Plastic cutting boards, Cliver found, are easier to sanitize. But cutting on them also leaves lots of grooves where bacteria can hide. Wood is tougher to sanitize, but it’s also (often) tougher in general – you won’t find as many deep scratches in the surface.
Fast Facts About Cutting Boards and Food Safety in Your Kitchen | NC State News
The tests results indicate that the surface of a wooden board will actually stop dangerous bacteria from multiplying and the germs simply die out after a period of about three minutes. Following the experiment, the scientists at the University of Wisconsin found that 99.9% of the bacteria placed on the wooden chopping boards had died out completely within minutes whereas some of the cheaper plastic boards had very little effect in terms of killing dangerous microbes.
The study indicated that an antibacterial effect of wood, especially for pine, is caused by the hygroscopic properties of wood and the wood extractives.
The only situation where plastic appeared less contaminated than wood (when sampling had been done by contact agar) was just after a drastic cleaning and disinfecting. But we do not know how long this difference was maintained during the working period, or whether the wood had been scraped before cleaning and disinfecting.
Sanitary quality of meat chopping board surfaces: a bibliographical study – ScienceDirect
There was a significant difference in bacterial recoveries from wood and plastic. Bacterial numbers decreased faster on the wood surfaces than on the plastic surface.
Wooden boards affecting the survival of bacteria? A. Schönwälder, R. Kehr, A. Wulf and K. Smalla
