically — which we’d say about every brand on this site, including the ones we score a 5.
Is Caraway worth the money?
Not for the materials. If you love how it looks, buy the single fry pan and put the rest toward the stainless set.
Should I return mine?
No. Keep the heat at medium, keep it out of the dishwasher, and use it for the eggs. When it stops being nonstick, replace that one pan.
Caraway or the Our Place Always Pan?
Same construction, same coating chemistry, same score — 3 new, 2 worn. Caraway publishes its lab reports; the Always Pan has a clean Consumer Reports test. Our Place also sells a titanium version with no coating at all, which we scored a 4. Full Always Pan review here.
What do 18/10 and 5-ply actually mean?
Chromium and nickel percentages and how the pan is built; none of it changes the score for bare stainless, and the one nuance is nickel for people with a nickel allergy. Our stainless steel guide explains all of it.
The bottom line
Caraway is a well-made ceramic nonstick pan from a company that shows more of its homework than most. It’s also aluminum under a coating that wears out, sold in sets that are mostly consumables, by a marketing team that’s currently in court over its choice of words. That’s a 3 — earned the same way GreenPan earned its 3 — with one easy upgrade sitting in the same catalog: buy the stainless.
Scores last reviewed September 2026. How we score.
