AHAM association, representing the vast majority of kitchen range and cooktop manufacturers selling in North America, announced a plan to help reduce the potential for unattended cooking fires, while maintaining the cooking performances. More than 100 million ranges and cooktops are in use today in the United States largely without incident. Unattended cooking, however, remains the leading cause of household fires in the United States and Canada. By the end of 2014, AHAM will propose to the leading U.S. and Canadian safety standards organizations, UL and the Canadian Standards Association, a test procedure to evaluate sensors and other devices that will prevent cookware from reaching the ignition temperatures associated with common cooking oils. This new test procedure initially will apply to electric cooktop requirements, helping to reduce the potential for surface cooking fires. The industry will prioritize standards development for electric coil ranges and cooktops, which represent the majority of cooking-fire-related incidents. In parallel with collaborating with UL and CSA on this phase, technical and product safety experts in AHAM member companies will be working together to determine how similar tests and requirements ultimately can be applied to radiant glass ceramic, induction, and gas cooktops and ranges.
