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.

  • classic@fedia.io
    4·
    1 month ago

    So wood absorbs the microbes where they eventually suffocate and die, according to this article. But is there then a buildup of dead microbes (and their waste products)?

    • callcc@lemmy.world
      4·
      1 month ago

      Microbes are usually totally fine. You are full of them, the world is full of them. Don’t panic.