Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Retailers are being deceived into thinking that heavyweight bakeware is of premium quality, when the non-stick coating can in fact be of a poor standard.
So warns Cooper Coated Coil, a leading UK producer of specialist pre-coated metals for non-stick bakeware, which says that both shops and shoppers are being taken in by some more expensive but inferior quality imports from China.
The company, which was the first to apply non-stick coatings by coil coat technology in the early 1970s, is now facing increased competition from Chinese bakeware manufacturers which, says CCC, spray their products with a silicone coating. In comparison, CCC applies its non-stick coatings directly to the metal substrate in a controlled and environmentally-friendly process.
“Because the Chinese use heavier gauge steel, up to 1mm thick, retailers are under the impression that it’s a premium product, but that’s not the real picture,” according to CCC’s managing director Kevin Tranter.
The company recently tested the performance of Chinese spray against coil coat technology, using accelerated roasting tests on eight tins bought from supermarkets and high street stores. Four were Chinese spray products and four were coil coated with DuPont Teflon.
CCC says the top three performers were coil-coated products, with the bottom three being Chinese sprayed roasters. The highest priced product, at £7.75, came sixth out of eight, while the lowest scoring product showed marked deterioration in release, hand washing and staining after just four cycles, with parts of its coating perforating after seven.
CCC maintains that not only is Chinese spray bakeware poor value, with a typical retail price range between £3.99 and £7.75 compared to £2.99 for all the coil-coated products, it also has a greater environmental impact.
