First of all never trust the word of a salesman in a store about this particular question!!!!! I don't know what store you were in looking at this, but if it was a place like Sears, Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart, etc. the salespeople aren't going to know the answer to that question off the top of their heads, and unless they had been asked the question prior and had actually called the manufacturer themselves, then they'd have absolutely no way of knowing...You must ALWAYS call the manufacturer of the product you're looking at and ask them this question directly!!! So you did the right thing, and you just need to keep calling them and asking the question...
As Noodles already mentioned, you do need to use the specifics when speaking to the manufacturer about this, because they HAVE to know the answer, it's something that they must know, but it's all about finding the right department/employee...If Black and Decker has a "Safety" or "Quality Control" department, or an "Environmental Risk" department, that's who you need to speak to...Just the same as the salesperson in the store, you cannot trust the word of a Black and Decker "customer service Rep" UNLESS they actually look the answer up or ask the correct department/employee, and they are able to produce written documentation that this specific product.
****Besides asking if this product specifically contains "Teflon", the other specific term you can use that their company scientists/developers use is "Flourinated Compounds/Flourinated Chemical Compounds", as this term encompasses ALL of the many specific compounds that are lethal to birds, such as PFOA, PTFE, etc. There are many of these Flourinated Compounds that are lethal, with PFOA and PTFE being 2 of the most common, but if you use that specific term, then you'll be covering all of them. Something that a lot of people don't understand is that "All Teflon contains Flourinated Compounds that are lethal, BUT not all lethal, Flourinated Compounds have to be contained in Teflon"...meaning that even if you are told that a product does not contain Teflon, that does not in any way mean that it doesn't still contain a non-stick coating or any type of coating that contains at least one lethal Flourinated Compound.
Therefore, you have to ask BOTH questions: Does this product contain Teflon?", AND "Does this product contain any Flourinated Chemical Compounds?"...
***Ironically, the car dealership that I work at has either exactly the same or extremely similar Toaster Oven in our customer lounge; we use it to toast bagel, and actually bake cookies, lol...Ours is a Black and Decker and looks exactly the same as this one, but ours is a multi-function one that is actually a Convection Oven, a Toaster, a Broiler, and then also has a simple "Reheat" function on the dial, just like a Microwave...It's a great product, works incredibly well, and we use it every single day...If I'm working the late shift I'll use this thing to actually cook my dinner, not reheat, but cook. We make mini-pizzas, pizza rolls, burritos, tacos, etc., it's great...And ours bakes because it's a Convection Oven, so we buy tubs/tubes of cookie dough and bake cookies on the little metal cookie sheets/baking trays that come with the oven...So I can highly recommend the product, but I have no idea whether it can be used around a bird...
Although now I'm going to worry about bringing any of my guys into the dealership again...
