As well as, reducing creates deep grooves within the plastic the place micro organism can linger, which makes used plastic reducing boards very troublesome to totally disinfect in a dishwasher. You actually must be utilizing a brush to get into these grooves. So for those who do use a plastic board, decide to present it an excellent scrub your self as a substitute of inserting it within the dishwasher.
In a single older research5 out of the College of Wisconsin, researchers positioned a number of micro organism, together with E. coli and Salmonella, on each used and new wooden and plastic reducing boards. The wooden reducing boards persistently outperformed the plastic boards when it comes to bacterial security. Ethical of the story? Wood reducing boards might develop into extra sanitary than plastic, and show higher to your hormonal well being (offered they don’t use plastic-containing glues to stay the picket items collectively).
Some plastic reducing boards are additionally coated with antibacterial substances to stop micro organism from rising, however this solely trades in micro organism progress for different chemical compounds, typically endocrine disrupters. A quite common antibacterial chemical used for such functions is Microban, which comprises the antibacterial ingredient triclosan6. The FDA doesn’t acknowledge triclosan as protected attributable to its hormone-disrupting properties6. Whereas triclosan has been phased out of handwash and sanitizers7, it nonetheless lurks in different on a regular basis merchandise—together with reducing boards.
Some folks additionally use robust chemical compounds, resembling bleach diluted with water, to scrub plastic reducing boards. That creates the fearful risk of contaminating your meals with such chemical compounds. In the event you’ve ever put tomato or turmeric-rich meals right into a plastic container, you’ll see that it turns purple or yellow. It is because the components have seeped into the matrix of the plastic. Harsh cleansing brokers may be seeping into your board, probably contaminating the meals you narrow on it.
