Food safety is paramount in any restaurant kitchen. Anything that the food comes in contact with can be a source of contamination and foodborne illness, especially cutting boards. A staple in commercial kitchens, cutting boards are so ubiquitous that you hardly even notice them. But safe food preparation couldn’t happen without them.
For instance, if you cut up raw meat and then chop vegetables on the same cutting board, you run a significant risk of cross-contamination. Bacteria from the chicken can easily be transferred to the tomato and from there to any dish made with the tomato. You may even have cringed a little bit just reading those words.
That being said, you couldn’t prepare food safely without cutting boards. That leads us to the age-old question: are wood cutting boards better than plastic? Let’s break it down.
Wood vs. Plastic Cutting Boards
Practically since the dawn of time, wood has been the preferred material for cutting boards, mainly because it has been so readily available. Advances in technology and the invention of plastic led to plastic cutting boards being considered safer because they were thought to be easier to sanitize.
As it turns out, the cutting board issue was not that simple. According to research done in the early 1990s, the safety properties of plastic cutting boards may not be what was initially thought. At this point, many began to wonder if wood cutting boards were better than plastic.
Yes, plastic cutting boards are easier to sanitize, but when you cut on them, you leave behind a lot of grooves that are perfect hiding places for bacteria. Wood is harder to sanitize, but it is also a tougher material and doesn’t take on as many deep grooves in its surface. This makes the choice between a wood vs. plastic chopping board even more complicated.
But that’s not all. Food safety experts have discovered that the type of wood your cutting board is made from also makes a difference. The capillary action of Maple and other fine-grained hardwoods pull fluid in and trap any bacteria it contains. The bacteria are killed as the board dries.
Softer woods such as cypress may be better for your knives but are a greater food safety risk. These softer woods have larger grains, so they can easily split and form grooves that harbor bacteria. So, the choice of wood makes a difference to food safety with wood cutting boards.
Another option is to use a color-coded system with plastic cutting boards. This makes it easier to avoid cross-contamination between raw proteins and fresh fruit, vegetables, and other ingredients.
Common color-coding for plastic cutting boards:
- Red – Raw Meat
- Yellow – Raw Chicken
- Orange/Tan – Seafood or Fish
- Blue – Cooked Food
- Green – Fruits and Veggies
So, are wood cutting boards better than plastic? It depends on what you are cutting. Food safety experts recommend wood cutting boards for vegetables, fruit, and ready-to-eat food such as cheese or bread and plastic cutting boards for meat, poultry, and fish.
Cleaning Wood vs. Plastic Cutting Boards
Because wood and plastic have different characteristics, they need to be handled differently.
You can put a plastic cutting board in the dishwasher to be cleaned and sanitized at high temperatures. This is not the case with wood cutting boards that are quickly ruined if put in the dishwasher.
Follow these steps to wash and sanitize a wood cutting board:
- Rinse the cutting board to remove debris.
- Scrub with soap and water to remove any food particles from grooves or scratches in the cutting board’s surface.
- Sanitize the cutting board with a quaternary ammonium sanitizer. Bleach is fine for plastic cutting boards but will bind with the wood and neutralize its antibacterial properties.
The last step is the most important – drying the cutting board. Put the wood cutting board in a place with good air circulation until it is completely dry. Bacteria grow in moist environments, so ensuring the cutting board is completely dry helps slow their growth. Apply a food-safe oil to wood cutting boards as needed to lengthen their life and maintain their self-healing properties.
When To Replace Your Cutting Board
Of course, whether wood or plastic, all cutting boards will need to be replaced periodically. Over time, scrubbing and sanitizing might not be sufficient to keep them free of harmful bacteria.
If you notice a cutting board has accumulated a number of deep grooves from continued use, it probably needs to be replaced. The more grooves, especially deep ones, the more places there are for moisture to be trapped and bacteria to grow.
