james terrio
Sharpest Knife in the Light Socket
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2010
- Messages
- 22,618
This thread is for the purpose of discussion about food safety and knife care. I'm not here to tell anyone what kind of board to use, because if I do surely someone will use such a board improperly, get their whole family sick, and blame me.
What I will tell you is that using my knives on a glass, stone, steel, ceramic or other similar cutting board voids all warranties, express or implied. I simply can't guarantee that whacking or scraping away at such a hard surface won't dull or chip your blade. You don't want to dull or damage a fine edge, and you certainly don't want chips of steel in your food!
So other than the obviously terrible choices for cutting boards mentioned above, we're pretty much left with wood or plastic.
Now then, on to the food safety part. I'm sure we all understand that poor hygiene in the kitchen is very dangerous. It's very clear that regular cleaning/disinfecting/preventing cross-contamination, etc. is important.
A lot of us have been told that plastic is the way to go, because people assume it's "more sanitary" or "easier to clean" than wood. But the research simply doesn't back that up... here are a couple links explaining why:
Press release from the University of Wisconsin: STUDY: WOOD CUTTING BOARDS, NOT PLASTIC, ARE SAFER FOR FOOD PREP
Full write-up from the same researcher: PLASTIC AND WOODEN CUTTING BOARDS
So... taking all of that into consideration, I think you can guess what I use in my home.
What I will tell you is that using my knives on a glass, stone, steel, ceramic or other similar cutting board voids all warranties, express or implied. I simply can't guarantee that whacking or scraping away at such a hard surface won't dull or chip your blade. You don't want to dull or damage a fine edge, and you certainly don't want chips of steel in your food!
So other than the obviously terrible choices for cutting boards mentioned above, we're pretty much left with wood or plastic.
Now then, on to the food safety part. I'm sure we all understand that poor hygiene in the kitchen is very dangerous. It's very clear that regular cleaning/disinfecting/preventing cross-contamination, etc. is important.
A lot of us have been told that plastic is the way to go, because people assume it's "more sanitary" or "easier to clean" than wood. But the research simply doesn't back that up... here are a couple links explaining why:
Press release from the University of Wisconsin: STUDY: WOOD CUTTING BOARDS, NOT PLASTIC, ARE SAFER FOR FOOD PREP
Full write-up from the same researcher: PLASTIC AND WOODEN CUTTING BOARDS
So... taking all of that into consideration, I think you can guess what I use in my home.
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