Under Pressure: Dangers of Holiday Cooking with Pressure Cookers
12/08/2022
The holidays are right around the corner, and many people will search online for quick recipes for flavorful holiday meals or great deals for gifting. Pressure cookers recipes often surface during the holidays as people turn to the internet for quick, easy preparation alternatives to their holiday food favorites. While pressure cookers, also called multicookers, may seem like a quick and convenient option to use or gift in the upcoming season, Meyers & Flowers warns potential buyers of the severe injuries and damage that defective pressure cooker can cause.
Pressure cookers are countertop or stovetop cooking appliances designed to quickly cook food by adding liquid and ingredients to a sealed, pressurized pot. Once the user selects a pressure setting, electric pressure cookers rapidly heat and pressurize. As the pressure rises, the temperature of the liquids and ingredients also rise, often above the boiling point of 212 degrees. The higher the pressure, the shorter the cooking times.
However, for a pressure cooker to work correctly, it must be designed and assembled well. Most pressure cooker advertisements boast its safety mechanisms. Pressure cookers are typically equipped with features – such as a float valve and lid-locking pin – which are supposed to make opening the appliance once it reaches a specific pressure level impossible. Yet, many popular brands of pressure cookers have faulty safety mechanisms that fail to protect users from the boiling, pressurized ingredients inside of the pot. Any error in the design or manufacturing of these safety mechanisms pose a great risk for consumers.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued warnings for some of the most popular brands including the Breville Fast Slow Cookers, Manttra Inc. Pressure Cookers, Ultrex-brand Pressure Cookers and even the much-loved Instant Pot and Crock-Pot. The issued recalls were due to a number of factors including a risk of electrical shock, faulty seals, and gaskets as well as defective safety valves and improper steam venting that may lead to explosions and serious burns.
Pressure cooker explosions cause horrific injuries to users, children, and pets that may be nearby. Victims of pressure cooker explosions often suffer second- and third-degree burns to their faces, hands, arms, shoulders, chests, stomachs, legs, and feet from the scalding contents of the pressure cooker. The recovery from pressure cooker explosion burns is painful and lifelong, and often results in mounting hospital bills from surgeries, grafting, and rehabilitation. Meyers & Flowers continues its fight against the sellers and manufacturers of pressure cookers, holding large corporations and box stores accountable for allowing these appliances to make their way to store shelves. Think twice this holiday season before taking these volatile appliances out of cabinets to use or adding to shopping carts to gift.
Meyers & Flowers’ Partners Frank V. Cesarone and Peter J. Flowers have represented hundreds clients nationwide who have been injured or sustained damages from various defective pressure cookers. Our experienced legal team is actively filing new lawsuits as large companies and third-party retailers continue to make millions of dollars off these dangerous products. If you or someone you know has been injured by a pressure cooker, you may have options for legal recourse. Meyers & Flowers can help: contact us at [email protected], by phone at 630-576-9696.