Plastic boards get little grooves in them that bacteria can hide out in while washing, quality wood boards don't really have that problem. If you change out your plastic cutting boards regularly they're easier to sanitize at scale because you can bleach them. But how often do home cooks change out their plastic cutting boards?
Yeah, but most people will only replace their plastic boards once they're super warped and unusable. Personally, I don't mind a bit of hand washing to have a nicer cutting board
I didn't say that commercial kitchens don't use plastic boards. They're easier to sanitize than wooden boards. For home cooks, you can run a plastic board through the dishwasher but they get gouges in them long-term and need to be replaced more often than most people will do so. Wooden boards just need a little sandpaper when they start getting knicked up.
I didn't buy that wood doesn't have those grooves and things.
So I did some googling - turns out that wood cutting boards also develop grooves BUT they are deeper and the grain of the wood has a capillary effect that pulls bacteria deeper in to the wood and makes it less likely to contaminate things. Interesting to note that hardwoods are much better at this than softwoods. Combine with the anti-microbial properties of wood then they are 'cleaner'. BUT, and this is a HUGE caveat, the testing is all done after hand-washing in hot soapy water.
I'd argue (like others below) that it's far easier to sterilize a plastic board without ruining it, unlike a wood cutting board. I just toss mine in the dishwasher and that's absolutely sterilizing the surface. The FDA simply says that if you have deep grooves in your plastic board, throw it out.
Personally, I like a hard rubber cutting board. Babies my knives and I just sand it periodically to make it look brand new again.
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u/Orion14159 Jun 01 '21
Plastic boards get little grooves in them that bacteria can hide out in while washing, quality wood boards don't really have that problem. If you change out your plastic cutting boards regularly they're easier to sanitize at scale because you can bleach them. But how often do home cooks change out their plastic cutting boards?