CII likes nothing better than running contrary to conventional wisdom, and one particularly pervasive piece of it is that wooden kitchen implements are unsafe -- or at least less safe than plastic or metal. In fact, the only science that's been done (or so the scientist told us), shows that wooden cutting boards apparently retain and pass along fewer bacteria than plastic ones.

Dr. Dean Cliver, of the Food Safety Laboratory and World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Food Virology at UC Davis told us that he was unaware of any work that contraverted his findings: that disease bacteria did not persist and multiply in transmittable quantities on knife-scarred wooden cutting boards, whereas they certainly did persist on and were much more difficult to remove from used plastic surfaces.

This is, of course, directly opposed to what everybody knows, including your mom, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Dorie Greenspan. A USDA FAQ says: "Research shows that nonporous surfaces, such as plastic, marble, tempered glass, and pyroceramic are easier to clean than wood." In fact, according to Dr. Cliver, no such research exists, other than the work he has published (see references below), and what his work appears to demonstrate is that new wood and plastic surfaces are approximately equally easy to clean, but with even moderate use, plastic degenerates into a network of knife cuts in which bacteria lodge. These plastic surfaces "were impossible to clean and disinfect manually."

With this in mind (and with an undeniable "we know something you don't know" smugness as well), we went looking for a wooden board. At about the same time, we were seeing hype about bamboo products -- sustainable wood, not requiring the massacre of acres of old growth forest, meticulous PacRim craftspersonship. Sounded good, and so we bought a Malibu Groove Vertical Grain board by Totally Bamboo.

It was a handsome piece of work, with intriguing grain patterns and a precisely routed blood groove on one face. It was also a good fit in the CII kitchen's prep spot (immediately to the left of the sink with the disposal, so that waste can be consigned to the void with a satisfying flick of the knife blade.) Initial work with it showed small lines -- not cuts, just lines -- where our rocking-draw cut passed across vegetables. After a quick wipe down, these lines disappeared. We were impressed.

For about a week, that is. At that point, the board suddenly warped along a diagonal from one corner to the other. Two opposite corners now sit approximately 1/16" up off the counter. Cutting on it is no longer positive, and with each move of the board, there's another opportunity to miss and filet a finger. Normal cutting practice here is to do 90% of our prep work on the planar side of a board, saving the grooved side for groceries that actually shed blood or other juices in quantity. For another few weeks, using this board solely on the grooved side was acceptable, but the warping has now progressed such that it moves regardless of its orientation.

Now, if you read what USDA and, for that matter, Dr. Cliver have to say about cleaning boards, both call for lots of hot, soapy water and liquid detergents. The manufacturer says, "We recommend washing with a mild detergent in warm water." And that's exactly how we washed the board, always wiping it down, never soaking it or even immersing it. Nor were there any extremes of temperature or humidity during this period. So, sadly, we will be retiring the bamboo block and shopping for a good solid board, made of end-grain laminated maple pieces -- which is what we should have purchased in the first place.

CII Rates: Malibu Groove Vertical Grain Bamboo Cutting Board

	Usefulness	The single worst thing a cutting board can do is fail to lie flat or for some other reason be prone to moving around while you're cutting on it.
	Snobbery	Use it as a serving tray (that's what we're going to do with ours), and it's quite the thing, and so, so eekological, don't you know?

References, courtesy of Dr. Cliver:
Ak, N. O., D. O. Cliver, and C. W. Kaspar. 1994. Cutting boards of plastic and wood contaminated experimentally with bacteria. J. Food Protect. 57:16-22.
Ak, N. O., D. O. Cliver, and C. W. Kaspar. 1994. Decontamination of plastic and wooden cutting boards for kitchen use. J. Food Protect. 57:23-30,36.
Galluzzo, L., and D. O. Cliver. 1996. Cutting boards and bacteria--oak vs. Salmonella. Dairy, Food Environ. Sanit. 16:290-293.
Park, P. K., and D. O. Cliver. 1996. Disinfection of household cutting boards with a microwave oven. J. Food. Protect. 59:1049-1054.
Park, P. K., and D. O. Cliver. 1997. Cutting boards up close. Food Quality 3(Issue 22, June July):57 59.

Please Note: While CII tends to believe that Dr. Cliver's results are more reliable than your mom's television-addled prejudices regarding wood in the kitchen, and while we are concerned by (if not surprised by) a government agency that makes pronunciamentos without science to back 'em up, we cannot be responsible if you poison yourself or others through failing to follow proper sanitation practices -- or through experimenting with microwave ovens as handy home autoclaves. Caveat whatever the latin is for "reader."