Chinese Food Safety Issues Color Other Chinese Culinary Products

After my former roommate moved out and I moved to San Mateo, I lost easy access to a loaf pan. I used to bake some form of breakfast/dessert bread every month or two. I've missed it for the last half a year and hence, on a recent trip to Bed, Bath, and Beyond, I looked for one.

I spotted a number of loaf pans. All were non-stick. And all were made in China.

I thought about the studies that hint that non-stick coatings may leech chemicals into the food (or at least reports indicating products made by some manufacturers may do so at times). That alone makes me a little nervous about buying non-stick. Then, given the recent Chinese contaminated food scare, I thought about whether I could trust Chinese manufacturers to even use the proper chemical mix to make the non-stick coating, or whether some manufacturers would substitute something more dangerous.

Needless to say, I went home without a loaf pan. Apparently we've returned to the 1980s/early 1990s nationalistic sentiment "buy American."