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The Best Food-Safe Finish May Be None At All - Fine Woodworking Article
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A handmade home for woodworkers and admirers of woodworkers. Our community icon is submitted by @1985MustangCobra@lemmy.ca whose father was inspired to start woodworking by Norm and the New Yankee Workshop.
The science on plain wood being safe has been around for quite a while. I remember reading a study many years ago where some scientists mashed bacteria all over the surface of a wood cutting board, rinsed it, dried it, and then tried everything they could to get the bacteria to transfer to fresh meat (including trying to pound the meat into the board with a mallet) and the meat remained uncontaminated. So, it seems like the safest option is a single unglued plank of wood.
Glue joints don’t act like wood, so presumably that makes bamboo act less like plain wood safety-wise.
The problem with plastic is that the knife marks can retain bacteria (which, unlike wood, the plastic doesn’t kill).