one of the bitter ironies of my food poisoning posting hobby is that my kitchen straight up has a ***tiled wooden butcher block*** for a butting board, so not only is it wood, it's wood with seams. now i've done a lot of research and it does appear that hardwood cutting surfaces are considered safe for at-home cooking even of raw materials because of innate antimicrobial properties of oak etc. and as far as i can tell i havent poisoned anyone yet. but it still bothers me. you cant wash them with soap because it will make all your food taste like soap. however it occurred to me yesterday that i can definitely just saturate it with vodka on the regular. normally alcohol would warp and dry out wood but my theory is that a butcher block specifically is designed to season itself with various oils that seep in over time, so swabbing it with alcohol probably wont damage it. "why dont you just use a plastic cutting board" my dumbass ex took all of them (?) when i threw him out and i keep forgetting to replace them
"Wood cutting boards could be considered inherently safer," says Jennifer Pallian, RD, food scientist and founder of Foodess. "From a microbiology standpoint, plastic boards let bacteria stay on the surface where they linger. They can be picked up easily for hours after exposure and may even grow if the board stays damp overnight. Wood behaves differently. It pulls liquid and bacteria into the grain almost right away. However, within a few minutes, the microbes can't be recovered from the surface. As the board dries, the trapped bacteria die off." In addition to the bacterial risks associated with plastic cutting boards, Pallian says growing research raises concerns over the microplastics that often chip off during cutting and make their way into food.1
huh.
unlike salmonella, there is currently no known way to prevent this happening. im not being sarcastic either please help me
