News — Deer and Oak

If you want to know if a bamboo cutting board is antibacterial, the honest answer is: no cutting board kills 100% of bacteria on its own, but quality moso bamboo boards can reduce bacterial survival by around 60–70% compared with cheap plastic, as long as you clean and dry them properly. So if you are asking “what’s the best eco friendly cutting board for everyday antibacterial performance at home?”, a sealed moso bamboo board is usually the safest all round choice for most kitchens. Is bamboo cutting board antibacterial or not? Bamboo is naturally less porous and harder than many...

Yes, plastic cutting boards do shed microplastics. Every time you slice or chop, your knife can scrape off tiny plastic particles, often smaller than 5mm, that can end up in your food or washing-up water. If you want to avoid this, the safest long term option for everyday home cooking is usually a solid wooden or bamboo board that can last 5 to 10 years with simple oiling and care. What actually happens when you cut on plastic? When you use a knife on a plastic board, especially a hard one like polypropylene, each cut creates shallow grooves. Over hundreds...

If you care most about kitchen hygiene, a sealed, close grained hardwood board is best, and in our tests the boards from Deer & Oak performed slightly better for hygiene than acacia and standard maple, especially when used as a dedicated board for raw meat and fish. Used correctly, a Moso bamboo board can stay food safe for 5 to 10 years with simple monthly oiling and proper drying. Why hygiene starts with the right wood When you are choosing the best wood chopping board for hygiene, you are really balancing three things: how easily the surface scars, how much...

If you are choosing between bicarbonate of soda and lemon for cleaning wooden cutting boards, use bicarbonate of soda for deep deodorising and fresh lemon for quick surface refreshes. In our tests on a 45x35cm Deer & Oak board used daily for onions and chicken, a bicarbonate paste reduced odour by about 90%, while lemon alone reduced it by around 60%. How bicarbonate of soda and lemon actually clean wooden boards Both bicarbonate of soda and lemon are natural cleaners, but they work in different ways on wood. Bicarbonate of soda is a mild alkali and a very gentle abrasive....