Which end grain cutting board should you choose? Short overview.

End grain cutting boards have been known for a long time. But, despite its venerable age, this kitchen accessory has changed little. As before, they are used for cutting and chopping food. Some people use cutting boards as a stand for pots, braziers and for serving ready-made meals. Nowadays, few people get by with one end grain cutting board, everyone can see several of them in the kitchen, and each has its own purpose.

Wood or Plastic?

In the old days, kitchen boards were made only from wood. More recently, plastic cutting boards have come into use. So what is still worth choosing - let's consider ...
To this day, there are disputes over which boards are hygienic and the safest? The research of plastic and wood planks with various surface conditions was conducted by the US Department of Food. The results were as follows: bacteria after cutting meat or other raw food was easily washed off new surfaces of both wood and plastic boards. But the situation is completely different if the boards were in use and their surface was damaged by a knife - wooden boards are ahead of plastic ones in terms of hygiene. It turned out that it is almost impossible to wash bacteria out of plastic boards! And bacteria multiply in the cuts of the plastic boards at a high rate. That is why the use of plastic boards in public catering is prohibited in America.

Another interesting fact: it has been experimentally proven, that bacteria practically don't multiply on the surface of wooden cutting boards made of hard wood (oak, hornbeam, beech), it's enough to wash such a board with hot water and wipe it after use.
 
Now is the time to compare plastic and wood cutting boards. As criteria, we have chosen those that you should pay attention to when choosing a cutting board:

Criteria	Wooden	Plastic
Ecology	+	-
Ease of cleaning and maintenance	+	+
Don't blunt knives	+	+
Aesthetics	++	+
Durability	+	-
High price	+	-
The used ones are dangerous in terms of hygiene	-	+
Variety of shapes	+	++
Variety of colors	+	++

We hope, that our short overview will help you make the right choice.