To Find the 3 Best Nonstick Food Turners, I Flipped Pancakes, Eggs, and Burgers

Food turners come in a handful of different materials, but wood is flammable, and metal isn’t safe for all pans, especially nonstick ones. So, the best way to extend the lifespan of your nonstick cookware is to use nonstick utensils, like silicone or nylon food turners. We last tested food turners in 2022. Since then, more turners have hit the market, and we wondered how our favorites held up. To find the best nonstick turners—sometimes called spatulas—we retested our winners and added new models to the mix. Three of our previous favorites made the cut.

The Winners, at a Glance

The Best Nonstick Food Turner

Material The Soft-Edge Turner

$25 at Amazon View on Materialkitchen.com

The Material Soft-Edged turner is a perfect combination of strong and flexible. The soft, tapered silicone edge scooted under food easily, and the sturdy nylon core provided enough structure to lift heavy foods, like burgers. The extra-long handle makes this product versatile and well-suited for flipping foods in deep pans.

The Best Small Nonstick Food Turner

GIR Get It Right Premium Silicone Mini Flipper

$13 $11 at Amazon View on Gir.co

This GIR Mini Flipper is petite and powerful. The spatula head is constructed from solid silicone with a fiberglass core that packs a ton of strength into a small design. This turner is maneuverable enough to work well in compact frying pans and tough enough to handle bigger foods on the griddle.

The Best Slotted Nonstick Food Turner

Tovolo Silicone Slotted Turner

$14 $13 at Amazon View on Walmart View on Target

The Tovolo slotted food turner has a sharp, tapered edge and a durable stainless steel handle. This spatula’s slotted design lets grease drain—perfect for searing a burger or cooking bacon. The Tovolo also flipped pancakes with ease.

The Tests

• Construction Test: I bent and flexed each food turner to test for durability and strength, checking for warping and evaluating the seams for signs of splitting.
• Over-Easy Eggs Test: To test for maneuverability, I used each food turner to make one over-easy egg on our favorite nonstick griddle. I evaluated how well each turner could lift, flip, and handle this delicate dish. I also checked to make sure the griddle remained unscratched.
• Burger Test: I used each food turner to flip a half-pound burger patty to test its strength. I evaluated how well the spatula could handle the weight and size of a large patty. 
• Pancakes Test: To further test the maneuverability, I used each of our winners to make three pancakes, observing how easy it was to lift and flip each cake.
• Usability Tests: Throughout testing, I considered the overall comfort and feeling of each food turner. 
• Cleanup Tests: I washed the turners by hand after each test. At the end of testing, I ran the appropriate models through the dishwasher and looked for signs of damage. 
  

What We Learned

Silicone Food Turners Were Superior

I tested nylon and silicone nonstick food turners. Nylon is a type of rigid plastic. Spatulas made from nylon, like the Williams Sonoma Prep Tools, were strong enough to pick up heavy foods and had thin edges that could separate two pancakes that ran together. Although it’s user-friendly, nylon has drawbacks, like melting at high temperatures. When a nylon turner starts to degrade, sticky foods like eggs get caught on its frayed edges.

Silicone is much more durable. It’s heat-resistant to higher temperatures (around 600°F) compared to nylon (under 400°F), so you can sear steaks or burgers without exceeding maximum temperatures. Both silicone and nylon are safe to use on nonstick or ceramic pans.

Thinner Edges Were More Nimble

A super thin edge is critical for scooting under slippery or light foods like eggs and pancakes. (That's why fish spatulas are so helpful for delicate tasks.) Many of the nonstick food turners I tested, including the winning ones from Material, GIR, and Tovolo, are designed with a head that is thicker in the center and becomes gradually thinner toward its edges. Others, like the OXO Good Grips Silicone Flexible Turner and Williams Sonoma Prep Tools, had uniformly super-thin heads. Both of these designs—uniformly thin and gradually thin—were able to fit under delicate foods. Models with thicker edges, like the bulbous KitchenAid Classic Slotted Turner, tended to push food around the pan. 

Bigger Wasn’t Always Better

A large spatula might look impressively beefy, but it’s not necessarily better. Large spatula heads were difficult to maneuver around a crowded electric griddle. The OXO Good Grips Silicone Flexible Turner was one of the largest of the models I tested (it’s 3.25 inches wide) and performed well on the griddle but was too big to fit neatly in a small nonstick skillet. Handle length made a difference in usability as well. Handles varied from seven (the aforementioned OXO) to 10 inches (the Crate & Barrel, Williams Sonoma Silicone, and Williams Sonoma Prep Tool) in length. I preferred mid-length handles, around nine inches. My winners have handles that are long enough to reach into deep pans but short enough to fit comfortably in the dishwasher.

A Little Flexibility Goes a Long Way

Flipping burgers is a bit like yoga—it requires both flexibility and strength. During testing, flexible spatulas proved to be much more maneuverable. Models with soft edges, like the Material turner, bend in the pan and gently slip under delicate eggs without breaking the yolk. Firmer models, like the KitchenAid Classic Slotted Turner, require more blunt force and can disturb foods. An overly bendy tool like the OXO Good Grips Silicone Flexible Turner, on the other hand, buckles under the weight of heavy foods like burgers. Our favorite models use reinforced silicone construction for the perfect combination of power and give. 

The Criteria: What to Look for in a Nonstick Food Turner

The best nonstick food turners are nimble yet strong. They should have uniformly thin or sharply tapered edges. The head should be small enough to lift a single egg in a 10-inch frying pan, but large enough to balance larger items like burger patties or pancakes. Our favorite turners have a little flexibility that allows them to bend when sliding under food but are sturdy enough to lift heavy foods.

Our Favorite Nonstick Food Turners

The Best Nonstick Food Turner

Material The Soft-Edge Turner

$25 at Amazon View on Materialkitchen.com

What we liked: The Material Soft-Edge Tuner performed well in all of my tests. It had a thick head—measuring seven millimeters in the center—but this was offset by its sharply tapered edge, which allowed it to seamlessly scoot under and pick up eggs and pancakes. The width of the head (3.5 inches) provided extra strength for flipping large burgers. As a bonus, this beautifully designed food turner is available in several contemporary colors that would look lovely displayed in a utensil crock. 

What we didn’t like: Over time, the light gray silicone could stain (although it’s also available in a darker gray and terracotta). At $25, this is the most expensive food turner I tested.

Key Specs

• Materials: Silicone with nylon core and stainless steel handle cap
• Heat-resistant: Up to 450ºF
• Dimensions: 9 x 3.5 inches
• Dishwasher-safe: Yes

The Best Small Nonstick Food Turner

GIR Get It Right Premium Silicone Mini Flipper

$13 $11 at Amazon View on Gir.co

What we liked: The GIR Mini Flipper is extremely sturdy and constructed from a single piece of silicone with a fiberglass core. At nearly 11 inches, it’s long, but it has a small (2.56-inch wide) head, which makes it nimble and easy to maneuver around any cooking surface. It’s a good option if you’re looking for a turner for scraping, stirring, and sautéing. Whether cooking on a crowded griddle or in a small frying pan, the thin tapered edge can isolate and lift any food. The fiberglass core packs a lot of strength into this tool, so don’t underestimate its strength.

What we didn’t like: It’s simply too small for bigger food items such as omelets, burgers, and large pancakes.

Key Specs

• Materials: Silicone with a fiberglass core
• Heat-resistant: Up to 550ºF
• Dimensions: 10.9 x 2.6 inches
• Dishwasher-safe: Yes
  

The Best Slotted Nonstick Food Turner

Tovolo Silicone Slotted Turner

$14 $13 at Amazon View on Walmart View on Target

What we liked: This sturdy spatula has a medium-sized head and a durable stainless steel handle. The spatula combines the strength of nylon with the durability of silicone—the head has a silicone exterior with a nylon core for added strength. It measures 5.2 millimeters in the center, creating a sturdy platform for holding food. The Tovolo’s two-piece construction has solid seams that showed no signs of giving, even after rigorous bending. The slotted spatula head is perfect for pan-frying—it picks up food and lets grease drain away into the pan.

What we didn’t like: The tapered edge is slim enough to slide under food but is blunt. If two pancakes run together, it takes a decent amount of pressure to separate them using the spatula’s edge.

Key Specs

• Materials: Silicone and stainless steel
• Heat-resistant: Up to 600ºF
• Dimensions: 12.75 x 3.5 inches
• Dishwasher-safe: Yes

The Competition

• OXO Good Grips Silicone Flexible Turner: This OXO is a solid silicone spatula with a large, thin head that felt manageable on a griddle but slightly large in a skillet. This spatula was a winner in 2022, but it lost points during this round of testing because it felt unwieldy in comparison to the Material and Gir tools and it flexed slightly under heavy patties. 
• OXO Good Grips Silicone Cookie Spatula: This was one of our previous favorites, and I still think it’s a great option for retrieving cookies off of a baking sheet or flipping a single egg. However, it’s just too small to be as versatile as a larger spatula.
• OXO Good Grips Silicone Flexible Omelet Turner: This turner is too large to be versatile.
• DI ORO Chef Series Standard Flexible Silicone Turner: This turner handled food well, but it warped easily.
• DI ORO Chef Series Wide Round Flexible Silicone Turner Spatula: This spatula’s extremely wide head was unwieldy. It has been discontinued.
• DI ORO Chef Series Long Flexible Silicone Turner Fish Spatula: Despite its functional design, this food turner warped easily when bent by hand. This spatula is also discontinued.
• Allwin-Houseware Silicone Turner: This thin turner can slide under food easily, but the large head bent under the weight of a burger. Since our original test, this turner has been discontinued.
• Maine Man Fish Turner Slotted Spatula: This inflexible spatula featured a thick edge that made it difficult to pick up individual foods. During testing it scooted eggs and pancakes all over the griddle. 
• Crate & Barrel Silicone and Wood Slotted Turner: I liked this turner’s silicone head—its cute, round perforations drained grease well. Unfortunately, it was the only model I tested in our most recent review that wasn’t dishwasher-safe. 
• Williams Sonoma Stainless-Steel Silicone Slotted Turner: This turner performed well during cooking tests. Unfortunately, the 10-inch handle was too long to fit comfortably in the dishwasher. 
• Williams Sonoma Prep Tools Nonstick Turner: The solid nylon construction knocked this food turner out of contention. 
• KitchenAid Classic Slotted Turner: This all-nylon spatula had a thick, rounded edge that pushed pancakes around the griddle.

FAQs

What is the best spatula for cookies?

The best spatula for cookies depends on your sheet pan. A thin metal spatula, like our favorite fish spatula, is a useful tool for lifting sticky cookies from an aluminum pan. If you’re using a nonstick sheet pan, using a silicone spatula will prevent scratching the coating.

Are nonstick spatulas dishwasher-safe?

Nonstick materials like silicone are typically dishwasher-safe but cleaning protocols may vary from spatula to spatula. To play it safe, double-check the manufacturer’s instructions before tossing your nonstick spatula in the dishwasher.  

Can nonstick spatulas melt?

Depending on the materials used, some nonstick spatulas could melt if left on a super hot pan or near a burner. Our favorite spatulas are all made from food-grade silicone. The winning spatulas in this review max out at 600°F. Nylon, on the other hand, can melt at temperatures as low as 450ºF. 

Can you use a nonstick spatula with a cast iron or carbon steel skillet?

Nonstick spatulas can be used in cast iron and carbon steel skillets in addition to nonstick pans, cookware, and bakeware. It's also worth investing in a fish spatula if you regularly cook with cast iron or carbon steel pans. We've tested both solid silicone and silicone-edged fish spatulas. Our favorite silicone-edged model from Sur La Table is safe to use with nonstick cookware.

Can I use a silicone spatula for frying?

To determine if your silicone spatula is safe for frying, check the frying temperature in your recipe and the heat-resistance rating of the utensil. Deep-frying often happens around 350ºF, which should fall in the safe range for most silicone utensils. 

Why We're the Experts

• Madeline Muzzi is a food writer with over 10 years of experience. 
• She has written many reviews for Serious Eats, including wine decanters and countertop ice makers.
• We tested 15 nonstick food turners (also known as spatulas) by using them to flip over-easy eggs, burgers, and pancakes. The three winners in this review were also top picks in 2022, proving they can stand up to the rigors of use.