# Cleaning of Cutting Boards



## bill h (Feb 11, 2003)

Does someone have any suggestion as to how to clean a cutting board (hard plastic/acrylic)? The boards have dark lines where the food grime doesn't come out even after a thorough scrubbing.

You can email directly at email below.


Thanks,

Bill H

[email protected]


----------



## thebighat (Feb 21, 2001)

I've always wondered if a thing called a cabinet scraper couldn't resurface an acyrlic cutting board. Trouble is, sharpening and using a cabinet scraper is an art all by itself.


----------



## bill h (Feb 11, 2003)

Are you thinking along the lines of "planing" the surface every so often with this approach? Might be workable.

Thanks, Bill


----------



## suzanne (May 26, 2001)

Another possibility is soaking the board in a bleach-and-water solution overnight. Put the board in a container in which it can be covered with the liquid, and let it sit. The grime may or may not be loosened, but it will certainly be neutralized.


----------



## kokopuffs (Aug 4, 2000)

Have you tried using a scrub brush with baking soda as a mild abrasive?


----------



## jock (Dec 4, 2001)

Personally, I would throw it away and get a wood board. These plastic boards have this problem when they have been used for a while and besides, they are very hard on knives.
Just my humble opinion.

Jock


----------



## thebighat (Feb 21, 2001)

I would go into the kitchen at the country club several mornings a year and find all the cutting boards soaking in the sink in water and bleach, but still, the gm would have them all thrown out at the beginning of the next season and buy new ones. I use wood, keeping a piece of corian that fits in the sink for poultry and a small wooden board for garlic and ginger and onions.


----------



## bill h (Feb 11, 2003)

Well from all the great suggestions I suppose that I should first, soak the boards in bleach & water, second, use a scrub brush with soda, then if that doesn't work, either toss them out or have them re-planed! 

I really appreciate all of the help, if I have any luck at this I'll post it!

Thanks,

Bill


----------



## kokopuffs (Aug 4, 2000)

Look, do yourself a real professional favor by getting a quality wooden cutting board by JOHN BOOS COMPANY. They're the best.


----------



## ronn (May 15, 2003)

What ever you do be carefull as some of those black spots you see can be mold and the spores can go deeper than just the surface....


----------



## markv (May 16, 2003)

I agree with Suzanne.

You may never be able to get the dark spots out but you can at least destroy the little nasties living inside with the bleach.

Granted it doesn't "look" clean but it's sanitary and that's most important.

Mark


----------



## mikelm (Dec 23, 2000)

Some academics at the Univ. Of Wisconsin Department of Food Sciences did a study of cutting boards and concluded that wood boards were much more sanitary than plastic ones.

The bacteria stayed on the surface of the plastic boards - and in the knife grooves - and survived pretty well. They soaked into the wood boards... and died.

Cabinet scrapers are a whole 'nother set of techniques. You have to buy one (it's cheap, just two or three dollars from a place like www.LeeValley.com) but then you need a carbide burnisher (not quite so cheap) to put an edge on the scraper, and a vice to hold it while you square the edge of the scraper with a file and re-form the edge with the burnisher and...

hey... just use a good end-grain cutting board. Your knives will thank you for it.

And your bacteria will die.

Mike :chef:


----------



## chefhogan (Jun 15, 2003)

We have the Health Board all over us for this, I bleach the boards every night and they still complain. I am now looking into a new material that apparently does not scuff or mark, going to get the line all replaced and the back prep counter. I will fill you in when I get it in.

Hogan


----------

