Are Plastic Cutting Boards Better Than Wood?

What kind of cutting board do you use in your kitchen? You might want to consider this issue about the use of wooden cutting boards. Dig deeper the to find the facts about this wood cutting board being prohibited to use in commercial foodservice. Many homeowners still using wood cutting boards even if it has been said these can develop pathogens. Bacteria will multiply easily on wooden boards and can contaminate your food. But there was an article claiming that wooden cutting boards have bacteria-killing properties and claimed that plastic or acrylic cutting boards actually can contaminate food as pathogens prefer plastics. True or Not? There are still local health departments that recommend commercial foodservice is safer using plastic over wood boards.

A book Science News that was published on February 1993 vol. 143 Issue 6 p84 claimed that wood cutting boards are better than plastics, that woods have an antibacterial powers. They base this claim on an experiment which they observed a wooden cutting board that was infected with common food borne pathogens. In order to see if these bacteria would multiply or be killed, they allowed it to sit overnight. Researchers then said that they didn't recover bacteria; it was unrecoverable and presumed dead, �We've not recovered the little critters' dead bodies.� But why did they use the word �presumed�? This would mean that they were not sure that those bacteria were actually killed by the amazing power of woods. It would most likely that bacteria were just hiding within the nooks and crannies of the porous wood, and possibly would breed millions of them.

Thus, there was actually no evidence that those bacteria were dead. After more than 20 years, commercial kitchens are still prohibited in using wooden cutting boards. Non-porous plastic boards are easy to clean, this can avoid food-related illness. However, you also need to keep in mind that plastic cutting boards must always be clean before and after using especially when cutting raw meats.

Check out more facts about cutting boards and how to clean them, as well as food safety at the 'About Food' website below.