Hygienic aspects of using wooden and plastic cutting boards, assessed in laboratory and small gastronomy units

• DOI: 10.1007/s00003-015-0949-5
• Publication Date: 2015-06-23T10:51:14Z
• Authors: Friedrich-Karl Lücke; Agnieszka Skowyrska
• Keywords: Gastronomy; Food preparation

There is a long-term controversy on the safety of using hardwood cutting boards in food preparation. This study was designed to compare three types of cutting boards (maple, beech wood, polyethylene) in the laboratory and in a small gastronomic unit. Samples for microbiological analysis were collected by a swabbing method from the boards’ surfaces that had been contaminated with a defined meat–egg-mixture and subsequently cleaned according to manufacturers’ instructions. Our study did not show significant differences between the microbiological status of the three types of cutting boards tested, all of them being overall acceptable. Use of the maple board in a small gastronomic unit for 2 months did not result in problems in cleanability.