Reviews by Room ➜ Kitchen ➜ Cooking Tools
Non Toxic Cooking Tools
Dr. Meg Christensen is the founder of Interior Medicine, a physician-created resource on non-toxic home products and household exposures. Her layer-by-layer analysis of materials and products draws on her background in medicine, biochemistry, epidemiology, and clinical research.
Updated May 2026
Non-toxic cooking utensil sets, tongs, and other healthy prepware and tools for the kitchen.
Unfinished wood is naturally antibacterial, even healthier than beeswax or oil -finished wood (read more below or on the cutting boards page), and is my all-time favorite material for cooking utensils. Best, it’s ultra-affordable. This 6 piece set on Amazon is only $12 (at time of posting.)
If wood isn’t your thing, you want something dishwasher-friendly, or you need a super thin spatula for flipping, stainless steel is a healthy choice. The All-Clad set pictured here is made of 100% polished stainless steel, and strikes a nice balance between affordability and quality with solid reviews.
Cooking Utensils
Are silicone spatulas toxic? It’s not as healthy as natural wood or metal, but high quality versions of silicone are safer than standard plastic due to its durability and very high melting point. With utensils, there is no opportunity for leaching— which would require soaking these over time in something acidic— and GIR uses platinum cured pharmaceutical grade silicone, which is safer than both regular and food-safe versions. So, I use these for specific kitchen tasks. They have a great grip, are dishwasher safe, and can be nice if you’re sensitive to your tactile experience (not everyone likes the feeling of metal on a pan or wood in their hand!)
Titanium
Great if you like the functionality of metal cooking utensils, but have a nickel allergy, 100% titanium is a healthy choice. Also dishwasher safe, they’re gentle on cookware, heat resistant, and totally non-toxic.
Cool Tools
Tongs made with stainless steel and beechwood! Unfinished wood is naturally antibacterial (read more below or on the cutting boards page), even healthier than finished wood, and is my all-time favorite material for cooking utensils. Super clever and ultra healthy, you can also get them with a matching utensil set.
All-Clad makes the smartest potato masher because its curved edge lets you get all the way to the edges of the pot or bowl you’re working in. Made of 100% stainless steel, it’s healthy, and is consistently rated “the best potato masher” from a functionality standpoint.
Not seeing the product or brand you’re curious about? Ask me here.
FYI ➜ “Non-toxic” doesn’t have a definition, and I use the words chemical-free, toxin, and toxic on Interior Medicine inaccurately. I do this for practical purposes, for now: they’re accessible terms that allow people to find what they’re looking for, and they’re shorthand for a complicated problem. I made an entire (free!) course about this. Check it out here.
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Are unfinished wood spatulas safe?
Yes, and they are safer than plastic! Read all about why wood is safer than plastic on the cutting boards page.
What is the safest type of finish for a wooden spatula?
None! Raw wood is best for reducing bacteria. But, if you do like the look of a finish, a single layer of plant-based oil will still allow bacteria to be captured and killed by the natural properties of wood. Avoid many, many layers, which will make the wood act more like plastic, as well as waxes, shellac, and varnishes, which do so even more. And, if you already own a wooden cutting board with some kind of finish on it, it is still much better than a plastic cutting board. It will still reduce the bacterial load somewhat, and it is not introducing any microplastics into your food. If you sand it to make it smooth, don’t make it toooo smooth — anything finer than 400 grit may slow the killing of bacteria.
Why does a Prop 65 warning come with my unfinished raw wood cooking utensils?
Prop 65 takes into account possible exposures that not just you, but the workers making the products are exposed to, and wood dust is technically associated with nasal cancer— this is super rare, and generally a concern in workers that don’t wear a mask while breathing it in all day.
Why don’t you have any bamboo utensils listed?
Bamboo itself is great, but it requires many, many strips of it, glued together, to create one piece. While some non-toxic glue presents a very minimal exposure possibility, the amount used in bamboo is greater, and there aren’t advantages to bamboo above other, solid wood options.
Reviews by Room ➜ Kitchen ➜ Cooking Tools