News — food safety

If you care about food safety, the best cutting board material for hygiene in everyday home kitchens is high quality bamboo, used on separate boards for raw meat and ready to eat foods, cleaned in hot soapy water within 15 minutes of use and replaced every 5 to 10 years depending on wear. In our own tests at Deer & Oak, Moso bamboo boards with a hardness of around 1,380 lbf and a thickness of 1.8 to 2.0 cm picked up fewer deep knife grooves than softer woods, which helps reduce places where bacteria can hide. What makes a cutting...

If your main question is “what’s the safest cutting board for bacteria control, wood or plastic?”, the evidence points to quality hardwood and bamboo boards being safer long term. Studies since the 1990s have shown that bacteria placed on wood can drop by over 99% within a few hours, while the same bacteria can remain on plastic boards, especially once the plastic is scarred with knife marks. Wood vs plastic cutting board bacteria: what actually happens on the surface? When you slice chicken, mince garlic or carve a roast, you leave behind moisture, proteins and bacteria. The way a board...

If you want the safest everyday chopping surface for home cooking, a well maintained wood board is usually safer than plastic over 5 to 10 years, because it develops fewer deep knife scars and can naturally trap and reduce bacteria when cleaned correctly. Wood vs plastic cutting board which is safer? So what is the safest cutting board for your kitchen: wood or plastic? For most home cooks who wash boards promptly, dry them upright and replace them every 5 to 10 years, a quality wood or bamboo board is the safer long term choice than plastic. Studies from the...

In the UK, chopping board colour coding is a simple food safety system where each colour is used for a specific food type to reduce cross contamination. The most widely used scheme follows 7 colours: red for raw meat, blue for raw fish, yellow for cooked meat, green for salad and fruit, brown for vegetables, white for bakery and dairy, and purple for allergens and special diets. What is chopping board colour coding UK and why does it matter? Chopping board colour coding in the UK is based on food hygiene guidance used in professional kitchens, schools and care settings....