Microbe Retention by Wood & Plastic Cutting Boards *LINK*

Re: Microbe Retention by Wood & Plastic Cutting Bo

Dick Coers

Always interesting, but it's been know for quite a long time.

Flaw in study

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

I did not study the link. I presume it is the study frequently quoted. If so the experiment was bare wood vs plastic. Not surprisingly the phenolic components of the lignin are toxic to bacteria. It's why trees don't easily rot. However, a practical cutting board is soaked with veggie oil if it is mine and fat if it is my meat board. The realistic experiment is what will live on whatever is on a used cutting board.

But why should anyone care unless one's immune system is severely compromised. In days before people become paranoid about germs the meat counter had a huge butcher block that was used to chop up the meat that was sold. At most it was scraped clean. Somehow our ancestors survived. History suggests that cutting boards are not to be feared.

When we had sheep a lady came to buy lamb. She had an infant on her hip with a pacifier. Kid dropped pacifier on the ground where the sheep "dropped" regularly. Kid's brother picked it up and stuck it back in toddlers mouth. Mother calmly commented that it built immunity.

But don't I recall

Keith Newton

That you rinse down before and clean up after with bleach water solution?

I didn't see any mention of standard sanitary practices in that snippet.

Re: But don't I recall

John McGaw

Yep. I've made some nice end-grain boards over the years but when it comes to actually cutting things up I use one of my restaurant-style HDPE boards which can easily be spritzed with bleach solution and run through the "sanitize" cycle in the dishwasher. Try that a few dozen times with your wooden board no matter what kind of wood and what kind of glue was used in making it. Wood boards can be pretty but there are limits -- the only time mine are actually used is something safe like slicing bread.

Re: Microbe Retention by Wood & Plastic Cutting Bo

JohnV

i"ve used woods cutting boards for 50 years with no issues. Mild soap and water cat the most. Usually just water. I do not use them for meat especially tar meat. Mostly ve3ggies and fruits.

Re: Flaw in study

Paul Leuba

One of the tests in the study used wooden cutting boards coated with mineral oil.

This is an old study

Lee Schierer in McKean, PA

The linked study was done in 1994, so this is old information. People still don't believe it however. Just don't use any nut or vegetable based oil on your cutting boards as they can turn rancid.

Lee

Re: Microbe Retention by Wood & Plastic Cutting Bo

Joe in a Cleveland suburb

I always refer to this Article by Bill Tindall. The sidebar is interesting too.

Irrelevance of "rancid" concern

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

see link in Joe's post below