BLACK+DECKER 4-Slice Toaster Oven vs Cuisinart Custom Classic Toaster Oven Broiler

The oven's interior cavity has a zinc coating that independent safety researchers have flagged for potential lead contamination risk when used at high temperatures. This is worth knowing if you regularly bake or broil — the walls are what your food's steam and drippings interact with most. We're working from an independent reviewer's physical assessment here, not the brand's own disclosure.

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.

BLACK+DECKER doesn't make any chemical-safety claims for this oven — no PFAS-free statement, no independent testing, nothing. The stainless steel accessories are inherently free of these chemicals by material composition, but the brand provides no formal assurance for any surface. For families who want that confirmation in writing, it simply isn't available here.

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 where your food sits appears to be stainless steel — a non-reactive, coating-free surface that's genuinely good for food contact. The one gap is that the brand hasn't published which grade of stainless it is, so we can't confirm it's food-grade certified stainless. We're working from an independent reviewer's hands-on assessment.

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.

The interior fits a 9-inch pizza, four slices of toast, or a small casserole — plenty of room for a couple or a small family cooking light meals. It won't fit a whole chicken, but for everyday toaster oven use that's not a realistic ask at this size. Note that this measurement comes from an independent reviewer's conversion, not a spec directly from the brand.

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.

You get four straightforward cooking modes: toast, bake, broil, and keep warm. That covers the basics for most households. There's no dedicated reheat mode, no air fry, and no bagel or pizza setting — so if you're looking for a versatile multi-cooker, newer competitors offer more.

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 completely for easy cleaning — a simple feature that matters a lot for everyday hygiene and fire safety. Multiple reviewers confirmed it works as expected.

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 roughly $47, this is one of the most affordable toaster ovens on the market. But the low overall safety score means you're not getting strong chemical-safety assurance for the money — a slightly higher investment could buy an oven from a brand that's more upfront about what's inside.

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.