7 Signs It’s Time To Throw Out Your Cutting Board (Most Kitchens Have At Least 3)
I used the same kind of plastic cutting board for thirty years. I’d replace it when it got too ugly, which in practice meant never. Then I learned what a scratched board actually does to the food on it, and I went through my kitchen with this list.
Go and get your board. Check it against these seven signs as you read.
You can see knife marks when you tilt it to the light
Every one of those fine lines is plastic your knife shaved off the board, and it went into your food. Researchers at North Dakota State University estimated a single plastic board can shed up to 79 million plastic particles a year into what’s chopped on it. That’s as much as 50 grams of plastic.
It’s stained orange, pink or grey
A stain is proof the surface is open. Turmeric, beet and tomato have soaked down into the knife grooves, and if colour can get in and stay there, so can raw meat juice.
It still smells of onion after you’ve washed it
Smell is food oil trapped in the board. If you’ve ever cut an apple that tasted faintly of garlic, your board is holding on to what you cut yesterday. Whatever is holding the smell is also holding everything else.
You cut raw meat, rinse it, then cut salad on it
This is the one almost every kitchen has. A rinse cleans the flat surface. It doesn’t reach the bottom of the grooves, which is exactly where chicken juice ends up. Food-safety guidance says a deeply scarred plastic board should be thrown away, because no amount of washing gets it fully clean.
Your wooden board has a dark line or a crack
Switching to wood seems like the answer. But wood is porous: moisture soaks into the grain and the glued seams open up over time. That dark line along the seam is very often mould. Bamboo boards have the same problem, plus the glue.
Your knives keep going dull
If your knife squashes a tomato instead of slicing it, look at your board. Glass, stone and steel boards grind the edge down on every cut. A dull knife needs more force, and more force is how home cooks cut themselves.
It’s more than a year old
A plastic board is effectively a one-year product, and most of us keep them for five or ten. If you can’t remember when you bought yours, count this sign.
A board that has none of the seven signs, ever.
I spent a week reading about cutting boards and ended up somewhere I didn’t expect: titanium. It’s solid metal, so there’s no plastic to shed. It doesn’t take knife grooves and it has no grain, so nothing can soak in or stain. And because titanium is softer than the steel in a knife, it doesn’t grind your edge down like glass.
The one I bought is the Kiru. Here’s how it does against the list:
- 01No knife marks, so nothing to shed
- 02Turmeric and beet rinse straight off
- 03No garlic or onion smell after a rinse
- 04Double-sided: meat on one face, salad on the other
- 05No grain, no seams, no glue, no mould
- 06My knife has stayed sharp since I switched
- 07It doesn’t wear out, so I won’t replace it
Be careful buying one. A lot of “titanium” boards are steel with a grey finish. Real titanium is lighter than plastic, which surprised me. The Kiru is solid titanium and comes with a 60-day money-back guarantee.
It’s on an early Black Friday sale right now: $49.00 instead of $98.00, and less per board for two or three.
See If Kiru Is Still On Sale →Free US shipping · 60-day money-back guarantee