Here is an interesting article on cutting boards. From this article, we can conclude wooden cutting boards are pretty safe.

http://faculty.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/faculty/docliver/Research/cuttingboard.htm

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Lew Kauffman-
Wood Turners Forum Host

Time traveler. Purveyor of the world's finest custom rolling pins!

Lew - I have the same opinion (which will make Moody happy).  Wood all the way.

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Fred
aka Pop's Shop
www.pops-shop.com
'Soooooo many patterns - sooooo little time'
Scroll Saw Forum Host

I don't know.   It's a result and  I won't fault it, but I don't know if I trust my health to the result, the research, the methods, or the researchers ( it is University of California come on) .   Or stated another way: they could be wrong and they may not have covered sufficient variables ( such as re-treating the board with oil) - one can not know from the article.

The ancients who used end grain butcher blocks and stumps would slather them with salt to keep  infection down. Of course the stomachs of those people was nothing at all like mine. They could eat things that would make a billy goat puke.

 And  of course plastic has the marvelous advantage of being able to go into the dishwasher on sanitize cycle.  Try that with your marvelously complex end-grain board.

I suppose if you wash your boards that the bacteria remaining will dry out and die.  Bacteria from meats and such can't use  wood as a nutrient.   Those guys in the article seemed all about washing which would strip the oils away that one treats the boards with.

Interestingly Mineral Oil is aseptic.  That is: nothing will grow on it unless it can get nutrients from some other source.

I found it entertaining that they were willing to microwave the wood boards.

I think it is fair to say that they were not treating and caring for their wood boards the same way a woodworker might.

 

Same here Fred. Wood is more attractive and the plastic boards are not self healing where end-grain wood boards are.

Fred Wilson said:

Lew - I have the same opinion (which will make Moody happy).  Wood all the way.

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Fred
aka Pop's Shop
www.pops-shop.com
'Soooooo many patterns - sooooo little time'
Scroll Saw Forum Host

I did some of the same research in that I looked it up on the Internet, not testing it my self sometime back as people would ask me about them. I have several on our counter and I suggest to people to wash the by hand with warm soapy water and then dry them off. Don't soak them in water and don't leave them wet to just dry. You can usually go several washing before you really feel the need to put the oil on, but it only takes a minute to wipe on a fresh coat at anytime. I don't usually put feet on my boards so both sides can be used. I do tell people not to lay them down on the counter if the board is still wet at all. Dry it and put it in the dish strainer until you are sure it is dry. If the board has a dry feeling and you can tell, then apply a heavy coat of mineral oil, let it soak in good then just wipe off the excess and you are good to go again. I do suggest to people that they have multiple of boards, one for meats and one for vegetables.

To sanitize them you can wipe them down with White Vinegar. As a matter of fact lots of people use it to sanitize counter tops and other things in the kitchen anyway.

And if for no other reason, the wooden boards just have more character to cut on than a plain white plastic board.

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John Moody
Site Administrator


John Moody Woodworks
http://www.johnmoodywoodworks.com

I have read many studies indicating that wooden cutting boards have many features that make the superior to other cutting surfaces. A quick google search will bring up multitudes of studies. just be sure to discount those that are not from reputable sources.

For me it's wood all the way as it is a safe, natural, and renewable resource.

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Round Barn WoodCrafts, Plymouth WI
roundbarnwoodcrafts@hotmail.com

Good info to pass on, John. I'll have to remember that.

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Harry Brink
Bulldog Woodworking
Montana

You might find this interesting,

Cleaning with Vinegar

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John Moody
Site Administrator


John Moody Woodworks
http://www.johnmoodywoodworks.com

Vinegar John, is about as good as a sanitizing solution cut 20% with water as is household bleach.

Bleach can be a stone cold sanitizing solution if - and only if - the hypochlorous acid  is adjusted.

Hypochlorous acid is not persistent and won't keep for  very long, but it is the thing in good bleach that does all the work when you want to sanitize. 

Merely denaturing chromatohpores is not  sanitizing and most bleach will do that laundry trick just fine, but the manufacturer  usually does not adjust the  hypochlorous acid.  From their perspective there is no point. It won't last in the bottle terribly long, and they are selling the stuff to whiten laundry and plain old chlorine does do a fair bit of sanitizing - it's just not terribly thorough.

To adust the acid and  make a stone cold killer that will - I guarantee you -  kill Gram negative. Gram positive, spores, HIV, TB and  nearly everything else  mix one ounce of bleach in 5 gallons of water with one ounce of  plain  white vinegar.  This solution is not going to damage your wife's $5000 antique Persian rug, but it will sanitize anything it comes in contact with for 30 seconds or longer.

About the only thing this won't kill are resilient biofilms. A  typical biofilm is that plaque that builds up on your teeth.  To kill it you have to disrupt it (brushing) and then apply some kind of sanitizer (mouth wash).