The war over irreversible chemicals in cookware has seen celebrity chefs, major cookware manufacturers and state legislatures battle it out. Now a novel front has opened up regarding advertising claims.
Cookware company Caraway says “Big Cookware” is filing a lawsuit in an attempt to “silence” the company that rose to prominence for producing chemical-free pans. Caraway recently launched a marketing campaign in response to a lawsuit filed in February by two huge frying pan manufacturers who claim Caraway is damaging their reputations by advertising its products as free of “toxic” chemicals – even though it never mentions either company by name.
The lawsuit, filed by Groupe SEB USA and Meyer in the Southern District of Novel York, alleged that Caraway’s marketing of forever chemicals, a colloquial term for per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS), is harmful to the entire industry. Caraway’s marketing materials, both companies claim in the lawsuit, are not supported by scientific facts and “cause massive and continuing harm to consumers, plaintiffs and other manufacturers of cooking and bakingware in the marketplace.”
In response to WIRED’s questions, Carmine Zarlenga, an attorney at Mayer Brown representing Groupe SEB USA and Meyer in the matter, sent a press release. “Impersonating a smaller company is not a defense against false advertising – all companies large and small have the same rights and responsibilities under federal and state false advertising laws,” Zarlenga said in the release.
The lawsuit is the latest attack by two of the largest companies in the global cookware industry on their anti-PFAS efforts. In 2024, as more than two dozen state legislatures were considering bans on consumer products containing PFAS, Groupe SEB, the parent company of Groupe SEB USA, and Meyer formed the Cookware Sustainability Alliance, an industry advocacy group. This group actively opposed prohibitions, including signing letters and testifying at state offices.
Last fall, in the face of a bill in the California Legislature banning consumer products containing PFAS, celebrity chefs including Rachael Ray, Marcus Samuelsson and David Chang sent fiction to a legislator opposing the bill. (Ray and Chang have cookware lines affiliated with Meyer, while Samuelsson is a “chef partner” at All-Clad, which is owned by Groupe SEB. WIRED reached out to All Clad, Ray, Samuelsson and Chang for comment. All four did not respond.) The bill ultimately passed the Legislature but was vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“The Cookware Sustainability Alliance is focused on state-level action to protect completely safe cookware from overly broad bans on PFAS products,” the group’s president, Steve Burns, told WIRED in an email. “We are not a party to any lawsuit at this time.”
Last year, the Cookware Sustainability Alliance disputed Caraway’s claims through the National Advertising Division (NAD), an independent nonprofit organization often affiliated with Better Business Bureau national programs that independently police the advertising industry. The alliance disputed some of the claims made in Caraway’s ads regarding PFAS.
NAD ruled that Cumin can continue advertising its products as “non-toxic” and “PFAS-free,” but should avoid specific claims in its ads, including that other nonstick cookware “may release toxins into food and the home during normal, manufacturer-recommended use.”
Cumin, as alleged in the February lawsuit, continued to benefit from this message despite the NAD decision. The company claims that most of the advertising examples cited in the lawsuit simply state that its products are non-toxic and that they fully comply with NAD recommendations. However, the lawsuit also alleges that Caraway “failed to remove numerous relevant advertisements.” In a memo supporting the motion to dismiss, Caraway alleged that NAD failed to provide “any substantive support for the consumer deception element.”