I want to buy a cast iron pan, but they come “pre-seasoned” with oil. (They coat the pan with ostensibly soybean oil, and bake it).
So, even according to Rabbi Abadi, there could potentially be a problem, since there is no eidus that they are using vegetable oil, and there is no industry standard to use only vegetable oil, and it is not a food item so it is not subject to FDA regulation. (I can’t imagine he’d rely on tort liability for false or misleading advertising.)
So, my idea is to put it inside a pile of charcoal, and light the pile, and let it burn down. Seems to me like that would be libun gamur.