BALMUDA The Toaster vs Cuisinart Custom Classic Toaster Oven Broiler

The interior is galvalume steel — an aluminum-zinc alloy that avoids the toxic nonstick coatings found in some toaster ovens and sidesteps the lead-contamination concerns associated with galvanized steel. It is not stainless steel, though, and aluminum can migrate into food at sustained high temperatures, especially with tomato sauces, citrus, or other acidic ingredients.

The walls inside this oven have a PTFE nonstick coating — the same chemistry as Teflon pans. At the high temperatures a toaster oven reaches during broiling, PTFE can break down and release harmful gases into your kitchen. This is the single biggest concern with this product.

BALMUDA has not made any PFAS-free statement for The Toaster. The galvalume interior does not use PTFE coatings by its material composition, but without a brand statement or independent test there is nothing for a buyer to rely on. Notably, BALMUDA's Kettle product does have a PFAS-free FAQ — The Toaster simply does not.

Because the interior is PTFE-coated, no PFAS-free assurance exists here — and none can. PTFE itself is a PFAS compound. No independent lab has tested this product for chemical safety, and there's no certification to look up.

The baking tray your food rests on appears to be bare, uncoated aluminum — based on editorial reviews, since BALMUDA does not disclose this material officially. Uncoated aluminum can leach into acidic foods at levels that research suggests are a real concern for young children, particularly in a single meal. BALMUDA does sell a Noda Horo enamel tray as a separate accessory, and it is a worthwhile upgrade if you plan to cook anything acidic in this oven.

The included baking tray appears to be aluminized steel — steel with an aluminum coating — based on a hands-on editorial review. We're working from that review here, not a manufacturer spec sheet. Aluminized steel is more stable than bare aluminum and fine for most uses, but acidic foods cooked at sustained high heat can cause some aluminum to migrate into food. One retailer claims the tray is stainless steel; if that matters to you, it's worth confirming with Cuisinart directly.

Generous space for a compact toaster oven — fits four slices of bread with room to spare, or a small whole chicken. You are unlikely to feel constrained by the interior size for everyday toaster oven tasks.

At half a cubic foot, this is about as large as a compact toaster oven gets. It fits a small whole chicken, an 11-inch pizza, or six slices of toast in a single pass — genuinely useful for a family of three or four.

Five cooking modes — Sandwich Bread, Artisan Bread, Pizza, Pastry, and Oven — each specifically tuned around BALMUDA's steam technology. These are meaningfully different settings, not just temperature presets with different names.

Five named cooking modes — Toast, Bagel, Bake, Broil, and Keep Warm — cover the daily rotation well. There's no convection or air-fry mode, but for a straightforward countertop oven this is a solid feature set.

The crumb tray slides out cleanly for quick cleanup after each use. This is a small thing that makes a real difference in a toaster oven used daily — crumbs accumulate fast, and a tray you can actually remove means you will clean it.

The front-loading crumb tray slides out cleanly for emptying. It's a small thing that makes daily use noticeably less annoying — and keeps grease from building up to the point where it becomes a smoke or fire hazard.

At $299, you are paying a premium for BALMUDA's steam technology and design. From a safety-weighted value perspective, though, the price is steep for a product where the two most significant food-contact safety gaps remain unresolved.

At $99.95 this oven isn't expensive. But when safety accounts for the bulk of our scoring and the safety score is this low, the price-per-quality calculation comes out unfavorably — you're paying a market-rate price for a product that doesn't clear our material safety bar.