Plastic Vs. Wood

There's 4 types of chopping board that is available in the market ; wooden, plastic, glass and bamboo chopping board. But I will only be mentioning about the most two common chopping board available at basically every house, wooden chopping board and the plastic.

Which one is better?

For us in the food premise inspection, we demerit point for element of using wooden chopping board. Why? We believe that most food premise do not really practise a thorough board cleaning after using. The wood warps easily, thus making it easier for germs to absorb into the wood. However, is the usage really forbidden for our domestic usage? What about plastic? Won't the plastic material enter our system when the chopped pieces mix together with our sliced food?

Can the plastic chopping board endure the pressure of huge chunk of meat being cut?

I've been doing food premise inspection for quite a while now, and whenever I raise the matter to the premise of changing the wood block to plastic, their answer is typical :The plastic won't be functioning as good as wood when it comes to cutting meat. Plus, they wear off easily. A research done by University of California- Davis on this matter mentioned that plastic chopping board, if it has been severely scarred by knives, can inhibit more bacteria than the wood. Their research too shown that bacteria on wooden cutting boards is absorbed beneath the surface, where it dies without, making it unlikely that the bacteria would spread afterward.

( Source: http://faculty.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/faculty/docliver/Research/cuttingboard.htm)

So which one is better?

In my personal opinion, the food premise is to use the plastic chopping board no matter what. We just can't take for granted the well being of the consumer. I've experienced watching a food handler in one restaurant, using the same wooden cutting board to cut the spring onion which is then used to garnish a ready-to-eat dish. Although the food handler had rinse the chopping board, it is not sufficient enough. We, as the authority, can never guarantee their words. Plastic ones are easier to wash. Even though it stains easily, but with proper washing, I just don't think it's a big issue.

What about us, the domestic use? It's okay to use both. Provided we don't mix the purposes. The wooden chopping board can be used to cut raw meats. Never mix the boards between the uncooked raw food and the ready- to-eat food. At home, it's best that we have at least 3 chopping boards. One is for raw meat, one is for vegetables and onions and then another one is for bread or kuih. The main concern here is the cross contamination which occurs when the ready- to-eat food get entered by the germs from raw material. This kind of contamination can happen when we share types of the board.

Same goes to the knife. You cannot just have one kitchen knife in the kitchen. It's recommended to separate the usage of each knife.