If you work in the baking or food industry, you won’t be a stranger to Teflon and its famous non-stick properties – chances are, most of the baking trays, pots, pans and griddles you use will be coated with it. But as you are probably aware, Teflon doesn’t last forever. Stacking baking trays or scraping them one too many times with metal utensils can cause your Teflon coating to start to come off, and after a couple of thousand releases, you’ll find your Teflon may burn, or simply lose its non-stick properties. In the interest of making sure your food products don’t stick to the pan or your customers don’t end up with aluminium poisoning if the food comes into contact with the raw aluminium underneath, it is a good idea to replace or refurbish your Teflon cookware at least every year, or when you see it starting to degrade. But given you can buy brand new pans and trays when your old ones need replacing, why consider re-coating your existing cookware?

Save your favourite pans

You may be attached to a favourite piece or style of cookware, or like and be used to using the trays you already have. Refurbishing your existing cookware saves you having to seek out the same items again, or if your supplier’s catalogue has been updated, finding new cookware that resembles your old supplies closely enough. If you are working with a conveyor line and end up buying slightly different cookware, you may face the problem of having to adjust your machinery to account for a change in size or shape.

Custom cookware can be hard to replace

If you are working with custom cookware in unique shapes, such as novelty-shaped lolly moulds or baking trays, replacing this can mean having new moulds made specifically for your design, which may significantly increase the cost of replacement. Recoating your custom-shaped cookware can save you on having to manufacture that fish-shaped tray all over again.

Less wastage

If your cookware is free of holes and other damage, then throwing it away simply because the Teflon coating has worn off can be a waste of resources. If the metal underneath is still in good condition, simply recoating existing pans can prevent good material from being thrown away, and save the earth’s natural resources, by reducing the need to have more metal mined to create brand new pans.

Bulk coatings could save you money

While buying one new tray may be cheaper than coating one old one, once you start thinking in large quantities the tables turn. Often a minimum batch of Teflon has to be prepared, resulting in high setup costs if this batch is used only for one or two small items. Coating a larger quantity of items, however, will result in more of that Teflon being used, reducing the cost per item, and saving you a significant amount of money overall if you coat your bakeware in bulk.

As good as new...or better

Recoating an old tray in Teflon can restore it to its brand-new qualities and capabilities…or in some cases, it can even improve the performance of your cookware. While standard OneCoat Teflon is a great option for restoring non-stick cookware to like-new condition, a heavier duty TwoCoat Teflon powder coating is also available. This coating, which has a thickness of up to 100 microns, is more durable than standard Teflon, and can allow your pans to last almost five times the number of releases of a regular Teflon coated product, increasing their lifespan and reducing the amount of times they will need to be recoated or replaced.

Read more

What can I use Teflon for?

The Benefits of Hard Anodising