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Originally Posted by KYHeirloomer  Interesting point, Chris. But the fact is, poor sanitation is poor sanitation. If somebody cooking at home doesn't have the few seconds it takes to clean a cutting board between uses I, for one, don't want them cooking for me. Quote: |
Originally Posted by TheBoardSmith To sanitize use a mild mixture of Clorox and water, the formula is on the back of the Clorox bottle, or use a 1:1 mixture of vinegar and water. Flush the cutting surface with water afterwards, dry and oil if necessary. Or as an alternative for boards that use raw meats exclusively, coat the surface with table salt and let it sit overnight. The salt will kill the bacteria and wick any moisture out of the board. This is what the old time butchers did and it is about the "greenest" solution I know of. | |
David's expert advice here does not suggest a method that takes "a few seconds." It takes forethought, discipline, and good general organization in the kitchen. Yes, we should all develop these things, but the fact is that a great many home cooks don't have them. Some who do drop them when they have very little time to slap everything together and get dinner on the table. All I'm saying is that it is worth having two boards.
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One surprise: Studies have been done in which wood boards were tested against synthetics. Mind you, these were not washed or otherwise cleaned. In every case, there was less bacterial growth on the wooden boards than the synthetics---the exact opposite of what most people would suspect.
There are reasons why this happens, which I can share if anyone cares. But IMO the studies themselves were kind of silly. We should be encouraging good sanitation, not deciding which is the lesser evil.
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As you say, it's a matter of lesser evils. Yes, it's true -- I've read the original studies. But it's not magic (you know this; I'm clarifying for those who are surprised by this information). Plastic boards are biochemically neutral, so bacteria just sort of sit there. Wood boards tend to absorb water and dry the bacteria, creating a hostile environment (that's the super-simple version of it, anyway). But it takes time for this effect to be large. So waiting 10 minutes after cutting chicken just because it's a wood board will do very little.
Remember, the primary point of those studies, as evaluated afterward by the authors, was that the food sanitation people who tell homeowners and especially restaurants what to do make things up based on faulty common sense. Obviously plastic is safer, so we'll ban wooden cutting boards from restaurants. But it turns out that a fairly basic study would have shown that the reverse was the case: wood is somewhat safer.
I'm not advocating plastic boards, though SaniTuff boards are very good indeed if you do want something that can run in a dishwasher. I'm just saying that having two boards is safer than having one, because it only requires the discipline to separate raw meat from other things.
Incidentally, all bets are off as far as wooden boards vs. plastic if your dishwasher has a "sanitize" cycle, i.e. can produce a steady steam environment hot enough and long enough to generate a sterile environment. If you have this function, and wish to use it on cutting boards, get SaniTuff, not wood.