The Best Food-Safe Finish May Be None at All

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Mortalis

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Interesting "Fine Woodworking" article on finishes on wood products to be used in food services.
The author, Seri Robinson, is well know for her studies in wood and it's properties. You may know her from the book on Spalting wood.

The Best Food-Safe Finish May Be None at All

I didnt need any membership to read this article. Hope you dont have any issues either.
 
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Mortalis said:
Interesting "Fine Woodworking" article on finishes on wood products to be used in food services.
The author, Seri Robinson, is well know for her studies in wood and it's properties. You may know her from the book on Spalting wood.

The Best Food-Safe Finish May Be None at All

I didnt need any membership to read this article. Hope you dont have any issues either.
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Great article thanks for sharing. It seems that end grain cutting boards are worse than an ordinary plank.interesting...maybe a wood cookie is the best thing to use
 
I wouldn't even think about using the same cutting board for meat and vegetables, I use my shop made wood board for veggies and a plastic one for meat.

I make my own beeswax and mineral oil formula to put on my wood board, melt the beeswax and add mineral oil, pour it into a mason jar and it will last a lifetime.
 
rherrell said:
I wouldn't even think about using the same cutting board for meat and vegetables, I use my shop made wood board for veggies and a plastic one for meat.

I make my own beeswax and mineral oil formula to put on my wood board, melt the beeswax and add mineral oil, pour it into a mason jar and it will last a lifetime.
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I do pretty much the same but it seems that wood butter is useless. That lady has a phd in wood anatomy..sounds convincing
 
rherrell said:
There are plenty of folks with phd's that don't know squat when it comes to the "real" world. Nowadays students are taught WHAT to think, not HOW to think.
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I agree but on the other hand the expert opinion always carries its weight. The gamechanging concept outlined in the article is that the wooden surface intented for food use, MUST expand and contract (as it absorbs and looses moisture). Whereas in ordinary wooden furniture, pens etc. the aim is limiting that movement.
Makes perfect sense and there is science to back this up. Thats why i mentioned her credentials for the scientific part of the explanation
 
I've heard even before reading this article that wood has antibacterial and antimicrobial characteristics. I just have never had it explained WHY this is true.

Her book on Spalting is very interesting and she can even provide spores upon request that will spalt specific wood species and generate specific colorations. I would say she pretty much knows what she is doing.
 
Mortalis said:
I've heard even before reading this article that wood has antibacterial and antimicrobial characteristics. I just have never had it explained WHY this is true.

Her book on Spalting is very interesting and she can even provide spores upon request that will spalt specific wood species and generate specific colorations. I would say she pretty much knows what she is doing.
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Many woods are acidic, adding antibacterial properties. However, food service certification as National Sanitation Foundation requires synthetics to be used. Now they are color coded for meat, poultry and vegetables. Never mind that cuts can harbor bacteria unless sanitized thoroughly. That is the rub.
 
Mortalis said:
I've heard even before reading this article that wood has antibacterial and antimicrobial characteristics. I just have never had it explained WHY this is true.

Her book on Spalting is very interesting and she can even provide spores upon request that will spalt specific wood species and generate specific colorations. I would say she pretty much knows what she is doing.
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Getting spores to create known spalting characteristics is a very intriguing idea.
 
Woodchipper said:
Many woods are acidic, adding antibacterial properties. However, food service certification as National Sanitation Foundation requires synthetics to be used. Now they are color coded for meat, poultry and vegetables. Never mind that cuts can harbor bacteria unless sanitized thoroughly. That is the rub.
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maybe this wet/dry cycle takes time and its not suitable for a commercial setup.. you are right about the cuts though.
 
rherrell said:
There are plenty of folks with phd's that don't know squat when it comes to the "real" world. Nowadays students are taught WHAT to think, not HOW to think.
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I agree we shouldn't just automatically accept everything we read as truth, but it's an equal folly to automatically dismiss someone's work when (1) it's backed up by scientific studies, (2) it makes sense to the layman or adequately explains why "common knowledge" is wrong [this article does both], (3) the person has legitimate credentials, and (4) there's no reason for the expert to mislead us.

And, as it has always been, those who wish to learn HOW to think will learn it, those who wish to be told WHAT to think will be told, and those who want neither will become a problem for everybody.
 
I sold restaurant equipment and supplies for a total of 5-1/2 years. I never sold wood cutting boards. Never had a request for them. We did have a company, John Boos, who makes wood cutting boards and butcher blocks. The cutting boards on the TV series, The Kitchen, has their cutting boards has the company name visible, probably promotional consideration.
 
In all honesty I will make and sell or gift wood cutting boards to anyone who wants one. Personally, I prefer the HDPE cutting boards. Easy to clean and maintain, cheap and pretty light weight.
 
I think this is a case of a Professor looking for a reason to be published again and be relevant in her field. I've seen this before in other fields. Including most sciences and even in the religious realm. It sounds like she is saying something but there is nothing new here. We all know that bacteria is a danger and the boards need to be cleaned as soon as possible. Has nothing to do with food-safe finishes. When you can see it, she is attempting to make an observation, making a hypothesis skipping steps to make a fact. Which it is not. Just to add: We all know that in the United States, all finishes must be food-safe after curing.
 
Woodchipper said:
I sold restaurant equipment and supplies for a total of 5-1/2 years. I never sold wood cutting boards. Never had a request for them. We did have a company, John Boos, who makes wood cutting boards and butcher blocks. The cutting boards on the TV series, The Kitchen, has their cutting boards has the company name visible, probably promotional consideration.
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A year ago I made two big cutting boards for restaurants. One of them the inspector wanted info on the board/wood. I sent a Notarized letter of all the species used and that all were kiln-dried. That was good enough for the inspector. I went ahead and sent the same letter to the other owner in case there was a problem.
 
PreacherJon, that was good but there isn't any consistency between various locales and individual inspectors. My wife was director of our church daycare facility for about 25 years. What passed today was gigged on the next visit. Go figure.
 
PreacherJon said:
I think this is a case of a Professor looking for a reason to be published again and be relevant in her field. I've seen this before in other fields. Including most sciences and even in the religious realm. It sounds like she is saying something but there is nothing new here. We all know that bacteria is a danger and the boards need to be cleaned as soon as possible. Has nothing to do with food-safe finishes. When you can see it, she is attempting to make an observation, making a hypothesis skipping steps to make a fact. Which it is not. Just to add: We all know that in the United States, all finishes must be food-safe after curing.
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with all due respect you are wrong, there is evidence here about a mechanism of action which is impeded by the use of cutting board oils/butters etc. the wooden boards surface is not an inert one as the plastic one and this is well proven.
cheers,mike
 
MedWoodWorx said:
with all due respect you are wrong, there is evidence here about a mechanism of action which is impeded by the use of cutting board oils/butters etc. the wooden boards surface is not an inert one as the plastic one and this is well proven.
cheers,mike
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Only hypothis ... Where is the research? No links to all the research. How was the labs set up, and what was the control? How about for each species? The list goes on and on. This would be so large that it would have needed funding. Her university and Fine Woodworking would not pay out for that type of research. Only way this study would get the funding needed would be for some company to have come up with a new product to sell to the masses.

What water would be used? How many ph levels were used, was it used with all products available on the market? Was it used on all species? What types of glues are used? All brands? water and oil based.... this list of conditions go on and on. I don't think you understand all the variables in a lab that must be done and proven to come up with the conclusions she made. Therefore, it is still a hypothesis and not a proven fact.
 
PreacherJon said:
Only hypothis ... Where is the research? No links to all the research. How was the labs set up, and what was the control? How about for each species? The list goes on and on. This would be so large that it would have needed funding. Her university and Fine Woodworking would not pay out for that type of research. Only way this study would get the funding needed would be for some company to have come up with a new product to sell to the masses.

What water would be used? How many ph levels were used, was it used with all products available on the market? Was it used on all species? What types of glues are used? All brands? water and oil based.... this list of conditions go on and on. I don't think you understand all the variables in a lab that must be done and proven to come up with the conclusions she made. Therefore, it is still a hypothesis and not a proven fact.
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www.mdpi.com

Wood Cutting Board Finishes and Their Effect on Bacterial Growth

Although wooden cutting boards have been used for centuries, debate remains on how best to coat/seal the boards for microbial protection. A growing body of the literature points to the hygroscopicity of wood—its ability to draw water and bacteria from its surface, deep into the wood, where the...
www.mdpi.com www.mdpi.com
 
What would be the testing methodology and standards of the National Sanitation Foundation? Go to a restaurant supply and look at the various items that would have the NSF label?
 
MedWoodWorx said:
www.mdpi.com

Wood Cutting Board Finishes and Their Effect on Bacterial Growth

Although wooden cutting boards have been used for centuries, debate remains on how best to coat/seal the boards for microbial protection. A growing body of the literature points to the hygroscopicity of wood—its ability to draw water and bacteria from its surface, deep into the wood, where the...
www.mdpi.com www.mdpi.com
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"Four different woods were selected based upon their differential anatomy and use in kitchenware (utensils, butcherblocks, and cutting boards)'

As I said, not enough research went into this... not enough samples

"Non-pathogenic surrogate bacteria Salmonella Typhimurium ATCC 53648 and Listeria innocua ATCC 33090 were individually cultured in Tryptic Soy Broth "

This right here throws the who study out the window.

"A 1 mL aliquot of the inoculum was delivered by pipette to the center of each wood piece"

This is not how bacteria starts on a cutting board and is regularly washed. Can't happen unless there is complete neglect on the board. Now they have introduced something than cannot happen.

"Samples with five coats of either linseed or mineral oil were not able to absorb the bacterial solution, which merely ran off the sample. As such, these samples were removed from the analysis." (This right is what most labs will do, throw out data which will throw off the conclusion they want to have)

Well, let's throw out what most people do.... can't penetrate the most common finishes we put on the cutting boards.

"Many studies investigating the survival of bacteria on kitchen surfaces, in particular cutting boards, inoculated extremely high contamination levels"

Note... after they took out the samples that could not meet their hypothesis.

..... You may not understand this... but this was a very poor attempt and the cheapest way possible to conduct this experiment. So many holes in it. And throwing out samples that do not fit the results they wanted was a huge no-no. I stand by my original statement.
 
Again with all due respect i hold a bsc degree in human nutrition and a postgraduate degree in sports nutrition. I have spent quite a few years studying scientific papers and i am in the brink of publishing my thesis, so yes i do understand. No reason to fight over who is right here, cheers.
 
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