When I asked about woods to use, some Oak was not recommended because because of more open grain could hold bad contaminants/bacteria. 

Wouldn't that hold true with end grain cutting boards too?

Ron, I think you should avoid oak in cutting boards. If you do a crosscut on a piece of oak and look at the end grain with a magnifier you will see the openings or pores that will absorb liquids. I would stick with dense grained woods such as maple, cherry or walnut. Just my opinion.

I think it would be more problematic if you used red oak for an end grain board, as compared to tighter grained woods. Granted, an end grain board exposes the open pores of any wood. Just that red oak, in particular, has such a porous character. Even white oak has an open pore but not as much as red oak. They have even used white oak in ship building. The size of the pores in maple, for example, is very small and would not retain much material for bacteria to feed upon. A good cleaning, after use, will scrub away the particles.

 

I have read that studies have shown that wood has an antibacterial quality that is supposed to keep it safe from contamination. I'm not sure if that is entirely accurate. Here in Pennsylvania, restaurants are not permitted to use wooden cutting surfaces for food preparation. 

Red oak is open grained, not suitable for cutting boards. 

 

White oak is closed grain and is suitable. 

 

Its why they use white oak for whiskey barrels. 

You can actually blow bubbles through a short piece of Red Oak.  It has open pores likened to straws.

I read that old timers would test the difference between red and white oak by blowing cigarette smoke thru the pores of red oak.

I appreciate your answers and I found out some amazing things. However the question was about end grain wood in cutting boards. Not just Oak. Any kind of hardwood 

I would think that end grain cutting boards of any type wood would be much more likely to retain bacteria than the cross grain.  

I could see mineral oil being absorbed in the dry wood and going all the way through. When I  planed my old one down, I didn't have to go very far  to get to the dry wood. 

I treat my end grain boards with a beeswax/mineral oil mix. When water doesn't bead, it gets another coat. 

 

I don't cut meat on wooden cutting boards. Cooked or raw. 

I like that better than mineral oil and will do that next time. We also do not cut raw meat  on our board. We use the hard plastic kind for that. Years ago at a sale, I nearly bought a large used floor model butcher's block once, but it was so large that I couldn't figure out how to make a practical use for it and my wife was worried because of the raw meat cutting.

Ok folks lets look at the studies. There have been studies of wood vs plastic cutting boards. They cultured samples from both and it turns out that the wood actually kills bacteria. The bacteria counts were higher on the plastic . My dad had a grocery store and one huge cutting block and all I remember using to clean is a block scraper. So yes I would trust wood for any food. But there are open pore woods such as red oak that are a no go.

 

Here is one such test.

There was a time when all cutting boards were, well, boards.  Humanity has survived.  There has to be more than luck kept everyone from getting sick and dying.

Although some health boards will not allow wooden cutting boards in commercial kitchens, I have several chefs that have bought my end grain cutting boards for their own use and swear by them. They usually have two and use one for meat and the other for anything other than meat.

 

I have read several studies such as Gearld posted and in fact they have determined wood boards to be safer than plastic or glass. On plastic boards once you get cuts in the plastic, bacteria will grow down in the cuts. Bacteria will grow on anything, but it has been determined it will not survive on wooden boards.

 

Watch any of the cooking shows on TV and they are all cutting on Wooden boards and most of them are End Grain Boards.

 

Tight grain woods on end grain cutting boards make the best boards for cutting. Once they have been sanded to the point of being slick, they become burnished and it makes them even harder. I have seen boards I have made that were used daily and you can hardly tell them have been cut on. That being said, I only used tight grain woods, I did make one out of White Oak as that was what was requested, but I won't make them out of Red Oak.

 

Our local University has a Culinary School and last year they used 20 of my boards at a fund raiser. I believe you will be safe using an end grain cutting board. I have used the Bees Wax/Mineral Oil and just straight Mineral Oil and they both do a very good job. We encourage customers to wash their boards with warm soapy water using a good anti-bacterial soap, like Dawn and sanitizing it with White Vinegar.

 

 

 I trust wood before plastic when it comes to cutting boards. To me plastic leaves knife marks that are too hard to clean. If parts of the board come off and get into the meat I would rather the oven burned wood over plastic.  There are companies out there that travel to grocery chains and run the plastic boards thru a planer and call it sanitized. Some butcher blocks have been used so much that the cutting tools have created a bowl shape. I don't recall ever reading about a butcher shop being closed for a bacteria issue like some of these corporate meat mills. As for wood direction my understanding is that end grain wood is easier on the knife edge.

I grew up watching my dad butcher deer on a wooden cutting board, the turkey at Thanksgiving and Christmas was carved on a wooden cutting board, I still use a wooden board for cutting meat - no ill effects here (at least detectable by me).

take it as open pore/cell wood is not so good of a plan... take it as a given...

I believe the bigger issue is some people's poor cleaning habits... (unsanitaryism)...

you make a board...

protect thy self...

I grew using wood and sill am...

23 minutes ago, Chips N Dust said:

I grew up watching my dad butcher deer on a wooden cutting board, the turkey at Thanksgiving and Christmas was carved on a wooden cutting board, I still use a wooden board for cutting meat - no ill effects here (at least detectable by me).

Same scenario here.  Mom used the cutting board her uncle made as a wedding gift to her.  Cut meat, rolled out dough and cut her own noodles and all the other cutting chores to feed a family of eight.  By the look on the wood I believe it was maple.

 Thanks, that was some interesting facts on cutting boards. When I was a kid, the meat cutter used the huge block/table, with meat cleaver and big knives. Sanitation never entered my mind. I was always fascinated by how sharp his knives were and misshapen due to years of sharpening. 

 

We cut raw meat on plastic, the heavy kind, mainly because we can put it in the dishwasher where it gets sanitized.

I'm always telling the kids that they have to think of wood as a big bundle of straws, and those straws are going to suck in glue, poly, water or mineral oil.  Just today I had one of them putting oil on a cutting board and wondering why he had the drier looking spots on it right after he put the oil on.  I went and sliced off a piece of red oak real thin and had him hold it up to the light.  I usually get a lot of responses from them when they see all those holes in there.  Then I tell them that the cherry, walnut, jarrah and maple we use have holes (straws) in them just like that, but they are a lot smaller.  Actually seeing it in the red oak makes an impression.

the old guys, like my grandfather (who was a butcher) would close out their day, sweep up the sawdust under their feet (great for absorbing blood and fluids), put some salt on the cutting board, sharpen their knives one more time, and turn off the lights.

 

only in our 'modern' times, with abundant hot water and cleaning solutions, has the gov't experts decided that it's not worth the risk cutting meat on wooden cutting boards.

 

do as you wish, but don't forget any steps.

This old table top was the main cutting board for over 100 years in out local town of Millville Pa. When the meat plant burned down 2 years ago I got the top out of the fire and made a work shop table out of it. It's put together with square nails and had no glue. It would bow in a curve when I tried to pick it up. It bowed not the long way but from front to back. Sure made a heavy table. I had to cut off about 3 feet of burnt table.