What each brand is made of, and what it will not tell you

1. What it is actually made of — the published composition, quoted, with the manufacturer page linked.
2. What it is certified to — a named standard, or the words "manufacturer claim; no third-party certification published". There is no third option.
3. What owners complain about — the recurring, substantive complaint, linked to where it is being made.
4. What you give up — every product involves a trade-off and the review names it.
5. Who should skip it — the most useful section in any review and the one most often missing.
6. What we would pick instead, with links.

The dominant marketing device in this category is the free-from list: no PFOA, no PFOS, no lead, no cadmium. Each item is usually true and most of them have been industry-standard for years — PFOA has not been used in US non-stick manufacture for over a decade, so advertising its absence is a bit like advertising that a car has seatbelts.

The claim that actually distinguishes products is the positive one: this coating is a sol-gel silicon-based mineral layer; this body is 304 stainless; this is a 5-ply clad construction with an aluminum core. When you read a product page, count the positive composition claims and ignore the negative ones. That one habit will sort this market faster than any brand ranking.

Several brands state that their products are third-party tested for hundreds of substances. We report that as the brand's claim and link it, because a claim about testing is not the same as a published test. Where a genuinely independent party has published results — a certifier's register, a publication with a real lab program, an organization that commissions testing — we cite that party by name and link to it, and we never present their work as ours.

We do not test anything. How we choose states exactly what we do instead and why we say so out loud.