Someone gave me the link to this site Link where I found this article.

Wood - It’s more than beautiful.

People have a fascination with wood. We admire the beauty of wooden tables and furniture. Our love for wood is not just aesthetic. Wood is also very practical for many uses.
In recent years some have criticized things made of wood, including furniture and toys, as a source of bacteria. The US Department of Agriculture recommended the use of plastics rather than wood for this reason. They claimed that non-porous surfaces like plastic would be less likely to hold bacteria and would be easier to keep clean and germ free. Also, they argued, since plastics were synthetic they would tend to kill bacteria. However, studies showed that pathogens prefer plastics.
Microbiologists at the University of Wisconsin in Madison were trying to find decontamination techniques that would make wood as safe as plastic. What they found was that, if they inoculated wooden boards with either salmonella, listeria, or E.coli (all food poisoning agents) 99% of the bacteria died. When the bacteria were put on plastic, none of them died. Left overnight, the plastic bacteria multiplied and none were found on the wood.
When they inoculated plastic and wood on three consecutive days and left them unwashed and at room temperature, the wood had 99.9% fewer bacteria than had been placed on it. At the same time in the words of the experimenter “the plastic boards were downright disgusting.” Wood has anti-bacterial properties that are not found in any man-made material. The researchers tested maple, birch, beech, black cherry, basswood, butternut, and American black walnut with the same results. It did not seem to matter whether the wood was new or old.
The U.S.D.A. officials said that their recommendation of acrylic or other non-porous materials was based on common sense and not scientific data. In this case, when the scientific data came in, common sense was shown to be wrong. It also appears that the Designer of wood knew what he was doing.
References-
Science News, February 6, 1993, pages 84 - 85

Plastic seems to be easier on my knives.

I'll use plastic if I'm cutting up something that may stain my wood (like beets), but otherwise it's the Boos blocks all the way.

I figure if mom was able to cut up thousands of chickens on her wooden board over the years without any of us ever getting sick, I should be pretty safe.

I like the polyethylene boards

_{e.g. Progressive PCB-1812 Prep Solutions Cutting Board, Juice Grooves, Large Thick Chopping Board, Dishwasher Safe, 17.38" X 11.25"}

But usually grab an MIU flexible cutting board. My surface is a butcher block table, and sometimes I cut on that.

I really like my bamboo board. But, I wash it, so not really worried.

End-grain wood for all things except raw meat (and we don't eat beets in my house). Plastic for the raw meat especially pork and fowl.

Oops, and then I read the link in the OP

The article compared these board after being unwashed for three days.
I don't want to eat food from anything that is unwashed for three days.

So no one here is going to change their cutting practices after reading the OP? Interesting.

Well I changed years ago. Co-worker is from a 3 generation meat cutting family. He told me about this at least 5 years ago.

European meat cutters are much further ahead on many cleanliness issues. His brother went to Germany to apprentice and came back with many "new" old ideas.

I've used wood for everything but meat and plastic for meat.

Guess I've been doing it wrong. May pick up another wood cutting board. I like to have two so when I'm cooking veggies and such can be cut on one and meats on the other.

I keep a pint squirt bottle of rubbing alcohol around the kitchen. After wiping off and drying my wooden cutting board, I wet it down and let it evaporate. That should take care of almost all bugs.

I went to wood a while ago after reading that report.

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Shugart:
I keep a pint squirt bottle of rubbing alcohol around the kitchen. After wiping off and drying my wooden cutting board, I wet it down and let it evaporate. That should take care of almost all bugs.

"All rubbing alcohols are unsafe for human consumption: isopropyl rubbing alcohols do not contain the ethyl alcohol of alcoholic beverages; ethyl rubbing alcohols are based on denatured alcohol, which is a combination of ethyl alcohol and one or more bitter poisons that make the substance toxic."

quote:

Originally posted by senza nome:

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Shugart:
I keep a pint squirt bottle of rubbing alcohol around the kitchen. After wiping off and drying my wooden cutting board, I wet it down and let it evaporate. That should take care of almost all bugs.

"All rubbing alcohols are unsafe for human consumption: isopropyl rubbing alcohols do not contain the ethyl alcohol of alcoholic beverages; ethyl rubbing alcohols are based on denatured alcohol, which is a combination of ethyl alcohol and one or more bitter poisons that make the substance toxic."

Alcohol will evaporate without leaving residue. There will be no alcohol left so toxicity isn't really an issue. In addition, Jim is doing it correctly. You need a contact time to kill bacteria. If you use alcohol and then dry right away then you aren't effectively sanitizing. If using Isopropyl alcohol choose 70% and a contact time of 10 minutes (make sure it stays wet for that long). If you use ethanol the ideal concentration is a bit less (~62% IIRC). Anyhow this is how we sanitize aseptic drug filling equipment, so probably good for cutting boards.

Aside from that, alcohol will sanitize, but it doesn't necessarily disinfect. If there are bacterial spores and some food source left on the board for a long time then these bacteria could start to reproduce. Unlikely an issue in most situation. But about the only true sporicide people have on hand is bleach. That shit kills everything.

I don't like plastic for keeping knives sharp or for cleanliness. The info in the OP has been around for years. I've been using the Epicurean cutting board, which is thin and light, easy on my knives, easy to clean with bleach, etc. It's synthetic with natural wood fibers. My only gripe is that it warps if a bit of water gets under it.

For knife sharpness I like end grain wood as mentioned a few posts up. But the only one I have is 3" thick and weighs a ton, so I've stopped using it.

Someone told me they keep a spray jar filled 3 parts water to 1 part vinegar to clean and sanitize their kitchen items.

I don't know about this. Any comments?

By the way, if you want to kill any and all germs, bad cooties and such, get a spray bottle or wipes of Cavicide. This is some effective stuff. However you don't want to eat anything that's been on it.

I used to use it for certain medical equipment in the pharmacy.

CAVICIDE LINK

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quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
So no one here is going to change their cutting practices after reading the OP? Interesting.

I threw away all my plastic cutting boards years ago after reading up on the subject. Wood is a lot easier to keep clean and ready for use too.

I like bamboo. Tough as hell and keeps my Shun knives razor sharp.

There’s a reason they don’t make Petri dishes out of wood...

I put my plastic boards that I cut raw meat on in the dishwasher. Never had a problem. I don’t do too much raw meat cutting if I can avoid it.

I made my own end grain cutting block 14”x18” or so a few years ago. Use that for cooked meats and just hand wash with a soapy sponge and soap and towel dry. Never had a problem

Bambooo is very hard and the cheap ones at Walmart are definitely not end train. Do you find yourself sharpening more often ?

End grain cutting boards for everything for me. I have one I specifically use for meat that gets boiling water on it followed by Star San sanitizer.

Though I’m a woodworker so they’re relatively inexpensive for me. They also make great Christmas/ birthday gifts.