cutting boards.....which do you use?

[weeds]

i moved from plastic to wood boards a few years ago when i picked up one while touring tassie for the kitchen.....however i still have plastic in the camper trailer:angel:

i was also in a very nice wood/timber shop the other da and they had a sign above some cutting boards indicating they were the healthiest

[towe0609]

I have tried them all, and the best chopping board I have is an end grain bamboo board.

[woody]

Timber for general use in the kitchen
Thin plastic for camping
Food grade nylon for slicing meat (uncooked)

[TerryO]

I have found the best ones to use with most food groups are flat ones. ...:D

cheers,
Terry

[JamesH]

I use end grain wood for all home cooking, including raw meat. For meat I just wash it down before using it with something else. Occasionally I'll spray with a mix of water and vinegar.

What I really want is a Chinese chopping block, I think they come from the tamarind tree.

[Hymie]

Wood. Spray with water and Vinegar and if its got a bad score in it, sand it out.
I believe that food regulations ban wooden boards in commercial applications but I believe them to be healthier.

[blitz]

Both wood and plastic 50/50 so I cant vote

[d@rk51d3]

Timber for general use in the kitchen
Thin plastic for camping
Food grade nylon for slicing meat (uncooked)

^ same here.


I have found the best ones to use with most food groups are flat ones. ...:D

cheers,
Terry

Not as silly as it sounds. We went through chopping boards fairly regularly, as with constant use, it didn't take too long to wear a concave in the middle. Made them too difficult to use in a commercial kitchen, where speed was of the essence.

[Homestar]

When I build my house, and the kitchen was installed, I grabbed the cutout piece from the benchtop where the sink went. I made 3 chopping boards out of it - I trimmed the edge in a thin strip of hardwood, and then put rubber feet on them - they are still going strong 8 years later, and they match my benchtops...:)

[Hoges]

I prefer the nylon ones for the following reasons:

1. cut with a hole saw, they make the best " packing " shims for mounting stuff
2. Their electrical properties are such that they're an ideal base for attaching switch panels, gauges, inverters, pumps etc in camper trailers
3. Excellent for trimming photos

I try hard to keep people up to date with innovative ideas:angel::wasntme::p

I received a "Professional chef's torch" for Christmas: I've yet to work out why it's called a Chef's torch... so far it's been used to remove a rusted bolt, silver solder a mains pressure water pipe, heat shrink some tubing... the list goes on:D

As for raw meat, chicken etc, polypropylene and nylon boards are much more hygienic because they are far less porus than wood and therefore do not harbour bacteria. They should be actively scrubbed with soap and water...not just rinsed:mad:
Keep 'nice' wooden boards for cutting bread...

[superquag]

... Landing pads for hovercraft...:D

(Suitable uses for thick white plastic cutting boards)

[kenleyfred]

An idea I've had for a while, Just have to find someone who could make it.
It's a timber board approx an inch thick then down the sides I'd like to have custom groove cut in to slide a bread knife on one side and a chefs knife on the other. So the knives live in the board and can be slid out when needed.
This board would live in the back of the Defender or in the camping gear.

[superquag]

Now to add some fuel to the fire...

Bacteria and Various Cutting Board Materials by Dean O. Cliver Ph.D (http://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/infxtra/infcuttingboard.html)

and here...

Food Hygiene | Wooden Chopping Boards (http://www.woodenchoppingboards.com.au/tag/food-hygiene)

James Catalyst

[superquag]

An idea I've had for a while, Just have to find someone who could make it.
It's a timber board approx an inch thick then down the sides I'd like to have custom groove cut in to slide a bread knife on one side and a chefs knife on the other. So the knives live in the board and can be slid out when needed.
This board would live in the back of the Defender or in the camping gear.

... Great idea, with either a wooden block or catch or... to hold the knives in place.
Or magnets buried into the wood.

[Hoges]

... Great idea, with either a wooden block or catch or... to hold the knives in place.
Or magnets buried into the wood.

yep, and the knives would be poles apart :eek:

[superquag]

:D:p;):cool:

[DEFENDERZOOK]

I've always preferred timber cutting boards......
my current one is part of a very expensive newspaper stand that was removed during a fit out......
it is some type of mixed hardwood......about an inch thick.......

the missus hates it........she uses those terrible nylon boards......
even has the set of different colours......for different meats and veggies......

and it really upsets her if i use the wrong colour.......


as for the wooden boards......they have been used for everything in the kitchen for as many years as i can remember.....
my grandmother only had a timber board.....so did my mum.......and still do.....
there was never anyone getting sick from these all those years ago......

as for cleaning......wash with soapy water and rinse......
to sterilise.......rub salt into the wet board and let it dry.....the longer the better.....
then just rinse with water.......




nylon will blunt anything that tries to cut into it.......even tailors had to buy special ceramic scissors to cut through nylon material which would blunt their normal scissors.......

[kenleyfred]

... Great idea, with either a wooden block or catch or... to hold the knives in place.
Or magnets buried into the wood.

Good idea. I hadn't thought far enough ahead as to what would hold the knives in place.

[DEFENDERZOOK]

An idea I've had for a while, Just have to find someone who could make it.
It's a timber board approx an inch thick then down the sides I'd like to have custom groove cut in to slide a bread knife on one side and a chefs knife on the other. So the knives live in the board and can be slid out when needed.
This board would live in the back of the Defender or in the camping gear.


this shouldn't be too hard to make......just get board you want to use......then you can cut it in half and hinge it......to save space.......
and make the necessary cutouts/grooves to hold the knives inside when its folded......

or....

just fix a thin sheet of plywood and space it off the bottom of the board and store the knives in that gap......

[MEANZ06]

always use wood, from what I've read cleaned properly its the most hygienic....

[bee utey]

My wife has 5 cutting boards in use in the kitchen. A hard plastic one for tomatoes (doesn't stain), a soft plastic one for fresh meat (doesn't wreck knives) which is hot washed afer each use, a larger soft plastic board for the vegies and a wooden one for the bread. So the poll doesn't mean much to her.:cool: Where's the box for "all of the above"?

[superquag]

Good idea. I hadn't thought far enough ahead as to what would hold the knives in place.
Not just knives, holds my sockets in their case as well !

Great use for some broken disc magnets.

[uninformed]

Esky lid

[isuzurover]

Wooden cutting boards have been conclusively proven to be more hygenic.


PLASTIC AND WOODEN CUTTING BOARDS

Dean O. Cliver, Ph.D

We began our research comparing plastic and wooden cutting boards after the U.S. Department of Agriculture told us they had no scientific evidence to support their recommendation that plastic, rather than wooden cutting boards be used in home kitchens. Then and since, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Meat and Poultry Inspection Manual (official regulations) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's 1999 Food Code (recommended regulations for restaurants and retail food sales in the various states of the U.S.) permit use of cutting boards made of maple or similar close-grained hardwood. They do not specifically authorize acceptable plastic materials, nor do they specify how plastic surfaces must be maintained.


Our research was first intended to develop means of disinfecting wooden cutting surfaces at home, so that they would be almost as safe as plastics. Our safety concern was that bacteria such as Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella, which might contaminate a work surface when raw meat was being prepared, ought not remain on the surface to contaminate other foods that might be eaten without further cooking. We soon found that disease bacteria such as these were not recoverable from wooden surfaces in a short time after they were applied, unless very large numbers were used. New plastic surfaces allowed the bacteria to persist, but were easily cleaned and disinfected. However, wooden boards that had been used and had many knife cuts acted almost the same as new wood, whereas plastic surfaces that were knife-scarred were impossible to clean and disinfect manually, especially when food residues such as chicken fat were present. Scanning electron micrographs revealed highly significant damage to plastic surfaces from knife cuts.


Although the bacteria that have disappeared from the wood surfaces are found alive inside the wood for some time after application, they evidently do not multiply, and they gradually die. They can be detected only by splitting or gouging the wood or by forcing water completely through from one surface to the other. If a sharp knife is used to cut into the work surfaces after used plastic or wood has been contaminated with bacteria and cleaned manually, more bacteria are recovered from a used plastic surface than from a used wood surface.


"Manual cleaning" in our experiments has been done with a sponge, hot tapwater, and liquid dishwashing detergent. Mechanical cleaning with a dishwashing machine can be done successfully with plastic surfaces (even if knife-scarred) and wooden boards especially made for this. Wooden boards, but not plastics, that are small enough to fit into a microwave oven can be disinfected rapidly, but care must be used to prevent overheating. Work surfaces that have been cleaned can be disinfected with bleach (sodium hypochlorite) solutions; this disinfection is reliable only if cleaning has been done successfully.


The experiments described have been conducted with more than 10 species of hardwoods and with 4 plastic polymers, as well as hard rubber. Because we found essentially no differences among the tested wood species, not all combinations of bacteria and wood were tested, nor were all combinations of bacteria and plastics or hard rubber. Bacteria tested, in addition to those named above, include Campylobacter jejuni, Listeria monocytogenes, and Staphylococcus aureus.


We believe that the experiments were designed to be properly representative of conditions in a home kitchen. They may or may not be applicable to other plastic and wooden food contact surfaces or to cutting boards in commercial food processing or food service operations, but we have no reason to believe that they are not relevant, except that not all plastic surfaces are subject to knife-scarring. Before our first studies had been published, they were criticized incorrectly for not having included used (knife-scarred) cutting surfaces. We had been careful to include used surfaces, and so were surprised that others who did later experiments and claimed to have refuted our findings often had used only new plastic and wood. Although some established scientific laboratories say their results differ from ours, we have received multiple communications from school children who have done science projects that have reached essentially the same conclusions that we did.


We have no commercial relationships to any company making cutting boards or other food preparation utensils. We have tested boards and cleaning and disinfection products, some of which were supplied to us gratis. We have not tested all of the products that have been sent to us, simply because there is not time. We are aware that there are other food preparation surfaces made of glass or of stainless steel; we have done very little with these because they are quite destructive of the sharp cutting edges of knives, and therefore introduce another class of hazard to the kitchen. We believe, on the basis of our published and to-be-published research, that food can be prepared safely on wooden cutting surfaces and that plastic cutting surfaces present some disadvantages that had been overlooked until we found them.


In addition to our laboratory research on this subject, we learned after arriving in California in June of 1995 that a case-control study of sporadic salmonellosis had been done in this region and included cutting boards among many risk factors assessed (Kass, P.H., et al., Disease determinants of sporadic salmonellosis in four northern California counties: a case control study of older children and adults. Ann. Epidemiol. 2:683-696, 1992.). The project had been conducted before our work began. It revealed that those using wooden cutting boards in their home kitchens were less than half as likely as average to contract salmonellosis (odds ratio 0.42, 95% confidence interval 0.22-0.81), those using synthetic (plastic or glass) cutting boards were about twice as likely as average to contract salmonellosis (O.R. 1.99, C.I. 1.03-3.85); and the effect of cleaning the board regularly after preparing meat on it was not statistically significant (O.R. 1.20, C.I. 0.54-2.68). We know of no similar research that has been done anywhere, so we regard it as the best epidemiological evidence available to date that wooden cutting boards are not a hazard to human health, but plastic cutting boards may be.


Publications to date from our work:


Ak, N. O., D. O. Cliver, and C. W. Kaspar. 1994. Cutting boards of plastic and wood contaminated experimentally with bacteria. J. Food Protect. 57: 16-22.

Ak, N. O., D. O. Cliver, and C. W. Kaspar. 1994. Decontamination of plastic and wooden cutting boards for kitchen use. J. Food Protect. 57: 23-30,36.

Galluzzo, L., and D. O. Cliver. 1996. Cutting boards and bacteria--oak vs. Salmonella. Dairy, Food Environ. Sanit. 16: 290-293.

Park, P. K., and D. O. Cliver. 1996. Disinfection of household cutting boards with a microwave oven. J. Food. Protect. 59: 1049-1054.

Park, P. K., and D. O. Cliver. 1997. Cutting boards up close. Food Quality 3(Issue 22, June-July): 57-59.

Others are in preparation.

UC-Davis Food Safety Laboratory: Cutting Board Research (http://faculty.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/faculty/docliver/Research/cuttingboard.htm)

Personally, we have both, but prefer wood.

[numpty]

As for raw meat, chicken etc, polypropylene and nylon boards are much more hygienic because they are far less porus than wood and therefore do not harbour bacteria. They should be actively scrubbed with soap and water...not just rinsed:mad:
Keep 'nice' wooden boards for cutting bread...

I have a "nice" wooden board that I've used for over 30 years for vegies and meat and never been sick yet.

I do use the plastic ones when camping though.

[weeds]

wow more wooden cutting boards than i thought.......

[DEFENDERZOOK]

yes.....the nylon cutting boards are great for making spring spacers to lift or level out your 4wd......

[350RRC]

Wooden cutting boards have been conclusively proven to be more hygenic.



UC-Davis Food Safety Laboratory: Cutting Board Research (http://faculty.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/faculty/docliver/Research/cuttingboard.htm)

Personally, we have both, but prefer wood.

Good to see you chime in on this. It has been covered in an older thread:

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/general-chat/71648-speaking-chopping-boards.html

The mandated use of nylon for commercial boards has no scientific basis. If something looks clean....... it must be so.

Bit like stainless chef's knives which are also an EU health mandate in stainless, so it is very hard to buy new carbon steel ones, which are vastly superior.

(i have a nice collection of Sabatiers which have come from garage sales, etc)

cheers, DL

[Hoges]

Well, I'll "eat my hat" metaphorically speaking that is, ...never know what's lurking in the felt!:D

I suppose on reflection it's not the presence of bacteria so much as whether they can multiply "on site" . the surprising thing is the degree of 'damage' to nylon boards and the fact that the bugs remain viable in the cuts

... so it seems make sure the wooden board is hardwood ..not CCA treated pine like I once witnessed at a campsite:eek:

[350RRC]

The CSIRO crew got results at least as good using radiata pine. Was discussed on the radio years ago.

DL

[Xtreme]

An idea I've had for a while, Just have to find someone who could make it.
It's a timber board approx an inch thick then down the sides I'd like to have custom groove cut in to slide a bread knife on one side and a chefs knife on the other. So the knives live in the board and can be slid out when needed.
This board would live in the back of the Defender or in the camping gear.

Not timber but is this what you're thinking of - http://www.oo.com.au/Joseph-Joseph-Index-Plus-Chopp_P32619.cfm?cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-2012.01.24%20-%20Hot-Restocks-_-Daily&cm_lm=RANDJRILEY@BIGPOND.COM (http://www.oo.com.au/Joseph-Joseph-Index-Plus-Chopp_P32619.cfm?cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-2012.01.24%20-%20Hot-Restocks-_-Daily&cm_lm=RANDJRILEY@BIGPOND.COM)

[DOD DEFENDER]

I use a wood chopping block at home 1 the knife keeps its edge for longer 2 Bacteria grows on plastic alot faster then wood. Back in the day meat works used wood, now plastic last longer easer to clean. Camping i use a log for the game and plastic for what ever comes out the cooler

[Bigbjorn]

I bounced this discussion off my daughter-in-law who is a chef. She uses colour coded nylon? boards at home. She says where she trained it was a local government health requirement for food preparation operations to use these. She also said the tech. college where she received her classroom training stressed the use of this system, and taught the proper cleaning and care. She rinses boards with hot water and Scotchbrite scourer between uses, then uses diluted chlorine and Scotchbrite for a good clean at least daily. Any boards not currently clean and awaiting use go in the dishwasher after chlorine treatment whenever it is put on. Workplace cleanliness and hygiene was a major subject in all years of her apprenticeship she says.

[solmanic]

I use wood for bread but plastic for everything else, and change them regularly. You really shouldn't be using any boards for more than a couple of years domestically. There is a whole commercial colour code too for plastic boards:
Blue - fish
Yellow - cooked meat
Green - salad & fruit
Red - raw meat (but always use a separate one for chicken)
Brown - veges
White - bread & dairy

[stuee]

We use a couple of nylon boards for everything, washed in the dishwasher. I see it as a boost to my immune system by exposing myself to all the bacteria. That and I have a healthy supply of nylon boards to cut up for various bits on the cars if needs be.

We also have a large board made up from where the stove-top was cut out of our bench top. Its great for cutting pizzas on as it comfortably fits a whole pizza, and stops the non-stick pans from being damaged, but that's about all we use it for because it needs to be cleaned by hand.

[pando]

We use both in a way.

Have a large wooden one that we put some colour coded (quite thin, maybe a few mm) nylon boards on top of depending on what we're cutting. They were a set from rip-off-a-ware:)

Cut the meat, slide it off to the side then cut the vegies and don't have to wipe down the wooden one in between. Makes prep time pretty quick, feels better than cutting on those horrible ones that live in the camper trailer and they all seem to be lasting well, and keeps it all pretty clean as the dirty boards can go in the dishy afterwards.

The other use for the nylon ones is if you have a front wheel drive car and access to a large sealed area, back up with the boards under the rear wheels and apply hand break. Go for a drive, it's hilarious not to mention a good lesson in car/slide control.