The Best Food-Safe Finish May Be None at All - FineWoodworking
www.finewoodworking.com
Seri Robinson, a professor of wood anatomy, agrees with the marketers of "food-safe" finishes that bacteria-especially salmonella, listeria, and E. coli-are a threat to human health. But, Robinson says, those finishes can undermine the natural antimicrobial properties of wood. If an unfinished wooden cutting board or spoon is rinsed after use and allowed to dry on all sides, the drying action will pull bacteria deep into the wood, where it will be trapped and die. A finish will keep bacteria close to the surface, where it will multiply.

Conventional wisdom regarding finishing cutting boards and other food prep surfaces is to coat them heavily with mineral oil and/or a food safe paste wax to “seal” and/or “condition” them. Seri Robinson asserts otherwise, her research has shown that any finish applied to wood decreases its natural anti-microbial properties.

  • HewlettHackard@lemmy.ca
    2·
    11 days ago

    The illustrations seem to indicate that stains and dead microbes accumulate in the middle of the wood, deep below the surface. It would be interesting to slice an old wood cutting board in half and see the accumulated stains!

    • tburkhol@lemmy.world
      5·
      11 days ago

      That penetration is super exaggerated. Ever cut through a stained (i.e. pigment-stained) board? Board painted with a water-based paint? Those paint pigment particles are same scale as microbes, so you should expect them to penetrate to similar depth. Surface cleaning and routine abrasion get rid of most of it. Go over the surface with a scraper - take off 20-50 microns - and you’re pretty much down to virgin wood.

      • classic@fedia.io
        2·
        11 days ago

        You’re on to.something here. And you’re right: that illustration probably distorted my understanding of the process

      • HewlettHackard@lemmy.ca
        1·
        9 days ago

        Maybe, but your examples aren’t repeatedly wetted and dried. Could the repeated cycles cause the particles to move deeper?