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So are you one of the millions of people who are more than a little confused about the issue of wooden versus plastic cutting board surfaces and food safety? Wood was naturally the first material thought to be safest for food cutting surfaces. Then with the emergence of plastic cutting boards we heard that plastic was safer, then wood once again came through as the safest choice, and then once more it flipped back to plastic. A very confusing situation, so when it comes right down to protecting yourself and your family from the e-coli, salmonella and other food related bacteria, which surface really is safest to use?

Here are the cold hard facts:

Research studies which applied equal amounts of e-coli and salmonella bacteria to both wooden and plastic cutting surfaces, found that the bacteria tended to thrive and multiply on the plastic surface, while on the wooden surface these same bacteria tended to disappear within three minutes of application. Cleaning with hot soapy water successfully killed the bacteria on both types of cutting board.

When these studies were first conducted it was concluded that wooden surfaces had anti-bacterial properties and that the bacteria had began to die off within a minute of application. Later research subsequently proved that instead of dying off the bacteria actually were absorbed into the wood, therefore no longer causing contamination to the surface of the board, but actually still existing within the board itself! This discovery then returned the verdict that plastic surfaces were indeed the safer cutting board alternative as it was feared that the bacteria in the wooden board could have the opportunity to emerge at a later time. Where as surface cleaning of plastic cutting boards with hot soapy water could effectively remove the applied bacteria.

Now to add a little confusion to these results, someone came up with the thought that perhaps these studies had been conducted only on "new" boards, and that perhaps research should be done into boards that were actually "used" so as to mimic the condition of most household cutting boards! The results were once again startling. The wooden surface once again showed the disappearance of bacteria as it retreated deep within the wood, while the cuts made from knife scarring in the plastic surface made it difficult to clean, and it maintained surface bacteria even after being cleaned with hot soapy water.

So what is our safest choice? A study conducted in California in June of 1995 of sporadic

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