Green Nonstick Cookware

WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA) -- Pots and pans look nice in the store, but not after a messy meal.

Nonstick cookware can help.  Now, there are some new options, green nonstick pans with new kinds of coating.

"There has been concern that cooking at very high temperatures can break down the coating on typical nonstick pans, releasing a potentially harmful chemical into the air.  But, our tests haven't found a significant health test," says Dan DiClerico.

Consumer Reports tested eight sets of green pans ranging in price from $100 to $500.

For the first test, each pan is oiled once and then four eggs are cooked back to back. 

Testers are looking whether the egg sticks to the pan.  The is one won't be too hard to clean up afterward.

And machines scrub the pans up to two-thousand times to see how well the nonstick surface holds up.

One pan did fine, but another did not.

Dan says, "Another test measures how evenly a pan cooks.  In that test, one of our green pans, the Mercola Healthy Chef, burned pancakes."

And, it's ceramic handle broke on both the frying pan the saucepan. 

But, some of the green pans actually did better overall than conventional nonstick pans.

The Earth pan set is a Consumer Reports best buy.  You get 10 pieces for $190.  And it's dishwasher safe.

Another thing to keep in mind, if you do a lot of braising and browning of foods, you need uncoated pans.

For under $200, the Emerilware Stainless and Kitchen Aid's Gourmet Essential Brushed Stainless 10 piece sets are two good options.

One caveat, they'll be harder to clean than nonstick cookware.