The lowly slip board , whether plastic , wooden , or field glass , is a staple of the kitchen . That being say , if they ’re not looked after in good order , they can quickly become much more problematic by harboring some of the pesky bacterial species that can cause food poisoning .
So just how much bacterium can be found on the average cut circuit board ? Quite a lot , as University of Arizona microbiologist Dr Charles Gerba toldBBC Newsback in 2012 .
" Usually there are about 200 times more faecal bacterium on the average cutting board than on a toilet tail end , " said Gerba . That does n’t think that someone ( or something – we ’re looking at you , computerized tomography ) is secretly pooping on it though ; the bacteria commonly start from raw sum mathematical product .
Whether or not they hang about on the board and end up causing you a harrowing48 60 minutes in your bathroomdepends on two principal things : bad-tempered - contamination and cleaning . Although it ’s commonly think that one eccentric of cutting board is safer than the other ( it’snot ) , these factors can catch you out regardless of whether it ’s made from plastic or wood .
Cross-contamination
crown of thorns - contamination is when bacterium from a food or a surface overspread to other food . In this case , it could occur if you apply a single cutting panel for preparing all kinds of foods , like chopping up raw meat and then food that is n’t going to be cooked , like veg for a salad or boodle .
If you thought it wascommon senseto at least wash it in between , you ’ll have to retrieve again . Astudyof 70 households from the UK ’s Food Standards Agency ( FSA ) found that on 25 juncture , people used a cutting board to train meat , fish , or poultry , and did n’t clean it before train another food group .
The risk of cross - contamination does n’t just lie in in solid food preparation on the same circuit card either – the study also line up that on several occasion , citizenry put their plates , saucepan , and utensil on the unclean panel .
To deflect cross - contamination from cutting control panel ( peculiarly if you have n’t beat the time to lave them up on the go ) , theUS Food Safety and Inspection Service(FSIS ) urge using two disjoined boards : one exclusively for preparing bare-assed centre , poultry , or seafood , and the other exclusively for new green groceries and bread .
Cleaning a cutting board
If they ’re insufficiently cleanse , write out boards can have harmful bacteria on the open disregarding of what material they ’re made from . So how exactly are they supposed to be cleaned ?
sheer sometime piddle wo n’t do the put-on , although that does n’t mean people do n’t do it . The FSA study discover that out of the 140 occasions where peopleprepared essence , Pisces , or fowl on a press cutting board , 20 percent of the time , user only give the plug-in a speedy rinse with water , sharpen the risk of exposure of cross - contamination .
Instead , the FSIS suggests that all type of cutting panel should be wash away with hot , soapy water each fourth dimension they are used and rinse off with unmortgaged piddle , followed by either air drying or patting with clean paper towel – regularkitchen towelsare a paradisaical breeding background for bacteria . After this , board can also be sanitized using a diluted chlorine solution and left to stand for several transactions , before rinsing off and dry .
It ’s also of import to keep an eye on any cracks , grooves or well - worn areas of cut boards . These can finally get so abstruse that they ’ll retain bacterium no matter how carefully you clean , so be sure to throw a board out once it attain this point .
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