RE: [Harp-L] Personality Test

["John Balding" <John.Balding@xxxxxxxxx>]

I remember reading about a test done years ago where several different
wooden and plastic cutting boards were tested for bacteria retention and
growth.
Each of the boards were covered in (sorry to be so graphic) chicken,
pork and beef blood in order to cover the gamut of e-coli, trichinosis
and salmonella. The boards of each type were then placed in
refrigerators, in "warm" ovens and at room temperature for several hours
or overnight.
After dozens of boards of varying wood types and plastic types were
subjected to the tests, the wood boards "won" hands down. In fact, the
shocking part was that in ALL CASES, regardless of the type of wood
used, the wooden boards REDUCED the presence of the various bacteria by
90-100%! It seems that the longer the bacteria were exposed to the wood,
the more it "disappeared". On the other hand, the bacteria on the
plastic boards, regardless of the temperature, actually INCREASED by the
THOUSANDS of percentage points!
And to top it off, the amount of washing, aging, cracking or number of
"cuts" in the wooden boards made no difference with regards to the
bacteria reduction properties of the wood. 
Of course, this doesn't mean you can hold a hotdog over a campfire on an
oleander twig. Some woods are obviously poisonous or harmful. But as
long as the wood comb of a harmonica (harmonica content) is of a "food
grade" type, the sanitation properties should be of little or no
consequence, in my opinion.
Think of all the butcher tables in all of the butcher shops and
meat-packing plants prior to the heavy use of plastics after WWII. More
than likely, any meat your parents or grandparents ate in their younger
days was prepped on wooden cutting boards using wooden-handled knives
with all sorts of cracks and crevices in them.
I have two cutting boards at home: one wood and one small heat-proof
plastic one. I use the wooden one for all my food prep and the small
plastic one to protect the dinning table when I'm soldering amp parts!

John Balding
Tallahassee, FL



-----Original Message-----
From: harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Bob Laughlin
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2007 3:27 PM
To: Captron100@xxxxxxx; harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Personality Test

 Ron sez:

> Tom, i'm not sure this is valid.  Fwiw, I once read that wooden
kitchen
> cutting boards were more bacteria free than their plastic counterparts
(no pun
> intended) because there is something inherent in wood that tends to
actually
> kill more bacteria than plastic.
> ron

Bob sez:

This flies in the face of what my wife's been telling me over the years.
She
says wood cutting boards are more prone to germs, since they get cracks
through age, where germs can hang out. She washes them thoroughlly, even
using bleach, but always uses the plastic ones for meat, the wooden ones
for
veggies. ?


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