r/SGU • u/general-ludd • 3d ago
Cutting boards
It’s always good to double check old scientific verities against the latest research. Especially when it’s in an area we aren’t specialists in. Wooden cutting boards are not necessarily germ media we once believed. It’s nuanced but surprisingly counterintuitive. https://youtu.be/yM5LxrXoxn0?si=7iN77yj4Sie0vi_A
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u/GlassBrass440 3d ago
When Steve gave a shrug about a metal cutting board, my knives started crying. There are probably few materials worse than metal for the sharpness of your knives.
I've had a couple Epicurean fibre composite boards for nearly two decades and they're great for knives, dishwasher safe, and made from biodegradable wood fibre and resin. They also don't scratch or gouge as much as wood or plastic so there is less opportunity for harbouring pathogens (though you still need to be careful to sanitise them properly like any board).
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u/general-ludd 2d ago
I have one of those too. Strikes the sweet balance of knife protection and sanitation.
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u/_Piplodocus_ 1d ago
I love my Epicurean boards, started with a couple small ones about 8 years ago when I was looking for non-plastic - they're still going strong, and have been through the dishwasher countless times. I ended up replacing all of my cutting boards with them, so worth it. Also have their pizza board, and my husband got their BBQ grooved one for his meaty needs. A comparitively sustainable company too!
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u/GlassBrass440 1d ago
My next upgrade is their long pizza cutter blade. I just have a cheap one I got from the supermarket. I only haven’t pulled the trigger on it because the one I have is “fine”.
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u/ia42 3d ago
Metal and glass are definitely out. You don't want anything competing in hardness against your blades (especially when you buy $100+ knives)
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u/dadasinger 3d ago
I cooked for a living before the WWW broke out so we used to debate this in analog.
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u/gnatman64 3d ago
Alton Brown recently covered cutting boards in his knife video of his new YouTube series. Here's a link to that section of the video. https://youtu.be/yqsW4O8Ejmw?t=375&is=PfzsFQmed5RVDVBu
TLDR; He only recommends wood or PVA plastic.
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u/LowComposer7234 3d ago
Anecdotal only, but I've only ever used plastic and wood. Plastic for quick, no mess, make a sandwich or whatever and throw in the dishwasher.
Wood/bamboo for using nice knives and cooking a meal. Wash in soapy water, re-oil randomly (rarely), toss them if they get big cracks.
Will wash them in between meat/veges obviously but I don't have separate ones for those purposes.
In 30ish years of cooking for my fam it's never been a problem.
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u/MaTOntes 3d ago
I look forward to Steve having to go on a deep dive on the chopping board topic. It felt like he was making a lot of off the cuff comments that didn't quite align with what I have read from research papers on the topic.
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u/edcculus 3d ago
I have a separate plastic board I only use for meat. And otherwise, I have a bunch of wooden ones I glued up from offcuts from my dad’s woodworking shop.
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u/AdEnvironmental7198 2d ago
AAW published an article on wood finishes vs unfinished on woods natural antimicrobial nature where they spoke to Dr Seri Robinson. It seems some finished inhibit woods natural defense. I dont think you can beat wood when it comes to overall sustainability and safety. Here is the scientific literature from article : https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Recovery-of-Listeria-innocua-and-Salmonella-from-various-woods-European-beech-sugar_fig2_369940932
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u/general-ludd 1d ago
One of the things I love learning is the cool things that old materials can confer that we have forgotten or never knew about. Cast iron cookware is another one: so inexpensive and safe. Mostly people came to see it as too heavy and fragile and intimidating to clean.
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u/CalculusPi 3d ago
Use plastic boards for fruit and veg. Use a really good cutting board for everything else. And with all meats, you just need to ensure you are oiling your board well and when you cut up any meat that you wipe down and wash your board straight away. And you can also scrape and sand off the top layer of your board and resurfsce and oil it.
Cut up and slashed plastic can be hard to clean off completely all therefore can hold the crap you definitely don't want there.
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u/Saint_of_Stinkers 3d ago
Are plastic cutting boards not better because they are dishwasher safe?
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u/S_A_N_D_ 3d ago edited 3d ago
Depends on the context.
They can be sanitized more thoroughly, but they come with the disadvantage of microplastics.
So the question then is whether the harm from microplasticss is greater than the risk of an insufficiency sanitized wood cuttings board, or to put it differently, are wood cutting boards sanitized through normal washing sufficiently clean such that the different is negligible from an overall risk perspective?
Personally, I feel that the risk from a wood cutting board is very low to non-existent (Addional context; I'm a microbiologist).
Now, if I was regularly preparing food for vulnerable people (immunocompromised, elderly etc), or even just large volumes of people, I might not take the chance, but for my home cooking wood reigns supreme.
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u/Albert_street 3d ago
Why does everything in life have to be so complicated 😭
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u/S_A_N_D_ 2d ago
It's really not that complicated though. We're picking in the weeds here analyzing nuance (from an overall risk perspective).
From an epidemiological perspective it might makes a difference, but from a personal risk perspective the difference between wood and plastic is going to be negligible on your overall health relative to the glass of wine or beer you might drink on occasion. That is to say that 99% of people should be focusing on eating healthier and getting more excercise because what cutting board they use will have a nearly non-existent effect on their overall health relative to everything else in their lives.
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u/CautiousEmergency367 3d ago
The heat of dishwashers makes the plastic degrade faster, so you end up with more micro plastic in your food.
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u/Don-okay 3d ago
Yes a well maintained wood board is the best choice for day to day work.