As for the best cutting boards, however, which material is truly best for food prep safety?
Are plastic or wood cutting boards preferable? Â The answer might surprise you!
Plastic has long been considered superior to wood, and people have generally preferred this type of material in the name of food safety. The prevailing wisdom is that plastic is less hospitable to bacteria, and therefore, would be safer.
Research simply does not bear this out in practice, however. As it turns out, wood is much less likely to harbor pathogenic bacteria than plastic!
Wood by far makes for the best cutting boards!
The research was conducted by food microbiologists at the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and they discovered that wood somehow killed bacteria that plastic did not. The manner in which the bacteria perished on the wood but not on the plastic is not known.
The scientists found that 3 minutes after contaminating a wooden cutting board, 99.9% of the pathogenic bacteria had died, while none of the bacteria died on plastic.
In addition, bacteria held at room temperature overnight on a plastic cutting board increased in number, but the researchers could not find any bacteria present on wood treated in exactly the same manner.
So it seems that the prevailing “wisdom” that plastic is safer than wood is not true after all. Wood cutting boards are best after all.
I was happy to discover this information as I have always intuitively preferred wood over plastic cutting boards. I find wood to be more stable than plastic and I have always thought that little bits of plastic or chemicals must be somehow released into the food from the repeated chopping with a knife. I have no evidence of this; it is just a hunch and so I have stayed away from plastic and have always stuck with wood.
I have steered clear of plastic cutting boards with special antimicrobial surfaces for a similar reason. Any product that boasts that it is antimicrobial screams “hormone disrupting chemicals” to me, so I avoid them like the plague.
For the best cutting boards, best to stick with old fashioned wood, and while you’re at it – choose bamboo if possible as it is a sustainable natural resource.
* As an aside, I have a theory about how the pathogenic bacteria are destroyed on the wood but not the plastic. Lactobacilli is a beneficial bacteria on the surface of all natural things, including our own skin, and it will kill off pathogens. This is why grassfed raw milk is safer than pasteurized as the probiotics in the raw milk kill off any pathogens that might get into it (pasteurized just gets contaminated if the same thing were to happen).  Perhaps this is the same method for how pathogens on wood cutting boards are destroyed within 3 minutes yet this same thing does not happen on plastic cutting boards?
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Source:Â Wood Cutting Boards, not Plastic, are Safer for Food Prep
Is Plastic Really Better than Wood for Cutting Boards? – The Healthy Home Economist http://t.co/Ds0zP1s
Oh thank god! Mine is wood.. lol. Do you know the best way to clean it?
I just wash mine in warm soapy water. Some folks use white vinegar which seems to be an excellent way to do it.
My parents used to have a wooden chopping block in their kitchen and they would slice a lemon in half and rub it around the wood.
Oops, I should clarify they used the lemon AFTER washing it with soap and water.
I’m curious about how a glass cutting board would fare. While they can be porous, wouldn’t you think with proper cleaning they’d be safe as well?
Thanks 🙂
I was wondering the same thing!
I use a glass cutting board all the time. LOVE it! Not porous, can go in the dishwasher and no gross chemicals.
I have no data on this but I have a small glass cutting board myself for cheese. I would imagine since it is a natural material like wood, that it would be comparable in safety.
I think the only issue with glass cutting boards is that they can dull your knives…….I don’t know this for a fact, it’s just something I’ve heard before and sounds reasonable 🙂
Rachel – this is absolutely true. I spent a small fortune on my first Global chef’s knife. A few months later it was so dull. I took it back to the knife store, where I bought it. The owner asked me -first thing- “what kind of cutting board do you use?” I told him glass. He said glass is terrible on knives…it dulls them quickly. I went home and put my glass cutting board in the Goodwill box.
I came to the realization years ago that if the FDA, USDA CDC or any other GOVT entity makes a claim on ANY health related topic, you can just go ahead & do the opposite & you will be on the right track. Think about it..keeping people sick keeps people employed in govt jobs..
I have a cutting board made of wood from a rubber tree..it’s really quite pretty. I can’t say the same of any plastic one I’ve ever seen.
BTW…do we want to know who is behind it all?
Most of the bamboo I’ve seen comes from China (like everything else). Any suggestions where to buy bamboo cutting boards? Does ‘made in China’ make a difference?
I don’t think made in China is a problem though domestically sourced bamboo would certainly be preferable. Bamboo grows like a weed so no matter how it’s harvested, it grows right back and very quickly from what I’ve read.
Is Plastic Really Better than Wood for Cutting Boards? – The Healthy Home Economist http://t.co/rzg643R
@ Jill diluted white vinegar in a spary bottle
spray