Thread: end-grain cutting boards and bacteria

End grain chopping blocks have been in kitchens for a long long time so have the non end grain boards. Soapy water has been the cleaner of choice. I think you will find more bacteria on the cleaning cloth than on the chopping board.
don't overthink it is my 2 cents worth
cheers

Originally Posted by mick59wests

The end-grain is better for the knives but as it is much more open I am concerned that the time I save on sharpening will now be more than spent on cleaning / disinfecting.

I really doubt this is the case. I don't have a single qualm about putting my best plane down onto a wooden bench with the blade down.

As for long grain versus end grain, think about what happens to a long grain chopping board surface after a few months of use? It eventually turns into of a large web of of cut end grains - if you look through a magnifying glass you'll a lot of them are poking upwards with lots of fluffy split ended fibres. If anything the end grain is probably better than the long grain since this creates a large woody surface area which bacteria don't like to grow on.

You can get the full story here. UC-Davis Food Safety Laboratory: Cutting Board Research

Here is an excerpt. I follow this line of thinking on this subject. Of course I can't convince SHMBO who still insists I'm wrong and continues to use mainly glass and some plastic

"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. 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."

Cheers & Merry Xmas, Ian

Originally Posted by BobL

As for long grain versus end grain, think about what happens to a long grain chopping board surface after a few months of use? It eventually turns into of a large web of of cut end grains - if you look through a magnifying glass you'll a lot of them are poking upwards with lots of fluffy split ended fibres. If anything the end grain is probably better than the long grain since this creates a large woody surface area which bacteria don't like to grow on.

BobL,

thanks for the above. Good to hear this as I am keen on making one but SWMBO was worried about the open ends of the grain.

cheers

Mick

Also, exposure to bacteria is GOOD for you (with a few exceptions). If people realised this and stopped trying to kill 99.99% of it all the time we might not end up breeding a generation of kids who have to walk around in plastic bubbles because they have no immune system.

If SWMBO still has qualms Rustins also make an anti bacterial chopping board oil. I tried it recently. It says on the back that it doesn't ceat a film. But I think it does. And its water based oil. I don't really like it. Felt plasticcy to me. Went back to Orgaloil just to make the wood look a bit prettier in the shop.

CSIRO basically says the same thing. They say that there is little difference in safety between plastic and wooden boards, and some timbers are antibacterial, so these should be safer than plastic and other timbers. We use Huon Pine for that reason, and it also looks and smells good!
http://www.foodscience.csiro.au/fshbull/fshbull9b.htm




Fair Winds

Graeme

The advantage of end grain is durability = wood fiber is not cut. Mashed and split, maybe, but not cut across like a flat-grain board. The antibacterial advantage is related to the polyphenolic compounds commonly found in heart wood.
While it isn't perfect and nobody has said that it was, it's way ahead of plastic. Plastic and chlorine bleach, maybe.

One serious issue is the matter of food juice penetration into the wood. The vast, vast majority of board-makers insist on some room temperature witchcraft to permeate the wood with whatever finish.

While I claim no ownership to the facts at all, the oven-baked finish that I use is far faster, and penetrates far deeper that anything that you can do with a simple, room temperature slop of anything on the wood.

Go ahead. Do your thing. Be proud of the 47 coats over 6 weeks of whatever. I slop on ONE coat. Three minutes later and simple physics makes it finished for good.

Originally Posted by Robson Valley

I slop on ONE coat. Three minutes later and simple physics makes it finished for good.

One coat of what?

I am sure I read somewhere that is is the3 descreet pores in the board that means the bacteria doesn't spread all over the board. Choking the pores with finish renders it the same as plastic. Smooth surface= Water and bacteria can spread evenly over the whole thing.

I don't do 47 coats I just do one or two. Which will probably get washed off in the first couple of goes in the sink. BUt you just got to make sure the board dries. Bacteria don't like dry.

One coat of olive oil. Contracting hot air in the surface wood sucks the oil (or the finish of your choice) down into
the wood. Much further than anything that you can do at room temp. 3 minutes at 325F NO MORE THAN THAT.
Hindsight tells me that anything between 300F and 350F works well enough.

With any room temp finish, the first hot water rinse pushes your finish out of the wood as the air in the surface wood heats and expands. Then an indeterminate amount of food juice gets sucked into the wood as that surface air cools and contracts. There, it decomposes and the wooden kitchen spoons go black, like the bottom of a compost box.
The first pot of hot soup that you stir with a wooden utensil has the same effect. Yummy. Not in my kitchen.

Consequently, my kitchen wood needs to be reheated to 325F to get the oil to (possibly) move! Hot water can't do it.

The finish only penetrates the open voids of the interiors of the wood cells. Any antibacterial properties are found mixed with the usual wood cell wall components (cellulose, pectins and the polyphenolic lignins.)

My mum and dad have a chopping board that is the same age as me. (51 years. ) Its about half scrubbed away and is lovely curved shape similar to those old butcher blocks. Although this board is only a slab of wood. What type of wood I don't know. Its dark. But not red gum. . Any finish is long gone. And no one is dead. Or even crook.

I learned about the finish, and the physics, as I ramped up my production of kitchen tools for sale.
I wanted and needed a superior finish. Got it. There's nothing at room temp to match.
My goal is/was to crank out 100 carved utensils. I'll get there. Then, I quit. No more. Done.
I can't do that stuff, day in and day out and enjoy it. The wood is fantastic to carve.
The spoke shaves "swish" through the wood all dang day long. Nope. The light is going out.

Originally Posted by tea lady

If SWMBO still has qualms Rustins also make an anti bacterial chopping board oil. I tried it recently. It says on the back that it doesn't ceat a film. But I think it does. And its water based oil. I don't really like it. Felt plasticcy to me. Went back to Orgaloil just to make the wood look a bit prettier in the shop.

+1 the rustins stuff is terrible. It doesn't penetrate and leaves an awful waxy finish. I sanded it off and started again with danish oil on some I made recently.

It think the whole bacteria paranoia has gone a bit far. Anyone ever been sick from a contaminated chopping board around here?

I'm probably the wrong person to be talking about this though. I'll eat anything in pretty much any condition