What this site is for

MessyPig checks what is actually in the things your food touches — pans, lunchboxes, storage boxes, bottles — and reports what each manufacturer is willing to state in writing.

It started from a small, irritating discovery. If you try to find out what is in a “non-toxic” ceramic pan, you generally cannot. The coating has a trade name. The composition is proprietary. The country of manufacture is often missing. And the claim on the box — PFAS-free, non-toxic, clean — has no legal definition behind it in most places.

So that is what this site measures. Not our opinion of a product’s safety — we have no laboratory and will not pretend to — but how much the company will disclose, and whether their claims match their evidence. It sorts the market surprisingly well.

What we actually do

We read manufacturers’ own product pages, FAQs and care instructions; published laboratory certificates; statutory disclosures filed under laws like California’s AB 1200; regulators’ decisions; court filings; and peer-reviewed research. Then we link all of it, so you can check the work rather than trust us.

Where a manufacturer does not publish something, we write UNVERIFIED rather than guessing. There is a lot of UNVERIFIED on this site. That is the finding.

What we are careful about

• We do not scare people. Most of the evidence in this field is thinner than the marketing on either side suggests. Where the science is genuinely contested — and on fluoropolymers it is — we say so and show both positions, including who funded which.
• We separate presence from exposure. Lead in a solder dot on the outside base of a bottle is not lead in the water. We will tell you the dot is there and also tell you what that does and does not mean.
• We do not pretend a plaintiff’s allegation is a finding. A filed lawsuit is a claim. A dismissal is not a vindication. We label which is which.

Who writes it

MessyPig is a small independent site. It is not owned by a cookware brand, a retailer or a testing company, and it takes no payment for coverage, placement or scores. It is not yet in any affiliate programme, so no link on it is currently paid. Affiliate commission is how it is meant to pay for itself eventually, and the disclosure page sets out the rules we have bound ourselves to before there is any money involved.

Corrections

If something here is wrong or out of date, we want to know. We correct on the page, dated, rather than quietly. Brands are welcome to send us material declarations or test reports — publishing one is the fastest way to change a score.