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SUE IN SOUTH CAROLINA ASKS:
What are the best nonplastic cutting boards? Are wood cutting boards safe from cross-contamination?
MOM DETECTIVE ANSWERS:
OK, I’m going to call it: It’s time to have a conversation about the whole kitchen, dear readers, and not just one item at a time. I have, to date, answered your questions about silicone bakeware, countertops, food storage containers, coffee makers and tea bags, composting, grilling, pots and pans, tap water, dishwasher pods, and the (grocery) list goes on and on.
Tell Congress: Protect Our Families From Harmful Toxic Chemicals
I will, of course, answer your question about cutting boards, Sue, don’t worry! But I also have really been feeling the need to give all these kitchen questions some context and to have a big tent overview. It’s not just your question, which is absolutely a legitimate one, but there’s something about all these item-by-item questions that makes me realize that there’s a lack of systems thinking when we approach our kitchens. I want to address it. So I am!
The main concern
Boiled down, all the kitchen-related questions I get are about the same thing, essentially: How do we reduce exposure to toxic chemicals in the kitchen? Even if you aren’t a big cook, kitchens are high-traffic spaces in our homes, and food is a direct route of ingestion into the body. It makes sense to ask questions about kitchens. So I want to guide you—and everyone who has asked me a kitchen question—to an overarching approach to minimizing exposure to toxic chemicals in kitchens that doesn’t come across when we talk only about, say, plastic in coffee pots, nonstick pans, or cutting board materials.
A big tent approach
Years ago, I wrote a book called The Conscious Kitchen. In it, I obsessively went through every single nook and cranny of a kitchen to weigh in on safety, reducing toxic chemicals, and the pros and cons of a wide variety of materials. My research was all rooted in the science available then, which isn’t wildly different from today—though currently we are paying a lot more attention to the safety of micro- and nanoplastics.
The process of researching and writing this book is when I first noticed that there isn’t a way to make kitchens safer by singling every item out. There are broad strokes that will truly make a kitchen safer and healthier. This is what I want to get across to you, Sue. Here are, in my mind, the two most important ways to think about health and safety in a kitchen:
1. Sourcing and buying food mindfully makes a huge difference.
We don’t talk a lot here at Mom Detective about pesticide residue on produce or hormones and antibiotics in meat and dairy, or farmworker health and rights. Mostly, we are focused on clean air—with good reason.
Also, it may surprise you, as it does me, that no one has written to ask me about packaged foods versus the kinds of whole foods that can be purchased in no plastic packaging at all. But studies show all this is important when it comes to the food we eat. And as I wrote in my book, “Conscious food is for everyone. It is not holier-than-anything, judgemental or elitist. In fact, it’s common sense to want to purchase, support, and eat food that is healthiest for all involved. If anything, it’s neighborly.” I stand by those words over a decade later. Also? This is the kind of food that tastes great.
2. Minimizing plastic across the board—not just a cutting board—is smart.
Being careful about the materials your food touches at high temperatures when being cooked and reheated, as well as while being stored for long periods truly matters. Research backs this up—study after study. This is why I cook in cast iron, enamel-coated cast iron, and stainless steel and why I store my food in glass, not plastic. Also, plastic does not go in the dishwasher or in a microwave—ever.
So the next time you look at an item in your kitchen and think, “Is this plastic thing—spatula, ice cube tray, lunch container—safe?” you already know the answer: probably not. And if you want to know what to replace it with, it’s usually going to be glass, stainless steel, lead-free ceramic, wood, and the like. Look out for coatings in cans, lids, reusable sandwich baggies—these are often plastic.
So what about that cutting board?
Now, to answer your question, Sue, there is literally no reason not to switch to a nonplastic cutting board. And there has even been a recent-ish study showing that plastic cutting boards are indeed an overlooked source of microplastics in human food. But if you didn’t know about this study, you could tap into common sense and the big tent kitchen approach I just outlined.
Plastic migration into food is usually related to temperature and length of time in storage. If I slice a red pepper, how long is it on the room temperature chopping surface? Could it get some microplastics into it? Sure, especially if the plastic is already worn and degraded, like it has deep cutting grooves and you’ve been putting it through the dishwasher for years.
We also know plastic migrates more readily into fat, so a plastic cutting board for meat and poultry is not a bad idea. A solid wood cutting board (no particleboard, please—that can contain binders and glues best not to have around your food) isn’t that expensive, and neither is a stainless steel or glass one (though these are arguably harder on knives). No reason not to make the switch. If you can figure out a way to reuse that plastic board that doesn’t involve food, even better.
Will wood cross-contaminate more than a plastic one? I don’t know. Food safety isn’t my area of expertise, but I don’t cut up apples and cheese for my daughter’s snack on the board we use for meat and I never did, even back when it was plastic. If this worries you, maybe have one wood board for meat and poultry and one for vegetables and the like. Hand wash your boards well with “eco-friendly” dish detergent and very hot water—don’t put them in the dishwasher. You may even choose to salt your wooden meat cutting board like old school butchers do. Just don’t use harsh chemicals like bleach. I always find it curious that people make an effort to purchase chicken that has not been dunked in a diluted chlorine bath post slaughter only to chop it on boards washed in chlorine.
Sue, I want to encourage anyone and everyone to switch from a plastic to a wood, stainless steel, or glass cutting board and to swap out any amount of kitchen-related plastic for alternatives that don’t harm human health or the earth. But I also am hoping that your cutting board is not a one-off. I hope that it’s part of an overall holistic approach to a healthier or more conscious kitchen, and a shift that includes paying close attention to the food you eat, reducing indoor air pollution, filtering drinking water, and using safer cleaning products, cookware, bakeware, and food storage containers—especially as we approach the holiday cooking season. A wooden cutting board clearly belongs in that kind of kitchen. Go for it.
Tell Congress: Protect Our Families From Harmful Toxic Chemicals