Maurice goes to the store in Israel and sees a “fire sale” of ceramic cookware in Israel – 70% off.
Public awareness of product defects and dangers can work wonders. This appears to be the case with the recent Israel consumer awareness program Kolbotek that pointed out the dangers of cooking with some brands of ceramic “no-stick” coated cooking ware.
Kolbotek caused panic among Israeli consumers when the show pointed out that some of the ceramic cookware brands, such as Neoflam, contain high amounts of poisonous metals such as lead and cadmium. While the jury is still out on the effects of the pans, stores are slashing the prices to get rid of potentially defective and dangerous cookware. Maurice’s images above and below, show us so.
Colorful, and cheap, ceramic cookware
As a result of the Channel 2 TV Kolbotek program, narrated by Rafi Ginat, the Israel Health Ministry has begun an investigation into whether some of the suspected cookware brands are carcinogenic and a danger to public health.
What became evident is that the brands that Kolbotek says are safe to use, such as Arcosteel and Kenwood, cost more than other brands, especially “house brands” sold by large supermarket chains.
To get an idea of what has happened to the ceramic cookware market, in the wake of Rafi Ginat’s whistle blowing, Green Prophet paid a visit to one of Israel’s largest supermarket chain stores to see what is happening regarding sales of these products.
Kolbotek’s Rafi Ginat
The results of the Kolbotek program must have had an astounding effect on the store’s sales of ceramic cookware, as a huge display of this cookware had been placed near the entrance of the visited store, offering this cookware at “70% off the regular price”.
This kind of reduction makes it apparent that the store wants to cut its losses and rid itself of this merchandise before the Health Ministry decides to force stores to take these products off the market. This investigation was reported in a recent Jerusalem Post article.
The JPost article added that it posed the question whether ceramic cookware is safe for public use to Prof. Itamar Grotto, chief of public health at the ministry. After a number of exchanges, he assured the Post that it was “safe” to use them.
Upon asking the same question again to Prof. Grotto, who has previously been involved in assessing selected environmental pollutants that people have been exposed to Israel, told the JPost reporter that he stood by his previous statement from last year, saying that ceramic cookware that had passed the Health Ministry’s “official standard” could be considered as safe to use.
Obviously, the official standard of the Health Ministry only applies to those brands that are considered safe to use. As for the others, as the old saying goes, one gets what one pays for. So if being on the safe side means paying the higher price for the certified brands of ceramic cookware, this is surely the best option if one wants to use this kind of cookware.
Otherwise, it’s a definite case of caveat emptor – let the buyer beware!
More on ceramic cookware:
Ceramic Coated Cooking Pans May be Killing You With Color
Neoflam Cooking Pans Are Allegedly Carcinogenic: Causing Panic in Israel
Top two images taken by Maurice Picow, for Green Prophet.
Author: Maurice Picow
Maurice Picow grew up in Oklahoma City, U.S.A., where he received a B.S. Degree in Business Administration. Following graduation, Maurice embarked on a career as a real estate broker before making the decision to move to Israel. After arriving in Israel, he came involved in the insurance agency business and later in the moving and international relocation fields. Maurice became interested in writing news and commentary articles in the late 1990’s, and now writes feature articles for the The Jerusalem Post as well as being a regular contributor to Green Prophet. He has also written a non-fiction study on Islam, a two volume adventure novel, and is completing a romance novel about a forbidden love affair. Writing topics of particular interest for Green Prophet are those dealing with global warming and climate change, as well as clean technology - particularly electric cars.
Hi Maurice, thank you for your response. That supermarket chain also had big sales on this cookware before the recent story, and they were selling them at the entrance of the store then as well too. I know this, because I was looking to purchase cookware and had been price comparing for a while.
Ascribing motivations to others’ behaviors (in this case, the store) is a dangerous practice. I think it’s better practice to describe the facts that are observable, and then let others draw conclusions. Thanks for considering my feedback.
Hi Shira,
We are waiting to find out the results of the Israel health ministry tests on various cookware with this ceramic coating. I paid another visit to the supermarket selling this cookware at big discounts and noticed that the cookware is supposedly “SGS certified”. SGS is an American consumer testing service which you can look up in the internet.
Despite this certification, large frying pans are being sold at 3 for 100 New Shekels or around US 26.30.
That seems to indicate the store’s desire to get rid of these pans as quickly as possible.
I’m disappointed in how you are presenting this investigation. First of all “investigation” is not “conclusion”. Titling an article “XX may be killing you” is irresponsible, inflammatory journalism. Of course such allegations are going to cause ripples in the market for the product. And then when that does come to pass, you report that the market “wants to cut its losses and rid itself of this merchandise before the Health Ministry decides to force stores to take these products off the market.” Look, I’m all for investigative journalism, but do so responsibly. Inflammatory, insinuating, biased reporting just makes us unable to trust the sources of that reporting. Thank you for considering my feedback.
Hi Karin, I feel like this is starting to be a wast of my time, so this is probably going to be my last comment on this issue.
I think the health issue is definitely a top priority, but if Israel does not have a standard it does not mean that the US, EU or Australia do not have it as well.
The fact is they have some kind of standard, and these pots and pans have been tested and found clean.
Regarding Kolbotek, they did not say all pots and pans had lead and cadmium in them but it definitely felt like they where out to get Neoflam.
To be honest, what I really think happened was this young new company came into Israel and in a very short time took over 75% of the market.
I guess this did not feel good for the old guys that used to control the market, and they got some one to get this show done.
now the old guys have the market in their hands again, and we are stuck with a question of who to believe.
When really if we look at the facts, nothing has changed, this company just like all the other companies got their stuff tested and approved.
And now a TV show is saying the tests are no good, so oK 1 test is not good, the Canadian test was not good, by what standards are the TV show measure?
it reminds me that once me and my friends organized a VW bug travel trip, we had 50 card drive in a row, and in the news they said 500 cars. since than I know not to listen to the news, because they want to make news not report news.
Anyway you have a nice blog, thank you for doing the effort and bringing these subjects into light, but please make sure with the info you are publishing
John,
I think that from an Israeli standpoint it will be good to see what the Israeli health ministry and standards institute find out concerning this issue. They are going to do some externsive testing of these products. And by the way, the testing laboratory that is located at the Ramat Hovav hazardous waste disposal site in the Negev is definitely legitimate. Their findings will determine what products continue to be sold in Israel.
Even Kolbotek did not say that all of these ceramic cookware products were bad – only some of them.
As an afterthought, think that any time you put enamel paint coatings and especially special non stick coatings inside a pan – where these coatings come into direct contact with food being cooked at high temperatures – it’s not good for one’s health. This also goes for all that teflon coated cookware that is still very much in use.
So in the end, you have to be your own judge as to what you want to use for cooking food.
again, more propaganda,
What are you guys doing ? why are you cooperating with this rubbish?
Neoflam has proof that they are OK, they been tested by the FDAm EU authority, and the Canadian authority, what you guys are doing is putting wood to a fire, but be careful you may also get burned.
We are concerned people of the world, with a skeptical eye on any business and organization looking to make profit directly or indirectly by products claiming to be good for our health, and good for the environment.